Graspr Appoints Former Yahoo! Vp And Sidestep Svp

Sept. 16, 2008 - PRLog -- Today Graspr, the instructional video network, announced that they have appointed John Robison as CTO. Robison is an Internet veteran with extensive leadership experience, having been responsible for technology, product direction, and strategic roadmaps for both Yahoo! and Sidestep. Reporting directly to Graspr’s founder and CEO Teresa Phillips, Robison will lead the technical and development teams based in both Mountain View and Mumbai, India.

“John has a proven track record of scaling technology to support and attract hundreds of millions of users and revenue dollars worldwide. His experience will be invaluable in taking Graspr to the next level,” said Teresa Phillips, CEO.

Immediately prior to joining Graspr, Robison was senior vice president, technology and product development at Sidestep, which was acquired by Kayak. Reporting directly to Sidestep’s CEO, Robison was one of the key executives who drove the company’s technology and development efforts leading to the company’s consistent profitability, which was fueled by 50% year-on-year growth with more than $35 million in revenues and more than 10 million users.

Robison joined Sidestep from Yahoo!, where he spent almost 10 years heading up technology and infrastructure for some of the company’s most important divisions. As vice president of premium services and infrastructure, he was responsible for building and leading both the technology and business infrastructure to support more than $500 million in revenues from premium services. Robison oversaw product management, software development, quality assurance, business operations, and business development, managing both on-shore and offshore resources and a budget that exceeded $10 million. He also previously provided leadership and direction with an engineering focus across strategic infrastructure and network areas including: Membership, Personalization, Premium Services, Client Applications, and Application Security.

“I’m delighted to be a part of Graspr’s vision of empowering people to share their knowledge online and monetize through the syndication of their videos,” commented Robison. “My experience combines well with Teresa’s leadership and organizational qualities and will enable Graspr to shape the fast-growing online video market.”

Robison holds both a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science degree in Cognitive Science.

About Graspr
With over 20,000 high-quality videos from producers and experts across major lifestyle markets, Graspr is the world’s leading instructional video network. Graspr is the only site where learners, users, and creators of videos can edit, watch, collaborate on, and syndicate to make money from instructional videos.
Launched in September 2007 by Teresa Phillips, a former executive at both Yahoo and Time Warner, Graspr raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and angel investors. Graspr is a privately-held company based in Mountain View, California and can be found at: www.graspr.com.

Media Inquiries
Andrea Heuer, Consort Partners
graspr@consortpartners.com
Tel: +1(917) 886-5113

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