HeyZap Lands Another $3 Million In Funding

HeyZap , a startup that distributes casual and social games across the web through a set of APIs, applications, and widgets, has closed another $3 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, with participation from Naval Ravikant (Hitforge) and Chris Dixon (Founder Collective). Ravikant and Albert Wenger of USV will be joining the board.  HeyZap previously received funding from Y Combinator , followed by a $650K seed round from Union Square Ventures, Joshua Schachter, and other angels in May 2009. HeyZap distributes 30,000 games across 220,000 websites, and has 4,000 developers signed up for its platform. It first launched in early 2009 as a YouTube For Flash Games , making it easy to access a library of casual Flash gaming titles from one widget. Since then it has added quite a few features that developers can tap into, including an achievement system , micropayments , and analytics . It has shifted its focus toward helping social games expand beyond social networks like Facebook. It also recently scored a deal with Ning, which is making it easy for Ning network creators to add HeyZap to their sites. The company says it will be using the money to add to its team of engineers and to expand its business development efforts. CrunchBase Information Heyzap Information provided by CrunchBase

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HeyZap Lands Another $3 Million In Funding

Should You Pay to Pitch?

As every entrepreneur knows, the toughest part of selling your deal isn’t making the pitch. It’s getting in the door to meet with investors in the first place. So it makes sense that, over the years, an entire industry has sprung up to connect cash-hungry start-ups and early-stage ventures with angel investors and venture capitalists who can write the checks to fund their business plans. These introductions don’t come cheap. For fees ranging from several hundred dollars to $5,000 or more, entrepreneurs get to stand at the podium, flash their slides on the screen and deliver their pitch to a room full of big-name investors. While a few lucky entrepreneurs will walk away with a check, most will go home empty handed. Isn’t there a better way to get investors’ attention? Jason Calacanis seems to think so.