Michael Lazerow

Michael Lazerow is a New York City-based serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

He has founded several successful software companies, including Buddy Media, Inc. and University Wire .

Career

Lazerow graduated in 1996 with a B.S. and M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University, where he is still active as a member of the university's Medill School Board of Advisers.

While attending Northwestern University, Lazerow founded University Wire (now owned by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)), a network of more than 700 student-run newspapers. He later founded GOLF.com, which was purchased by Time Warner's Time Inc. division in 2006. Subsequent to the 2006 acquisition, Lazerow joined Time Inc. as General Manager of GOLF.com and GOLFONLINE.com.

In 2007, Lazerow co-founded Buddy Media, Inc., a privately held company that sells social media marketing software. Lazerow served as chairman and CEO before the company was sold to Salesforce.com on June 4, 2012, for $745 million.

In 2019, Lazerow co-founded Velvet Sea Ventures, a multi-stage venture capital firm. The firm has invested in Scopely and Liquid Death. Lazerow was also a seed investor in Scopely, which announced on April 5, 2023, that it had signed an agreement to sell for $4.9 billion to Savvy Games.

In September 2022, Lazerow and his wife, Kass, endowe
The Mary Dedinsky Graduate Journalism Scholarship
to honor Mary Dedinsky’s long-time service to Medill and the broader journalism profession. Mary was the first woman to be named managing editor of a major metropolitan newspaper. She is a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame and twice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror. Mary also served as Lazerow's academic adviser at Northwestern.

Personal life

Lazerow lives in New York City with his wife, Kass, who served as Buddy Media's COO. Kass and Mike have three children, Myles, Cole and Vivian.

Lazerow has a heart condition called a ventricular septal defect that resulted in an emergency aortic valve replacement in 1994. His Youtube vide
"A New Beginning - Is Fear Holding You Back?"
about the condition, posted after the sale of Buddy Media to Salesforce, has received more than 150,000 views.

Lazerow is a long-time fan of the Phish and has attended more than 150 Phish shows.

Works

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References

Buddy Media
in Chronicle of Higher Education June 12, 1998
"Time Adds Golf.com to Its Sports Lineup"
inWashington Post, Jan 24, 2006.
E-content
story on GOLF.com
PR Newswire story

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazerow, Michael
American male journalists
Medill School of Journalism alumni
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American chief executives in the mass media industry