Fullerton-based iChange Network Inc., a startup that runs a Web site for people looking to lose weight, recently landed a small venture round and a chief executive.
Stuart MacFarlane, a principal at Altadena-based Momentum Venture Management LLC, took the helm at iChange after investing in the company.
The amount invested wasn’t disclosed. MacFarlane said it was less than $10 million.
IChange runs a Web site designed to support people looking to make changes in their lives, focusing on weight loss and nutrition.
The site has several features, including online food journals, calorie counters and exercise trackers.
It allows users to join groups and specialized challenges in their weight-loss efforts.
The site also puts users in touch with nutritionists and registered dieticians who are vetted by iChange.
IChange was started in 2008 by Scott Daniel, Brad King and Rich Rygg.
Daniel sold his Fullerton-based startup FutureTouch Corp. to Marina del Rey’s GeoCities Inc. in 1999.
That same year, search giant Yahoo Inc. bought GeoCities for $3.6 billion in stock.
Daniel “is sort of the ultimate startup guy,” MacFarlane said.
He served as vice president of media properties engineering at Santa Clara-based Yahoo until 2001. Yahoo shuttered GeoCities, a Web hosting service, last year.
IChange has five workers.
“We have been flying under the radar up until this point,” MacFarlane said.
The company’s test site launched in fall of last year. Since then it’s racked up about 4,000 users, he said.
The company makes money via a tiered system of monthly subscriptions, which range from $20 to $100 a month.
There’s also a free version that allows the use of online dieting tools and group forums.
“The concept behind the site is one of accountability,” MacFarlane said. “The site helps them get connected with professional nutritionists and support groups.”
The young company plans to use the investment to build up users of its site.
“We are at the stage where we are developing a very passionate and excited user base,” MacFarlane said.
The company may look to raise another venture round later this year, he said.
Sports Deal
Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., an advertising startup with technology that aims to automate celebrity endorsement deals, bought La Jolla-based Beelya for undisclosed terms.
Privately held Beelya strikes licensing deals with professional athletes and other celebrities and sells what’s known as virtual sports memorabilia.
The items, such as limited edition footballs, are bought and given as gifts by members of big online social networks, such as Facebook and Second Life.
The company said it has agreements with more than 100 sports stars, including Brett Favre, Johnny Damon and Matt Hasselbeck.
A percentage of Beelya’s sales go back to the athletes, or to charities of their choice, the company said on its Web site.
Brand Affinity Technologies was started in 2007 by local technology startup veterans Ryan and Chad Steelberg.
The company runs a specialized database that hooks up advertisers and marketers with celebrities and athletes in order to do endorsement deals.
Brand Affinity said it has some 3,000 athletes in its database.
The Steelbergs, who were raised in Newport Beach, have a reputation for starting innovative technology companies and selling them at their peaks.
They started Brand Affinity after their most recent venture, dMarc Broadcasting Inc., was shut down by parent company Google Inc. last year.
Started in 2002, dMarc offered software and computers to radio stations that wanted to send targeted messages to listeners via radio waves.
In 2006, Google paid an initial $102 million for dMarc, with provisions that it could pay up to about $1.2 billion if goals were met. It’s still unclear how much Google ended up paying in total.
Search kingpin Google decided to shut down an unprofitable part of its radio advertising business that was built around technology from dMarc.
Both Steelbergs worked for Google until mid-2007.
DMarc was the Steelbergs’ fourth major venture together—and the second they sold to a big tech name that later closed the business.
SpeedTax Hire
Laguna Hills-based SpeedTax Inc., a developer of software that helps companies automate sales tax for transactions and auditing, named David Lahey vice president of sales and marketing.
Lahey hails from Irvine’s Sage Software Inc., where he was a vice president of sales for a number of its business software product lines.
SpeedTax nabbed another ex-Sage em-ployee last year when it hired Jonathan Morgan as director of sales.
The company raised a round of private equity funding from Sherman, Conn.-based Committed Capital LLC in January. It didn’t disclose the amount of the round but said it “represents the largest private equity investment in SpeedTax to date.”
