Ryan explicitly calls Dan Ciporin "a great board member" in his blog post.
The selected passage:
"A great board member, Dan, called me to say, “Ryan, I’ve never in my career seen a CEO as worn out as you. Please, you need to take a sabbatical — at least six weeks”. He, and other board members, tried so hard to do the right thing and convince me to take care of myself."
Further, on LinkedIn, Dan still lists himself as a current member of the Board of Directors. CircleUp is still listed as a current investment on Canaan's site.
I have not worked with Dan but I have worked with Canaan. They have always struck me as founder-friendly. Indeed, they have several notable repeat entrepreneur relationships. It seems unlikely they would tolerate the sort of behavior Ryan described.
---
Conversely, Collaborative Fund led the Series C in November 2015. Note that, in Ryan's letter, he cites board issues from 2016 to 2019. Further, Collaborative Fund no longer lists CircleUp anywhere on its site.
Per Crunchbase, Jungju (Jay) Kim was the board partner for Collaborative's Series C investment in CircleUp.
Note that, per his LinkedIn, Jay became a VC at Collaborative in 2014.
There's way too much detail and it's all incredibly flattering, stuff like:
He is known for strategic investments that aren’t limited to gaming companies, and he has acquired firms and invested in various fields. Being an avid Lego fan throughout his life, in 2013 he purchased Bricklink, the world’s largest online marketplace for Lego toys.
It sometimes surprises me that wikipedia can be gamed this easily.
The selected passage:
"A great board member, Dan, called me to say, “Ryan, I’ve never in my career seen a CEO as worn out as you. Please, you need to take a sabbatical — at least six weeks”. He, and other board members, tried so hard to do the right thing and convince me to take care of myself."
Further, on LinkedIn, Dan still lists himself as a current member of the Board of Directors. CircleUp is still listed as a current investment on Canaan's site.
I have not worked with Dan but I have worked with Canaan. They have always struck me as founder-friendly. Indeed, they have several notable repeat entrepreneur relationships. It seems unlikely they would tolerate the sort of behavior Ryan described.
---
Conversely, Collaborative Fund led the Series C in November 2015. Note that, in Ryan's letter, he cites board issues from 2016 to 2019. Further, Collaborative Fund no longer lists CircleUp anywhere on its site.
Per Crunchbase, Jungju (Jay) Kim was the board partner for Collaborative's Series C investment in CircleUp.
Note that, per his LinkedIn, Jay became a VC at Collaborative in 2014.