Rebecca Eisenberg
Encyclopedia
Rebecca Lynn Eisenberg is an American technology writer
, lawyer
, entrepreneur
, and columnist
who covered the 1995-2001 Internet boom in San Francisco, California
and Silicon Valley
.
in Psychology
from Stanford University
in 1990 and a JD
from Harvard Law School
in 1993.
Beginning in 1995 Eisenberg was founder, General Counsel
, business development
executive, and/or early employee of a number of notable dot-com
start-up companies
including Cyborganic (the online community
founded by hotwired
founder Jonathan Steuer
), Ecast Network, (which makes a touch screen jukebox
used in bars) and PayPal
. Having joined as the second lawyer at the company, Eisenberg served as Senior Counsel with PayPal for almost six years. Eisenberg served as the General Counsel of Internet Ad Network startup AdBrite, Inc. from March, 2007 through September, 2008, and she served on the Board of Directors of the Craigslist Foundation (the nonprofit charitable wing of Craigslist
) from its inception through late 2007. From September, 2007 through fall of the following year, Eisenberg served as General Counsel of Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the handheld Flip Video camcorders. While at Pure Digital, she handled the successful merger of the company with Cisco Systems, Inc., for more than $600 million. Currently, Eisenberg serves as General Counsel of Sequoia Capital
-backed real estate search site Trulia, in addition to providing advisory services to other start-ups including The Skinny Scoop. She is active in nonprofits, including serving on the Board of Directors of Legal Momentum, formerly known as the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund. She continues her writing career by contributing to sites including the Silicon Valley Mom's blog, and handles legal and strategic matters for certain private individuals and companies.
." In 1999 she was ranked as one of the 25 most important women on the web for her contributions to technology journalism.
Other writings include:
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, and columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
who covered the 1995-2001 Internet boom in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
.
Biography
Eisenberg graduated with a BABachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1990 and a JD
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in 1993.
Beginning in 1995 Eisenberg was founder, General Counsel
General Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...
, business development
Business development
A subset of the field of commerce, business development comprises a number of techniques and responsibilities which aim at:1. Researching new types of business/products/services with an emphasis on identifying gaps in the mitigation of needs of potential clients .2. Attracting new customers3...
executive, and/or early employee of a number of notable dot-com
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
start-up companies
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
including Cyborganic (the online community
Online community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
founded by hotwired
Hotwired
Hotwired is the third studio album from The Soup Dragons. Recorded in 1991 and 1992 at Livingston Studios and Advision Brighton, it was released April 21, 1992....
founder Jonathan Steuer
Jonathan Steuer
Jonathan Steuer is a pioneer in online publishing.In addition to leading the launch teams of a number of early and influential online publishing ventures , his article "," is widely cited in academic and industry literature...
), Ecast Network, (which makes a touch screen jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
used in bars) and PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
. Having joined as the second lawyer at the company, Eisenberg served as Senior Counsel with PayPal for almost six years. Eisenberg served as the General Counsel of Internet Ad Network startup AdBrite, Inc. from March, 2007 through September, 2008, and she served on the Board of Directors of the Craigslist Foundation (the nonprofit charitable wing of Craigslist
Craigslist
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....
) from its inception through late 2007. From September, 2007 through fall of the following year, Eisenberg served as General Counsel of Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the handheld Flip Video camcorders. While at Pure Digital, she handled the successful merger of the company with Cisco Systems, Inc., for more than $600 million. Currently, Eisenberg serves as General Counsel of Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
-backed real estate search site Trulia, in addition to providing advisory services to other start-ups including The Skinny Scoop. She is active in nonprofits, including serving on the Board of Directors of Legal Momentum, formerly known as the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund. She continues her writing career by contributing to sites including the Silicon Valley Mom's blog, and handles legal and strategic matters for certain private individuals and companies.
Columns, Articles, Appearances, and Blogs
Starting in 1995 Eisenberg wrote one of the earliest blogs called "Read Me." She continued until 2000, at which time she signed off, explaining she had found "a life." The term "blog" had not yet been coined. It was known at the time as an "online diaryOnline diary
An online diary is a personal diary or journal that is published on the World Wide Web on a personal website or a diary-hosting website.-Overview:...
." In 1999 she was ranked as one of the 25 most important women on the web for her contributions to technology journalism.
Other writings include:
- "NouveauGeek" column, CBS Marketwatch, 1998–2001
- "NetSkink" column, San Francisco Examiner, 1997–1999
- Numerous articles in print, video, and online editions of the San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, UpsideUpside (magazine)Upside was a San Francisco-based business and technology magazine for venture capitalists. It was published from 1989 to 2002. It had a circulation above 300,000.-Beginnings:Upside was started by banker Anthony B...
, Ms. MagazineMs. magazineMs. is an American feminist magazine co-founded by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, that first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine...
, ZDTV, Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, Fast CompanyFast Company (magazine)Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
, PBS, the Red Herring, and BitchBitch (magazine)bitch, whose tagline is feminist response to pop culture, is an independent, quarterly magazine published in Portland, Oregon with more than 50,000 readers. bitch magazine is one branch of the reader-supported non-profit organization bitch media... - Moderated, lectured, and hosted various technology and business-related events including the Digital Be-InDigital Be-InThe Digital Be-In is an ongoing San Francisco-based event that began with a mission to carry forth the ethos and values expressed at the 1960s' Human Be-In, and bring them into the world of multimedia and Internet technology. It served a role through the 1990s as a venue for the San Francisco Bay...
, Geekapalooza, 415Tech, and the Electric Minds conference (sponsored by Howard RheingoldHoward Rheingold-See also:* Collective intelligence* Information society* The WELL* Virtual community-External links:***** at TED conference** a 48MB Quicktime movie, hosted by the Internet Archive...
's famous start-up of the same name)
Trivia
- Eisenberg is backup singer with San Francisco band "Diamond D-Lerious."
- In 1979 Eisenberg sang onstage with the band ABBAABBAABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
as part of a children's choir. - In 1989 she won $2,300 on TV Game ShowGame showA game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Family FeudFamily FeudFamily Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...
. - Eisenberg is married to respected Internet and real estate attorney Curt Smolar. They have a daughter and a son.