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IMVU Lands Yahoo! Social Networking Expert to Lead Product Management

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 September 2008, 09:00 CDT

IMVU Inc. (www.imvu.com), an online destination where adults and teens meet new people in 3D, today announced Lee Clancy has joined the company as Vice President of Product Management. Reporting directly to CEO Cary Rosenzweig, Clancy will be responsible for leading product strategy and managing direct revenue. Over the last four years, the IMVU community has grown around the use of online three dimensional characters, called avatars, to meet new people from around the world.

"IMVU has successfully registered over 20 million users, and Lee's wealth of experience with social networking will help us make it even easier for our members to meet one another in 3D," said Cary Rosenzweig, CEO of IMVU Inc. "With his leadership skills and innovative product vision, he's a terrific addition to our team."

Lee Clancy joins IMVU from Yahoo!, where he was Senior Director for Community Products. At Yahoo!, he led product management for Yahoo! Groups, a global community of 110 million users, and Yahoo! Personals, the most visited destination in the dating market. Prior to Yahoo!, Clancy co-founded a music-focused social networking startup. He also worked at Broadband Office in business development and at PricewaterhouseCoopers in strategy consulting advising entertainment and media clients. Clancy earned a B.A. in Spanish Literature from Amherst College, an M.B.A. from Cornell University, and an M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University.

"We were very impressed with Lee's history of being able to impact the bottom line significantly and quickly," said Spencer Tall, managing director of Allegis Capital. "IMVU is sure to benefit from his expertise in business strategy and online communities."

Separately, IMVU wins the 2008 Virtual Worlds Innovation Award. IMVU received the award at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo, held in Los Angeles in early September. IMVU wins in the category of "Innovation in Virtual Worlds for Consumers (Adults)." This is the first year for the Virtual Worlds Innovation Awards. "We are hugely honored by the Virtual Worlds award," said Cary Rosenzweig. "This award is a reflection of the amazingly creative IMVU community of developers who add 4,000 new digital items each day to the IMVU catalog, the world's largest."

About IMVU

Founded in 2004, IMVU Inc. (www.imvu.com) is an online destination where adults and teens meet new people in 3D and winner of the Virtual Worlds Innovation Award for 2008. Still in public beta, the company has already reached major milestones, including 20 million registered users, 100,000 registered developers and $1 million in revenue each month. Members of IMVU have fun meeting new people with similar interests and expressing themselves through personalizing their 3D avatars, digital rooms and home pages. IMVU offers the world's largest digital goods catalog with over 1.8 million items. Over 90 percent of IMVU's revenue is from the direct sale of virtual credits, used to purchase digital products. IMVU is backed by top venture investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital and Bridgescale Partners and is located in Palo Alto, CA.

Source: Business Wire

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