AnyBeat

Jun 5, 2012

Anybeat Founder Dmitry Shapiro Officially Moves to Google June 4, 2012 at 10:09 am PT Print Anybeat CEO Dmitry Shapiro has started at Google, the company told AllThingsD. Shapiro is now officially a group product manager on the Google+ team, confirming recent speculation . As for the alternative social network Shapiro founded, it’s now completely shut down and redirects to a splash page for a yet-to-launch start-up called AthElite . Anybeat, which had attracted a smattering of users including Burning Man attendees, had written to users on May 9, “It is … bittersweet for us to announce that Anybeat is getting purchased by another company, that will be repurposing it to address a different type of community, and will not be operating Anybeat as is.” Anybeat had started life as a privacy-focused alternative to Facebook called Altly, backed with $1 million in funding from investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Tom Anderson. After Google+ launched as a similar project, Anybeat became a social network that allowed anonymous participation. When that failed to attract many users, the company also launched a discussion board site called MingleWing built on Facebook logins rather than anonymity. That also now redirects to AthElite. Shapiro was previously CTO of Myspace Music, and before that founder and CEO of Veoh, the video site that fought Universal Music Group for years over alleged copyright violations, eventually winning in court but ceasing to be relevant . AthElite, meanwhile, appears to be a site led by Nadia Silk, who formerly had various roles at Major League Baseball . Late last year the company filed with the SEC saying it planned to raise $600,000. Tagged with: AnyBeat, AthElite, Dmitry Shapiro, Google , Industry Moves , MingleWing, Nadia Silk