Paul Murphy

Pandemic and ‘revenge travel’ helps power Heygo to a $20M Series A funding round

During the worst throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, very few people could travel. Meanwhile, both 2021 and 2022 were predicted to be the years of “revenge travel” where people would do a great deal

Virtual events startups have high hopes for after the pandemic

Virtual events have been a temporary measure during the pandemic. But what will their value be as more of the world attempts to return to life before the pandemic?

Take-Two Interactive acquires Two Dots game developer for $192M

Playdots — developer of the mobile games Dots, Two Dots and Dots & Co. — has reached an agreement to be acquired by publisher Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two will pay $192 million for the deal,

What the new VC show-and-tell means for signaling risk

A month ago, we asked several venture capitalists if they planned to change the way they invest or lead rounds during COVID-19 — most said no, but they noted that valuations were coming down and fou

How 6 top VCs are adapting to the new uncertainty

As the global economy grinds to a halt, every business sector has been impacted, including the linked worlds of startups and venture capital. But how much has really changed? If you read VC Twitter, y

Where top VCs are investing in remote events

The novel coronavirus pandemic has rapidly moved companies into a remote-first world. Nearly all of the world’s largest events have been canceled, put on pause or pivoted to online-only. In the tech

Ray Dalio, Niantic, Adobe, Dropbox, remote work, Northzone, and Slack

Ray Dalio on the Extra Crunch stage at Disrupt SF 2019 This year at Disrupt SF, we will be hosting a special Extra Crunch stage focused on the issues that confront startup founders in building their c

Northzone’s Paul Murphy goes deep on the next era of gaming

As the gaming market continues to boom, billions of dollars are being invested in new games and new streaming platforms vying to own a piece of the action. Most of the value is accruing to the large i

The company behind Dots is changing CEOs

Playdots, the company that lets gamers play with Dots, will soon have a new CEO as co-founder and current COO Patrick Moberg takes over for co-founder Paul Murphy. Murphy lead the company as CEO since

The maker of Dots says it’s getting more ambitious with its fourth game, Wilds

Dots. Two Dots. Dots & Co. It seems like Dots (that’s the name of both the startup and its first game) is following a pattern with each release — a pattern it’s breaking with its fou

Dots Spins Out Of Betaworks With $10M Series A From Tencent, GreyCroft

<a href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/dots/">Dots</a>, the mobile gaming studio responsible for two dead-simple but beautiful games, is today announcing the close of a $10 million round, as well as the

Dots Implements Its First-Ever, In-Game, $ponsor$hip

betaworks-backed <a href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/dots/">Dots</a> has today announced its very first sponsorship/native advertising deal with GE. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. As pa

5 Million Downloads And 1 Billion Games Later, Dots Drops On Android And Kindle Fire

<a href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/dots/">Dots</a> is to the smartphone what Snake was to Nokia feature phones 10 years ago. The game is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/dots-the-most-beaut

Giphy Gif Search Engine Rolls Out Private Artist Profiles To Help Organize, Monetize The Gif Community

<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/22/choosy-developers-choose-gif/">Gifs, man!</a> They're trending harder than Jennifer Lawrence right now, but that doesn't mean that finding them is the easies

Betaworks-Backed Telecast Brings The TGIF TV Experience To Mobile Internet Video

When this generation looks back to retell the best and most amazing past times of the early oughts, surfing YouTube will undoubtedly be on the list. But as we shift to a more mobile lifestyle, content

Dots, Betaworks’ New Super Addictive iOS Game, Nabs 1 Million Downloads In One Week

Dots, a game <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/dots-the-most-beautiful-mobile-game-ive-ever-seen/">launched just last</a> week out of betaworks, has reached over 1 million downloads in just o

Betaworks-Backed Blend.io Lets Musicians Collaborate Without Ever Abandoning Ableton

We've heard musicians despair over the same issue for a while now: There's great music creation software out there, but nothing that makes it truly easy to collaborate with people who are far away in