Sector: Analytics, Music Analytics							

Lead Partner: Stewart Alsop, Jim Ward							

Next Big Sound was the leading provider of online music analytics and  insights, tracking hundreds of thousands of artists across all major web  properties (YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Last.fm,  etc.).

Stewart is a Partner. He spent the first 20 years of his professional career as a business journalist and commentator. It did not start well: he earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1975, but had to stay the summer to complete his credits. Then he couldn’t find a job, so he went to bartending school. But bars weren’t hiring. He persisted and, from 1975 to 1996, had a series of jobs in which he learned how to be a business editor. This included becoming Executive Editor of Inc. Magazine, where he became fascinated by both entrepreneurship and personal computers, and as the third editor of InfoWorld, the job that got him moved from Boston to Silicon Valley in 1983.

In 1985, having been fired from two jobs, he started his own business, a newsletter called P.C. Letter, which became widely read in the executive ranks of the major hardware and software companies that formed and grew the personal computer industry. He also started two conferences, Agenda and Demo, and published the “Social Register to the PC Industry.”

In 1996, Stewart changed careers to become a venture capitalist, joining New Enterprise Associates, a top-tier venture capital firm with a long track record of success in investing in early stage and growth companies. He was a general partner with New Enterprise Associates and led that firm’s investments in companies such as TiVo, Portola Communications (sold to Netscape), Netcentives, Glu Mobile, and Xfire. From 1996 to 2003, he wrote Alsop On InfoTech for Fortune.

Stewart left NEA in 2005 and invited Gilman Louie to become his partner in a new venture capital firm designed to put to use everything the partners had learned about entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation over the prior 25 years. From 2005-2013, Stewart was a member of the board of directors of Sonos, Inc., which has become a thought leader in the world of digital audio and the digital living room.

Stewart Alsop

Partner

Jim Ward is a Venture Partner. Working with the general partners on strategic development of ALP investment strategies and building the ALP brand, Ward also has been involved with Alsop Louie’s portfolio companies including Gowalla, Framehawk, Next Big Sound, Zephyr, Niantic, Meow Wolf, Mixed Dimensions, Blok Party and Ursa Major. He is also CEO of newco Integral Reality Labs, a company established to capture existing and emerging trends in the physical/digital divide, technological divergence, NFT’s, metadata, 3D printing and the evolution of gaming. 

Ward previously served as the co-CEO of Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe-based arts and entertainment group that creates immersive, interactive experiences to transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of story and exploration. In addition to the strategic management of the company overall, he was responsible for all content generated across the Meow Wolf story universe including transmedia properties, merchandising and marketing activities as well as managing the Interactive Technology and IS/IT division of the company. 

Prior to joining Alsop Louie, Ward spent over a decade as President of LucasArts and Sr. Vice President of Lucasfilm, Ltd. where he was responsible for the global business growth of the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises across the motion picture, television, home video and video game revenue streams. Ward’s thirty-year business career began in advertising with Doyle Dane Bernbach in New York, then as Senior Vice President and General Manager of BBDO/Los Angeles and onto Worldwide Account Director for Wieden and Kennedy in Portland, Oregon. As an advertising executive, Ward was involved in many major global product introductions including Apple Computer’s original PowerBook, Microsoft’s Windows ’95 with the Rolling Stones and Nike’s introduction of Tiger Woods. 

Having multiple Emmy Award nominations and an Emmy win as an Executive Producer, Ward is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, served as Chairman of the Entertainment Software Association in 2007, and was Chairman of the Creative Committee for the 2016 San Francisco Olympic Bid Committee. In addition, he has been recognized as one of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Marketers, was EPM’s Entertainment Marketer of the Year, was an advisor to ASU’s SkySong Center for Innovation, and a member of the Board of Trustees at Hanover College. 

He also ran for Congress in Arizona’s Fifth Congressional District during the 2010 cycle and was recognized in 2017 as Executive of the Year by The Phoenix Business Journal in addition to receiving the Industry Leader of Arizona Award from AZ Big Media. Ward was a Governor appointed member of the Arizona Zanjeros State CEO Leadership Team, a Secretary of State appointed member of the Technology, Transparency and Commerce Council, served on the Board of Directors of the Electronic Media Association and a negotiating team member, a member of Thunderbird’s Global Council, and a Board member of The Downtown Phoenix Partnership. 

A native of Rockford, Ill., Ward received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hanover College and a Master of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. 

Next Big Sound

Analytics, Music Analytics

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