About
Don Thorson is a long time advocate and participant in the creation of the next, next thing - having had the opportunity to help define and shape the technology landscape with his early involvement in four multi-billion dollar industries (video games, computers, the internet and communications).
Don is currently the CEO and co-founder of a new start-up Swipp, as well as an advisor, board member and angel investor, perpetually on the look out for innovative start-ups with big vision, representing large scale, game changing opportunities.
Timeline
Swipp. Still in stealth, Swipp believes "social" is in its infancy and will rapidly and necessarily evolve as it continues to mature and mainstream and that true social innovation is yet to occur. (more soon)
Ribbit. An open API phone company launched as "Silicon Valley's First Phone Company" in 2007. Ribbit was sold to British Telecom in 2008 for $105 million, 10 months after joining the company.
Jajah. Low cost (VoIP) calls to regular mobile and landline phones. Launched in 2005. Gained 2 million users in 12 months in 100 countries all through social media marketing. Jajah was sold to EU communication giant Telephonica for 205 Million in 2009.
Krugle. Search Engine for Open Source Code. Launched in 2004. Gained 10,000 Beta users at launch. Krugle was sold to Aragon Consulting for an undisclosed amount in 2009.
Netscape. The first commercial internet browser, launched in 1994. Netscape became a global phenomenon, resulting in a 4.2 billion dollar purchase by AOL four years later (1998). Also in 1998, Netscape launched the open-sourced Mozilla project, establishing the roots of Mozilla Corporation, makers of Firefox. Don's involvement with Netscape was done through Momentum, his Palo Alto based consulting group.
Apple. Branding, packaging, marketing, design. Essentially, this was the birth of the personal computer business as we know it today and the birthplace of modern consumer computer marketing.
Atari. 16th employee in the Atari Consumer Division - this is where it all began. The birthplace of the now 30 billion global video game industry and Silicon Valley's first consumer electronics company.