Articles by Rip Empson

Rip Empson knew us pretty well before joining as us as Senior Associate in April 2014.  He covered a handful of Morgenthaler Ventures’ portfolio companies while at TechCrunch, including Lending Club, Check (previously Pageonce), Doximity, Practice Fusion and Siri.

• With An IPO On Its Radar, Lending Club Adds Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers To Its Heavyweight Board – December 13, 2012
• Pageonce Now Processes $1M In Mobile Bill Payments Each Day And Expects Payment Volume Run-Rate To Hit $1B By Mid-2013 – January 23, 2013
• With 40% Of U.S. Doctors Signed On, Doximity’s Jeff Tangney Reveals How The Social Network For M.D.s Hit The Tipping Point – March 15, 2014
• Free Electronic Medical Records Service Practice Fusion Raises $23 Million – April 5, 2011
• Gary Morgenthaler Explains Exactly How Siri Will Eat Google’s Lunch – November 9, 2011

About Rip Empson

Rip is a Senior Associate at Morgenthaler Ventures. With his background as a writer, reporter and editor, and having advised and written about scores of startups, Rip will be supporting the firm’s portfolio companies, as well as helping to source new deals and diligence.

In this hybrid role, Rip assists teams with branding, positioning, public relations, and events. In turn, Rip will be looking to help the firm build relationships with early-stage startups and identify emerging investment opportunities. While his focus is broad, Rip is particularly excitable when it comes to digital health, mobile, consumer, and education.

Rip joined Morgenthaler in 2014 from TechCrunch, where he spent nearly four years working as an intern, writer, weekend editor and occasional on-camera clown and panel moderator. As a writer and reporter at TechCrunch, Rip penned nearly 2,000 articles, covering a broad range of companies and subjects — from enterprise SaaS platforms, mobile development tools and recommendation engines to the rise of accelerators, Big Data and verticalized networks. He got to know Morgenthaler Ventures by covering its portfolio companies: Lending Club, Siri, Check, Practice Fusion, and Doximity.

Beginning in 2010-11, determined to chronicle the impact of technology on education and healthcare, Rip spearheaded TechCrunch’s coverage of the emerging startup ecosystems, venture capital investment and innovation in these two massive industries.

Prior to TechCrunch, Rip spent time working in a number of capacities in publishing and journalism, from writing for a music magazine and a weekly newspaper to scribbling for The Huffington Post, Macworld and Fast Company. He has a BA in English, Philosophy and Origami from Colorado College.