Tag: Alibaba

Toby Rush explores venture studio concept to help startups avoid pre-seed mistakes

By Tommy Felts / February 26, 2020

Not enough founders in the pre-seed funding stage get the help they need to successfully build their emerging startups, said Toby Rush.  “How can you find, focus and accelerate people before they’ve raised money, before they’ve built their team, before they’ve made all of the mistakes that I’ve made plenty of times and that most…

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Toby Rush, Zoloz, Ant Financial

Toby Rush on emerging blockchain: Layers of trust slowly building behind the scenes

By Tommy Felts / November 1, 2018

Much like companies’ web pages in the mid-1990s, blockchain isn’t yet consumer-ready, said Toby Rush. “But [development is] going to move at an accelerated pace,” said Rush, CEO of Zoloz and senior director of international technology investments at Ant Financial. “We’re over 20 years later from ’96, and I think you’ll see [blockchain] move and…

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Tim Donnelly, SoftVu

Four key moments led to SoftVu’s exit (three missteps kept it from happening sooner)

By Tommy Felts / July 13, 2018

Deals like the acquisition of KC-based SoftVu by an Alabama private equity firm don’t happen overnight. And founder Tim Donnelly gives near-equal weight to the trials and triumphs that led the marketing platform to its big exit. “We’ve done as much as we possibly can based on the mistakes we’ve made, the lessons that have…

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EyeVerify announces name change, new product offering in Asia

By Tommy Felts / August 17, 2017

Nearly a year after being acquired by Ant Financial for more than $100 million, Kansas City-based EyeVerify wants its new vision reflected in a new name. The biometrics tech firm is changing its name from EyeVerify to Zoloz, EyeVerify CEO Toby Rush wrote in a recent company blog post. The company, which at this time…

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EyeVerify CEO Toby Rush offers an update on hiring plans, global expansion

By Tommy Felts / October 11, 2016

When your goal is to more than quadruple your company’s user base — from 450 million to 2 billion people — it usually entails a world of change. And such is the case for Kansas City-based EyeVerify, a biometrics startup that recently sold to Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial for more than $100 million. Startland News spoke…

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