$1.2M for Optimizely

Optimizely, a San Francisco startup specializing in automated A/B testing of websites, has collected a $1.2 million seed round from a group of prominent individual investors, according to report today in Venture Wire. Investors include Paul Buchheit, Steve Chen, Ron Conway, Chris Dixon, Mitch Kapor, Ashton Kutcher, Deep Nishar, Naval Ravikant, Chris Sacca, Joshua Schachter, Ram Shriram, Brian Sugar, and Aydin Senkut. A/B testing is a technique for measuring how site visitors respond to design changes and raising conversion rates. Optimizely co-founder Dan Siroker, formerly with Google, was director of analytics for the 2008 Obama campaign. The company was part of the winter 2010 class of startups at Mountain View, CA-based venture program Y Combinator.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/