Martin Tobias

Martin Tobias is a business entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
Early years
From 1982 to 1987, Tobias attended Oregon State University, majoring in Marketing with a background in Computer Science..
After graduating, he went to work for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) from 1987-1991. as a computer programmer, working primarily on developing Cobol, System 38, and AS/400 for various Fortune 500 companies. In 1989, hr consulted for Microsoft, eventually leaving to work for Microsoft in 1991.
From 1991 to 1997, hr worked for Microsoft in IT system development, electronic software distribution, and international subsidiaries. While there, he helped developed Select 3.0, the first corporate volume licensing program and was also instrumental in Microsoft's early entry into electronic software distribution (ESD).
Loudeye Technologies
In 1997, Tobias left Microsoft, founding Encoding.com, later renamed Loudeye Technologies Inc., which would become one of the providers of audio and video solutions for the Internet. He led Loudeye to its public offering in March 2000 and soon after moved from CEO to Chairman. The firm formed partnerships with Microsoft, RealNetworks, NBC, and others.
Ignition Partners
After Loudeye, Tobias joined Ignition Partners to pursue early-stage technology investing. He was a venture partner in Bellevue, Washington-based venture capital firm Ignition Partners from 2001 until 2005, participating in investments including Cloudmark, TerraNode, and IP Fabrics. He served on the board of Cloudmark Corp.
Seattle Biofuel/Imperium Renewables
After many years focused solely on software, in mid-2004 Tobias refocused toward renewable green industries, renewable energy and clean-tech investing. From there, Tobias invested in a fledgling company called Seattle Biofuel in 2004. Becoming Chairman and CEO in May 2005, he changed the company name to Imperium Renewables in December 2005.
In 2006, Imperium opened a demonstration scale (5 million gallon a year) implementation of their biodiesel manufacturing technology in Seattle, WA. In August 2007, the firm opened its Grays Harbor refinery. With a capacity of 100 million barrels, the facility became the largest biofuel refinery in the United States.
Tobias stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Imperium in January 2008, after the company's proposed $345 million initial public offering was canceled after poor financial results. A planned biofuels plant in Oahu, Hawai'i was canceled concurrently.
Kashless
In early 2008, after many unsuccessful attempts to promote reuse through giving away unwanted items online, Tobias came up with a next-generation online classified system, Kashless.org. Founded in October 2008, Kashless.org was an online marketplace exclusively dealing with free items. The technology behind the site was designed to scale into a new local classified system to compete with Craigslist. The site shut down in early 2010.
Tippr.com
In February, 2010, Tobias launched Tippr.com, a Seattle-based social commerce website. The site offers "accelerated deals” on goods, services and events in local markets.
Tippr LLC is owned by Kashless.org. In 2009, thefirm purchased Groupon rival ChiTown Deals from Jess Loren. In April 2013, Tippr was acquired by nCrowd.
Other Endeavors
Tobias is a special limited partner with Yaletown Ventures and Industry Ventures. In 2004, he created an Angel organization, Element 8, to support regional entrepreneurs in the energy sector with investment capital, strategic advice and mentoring.,
Tobias has worked in the film industry, starring in the 1998 Harley-Davidson motorcycle documentary, and was Executive Producer for the 2008 short-film "How To Enter A Bedroom" and the 2012 full length feature "Mother Nature" .
He has also written opinion articles for Wired, Men's Health, Details, Newsweek, Time and The Wall Street Journal, as well as blogging at, deepgreencrystals.
Tobias created the South Fork Business Park in Raymond, Washington, which caters to cannabis businesses and is described as the largest cannabis real estate development projects in the United States, with over 750,000 square feet of space. His business and personal accounts at Chase were subsequently terminated as a result of his association with marijuana. Tobias also founded the Washington CannaBusiness Association
Patents
*US 20120239484 A1 - Deal scoring system and method
*US 6732151 B1 - Methods for forwarding voice messages to an email account.
*US 7562300 B1 - System for automated comprehensive remote servicing for media information.
*US 6873877 B1 - Distributed production system for digitally encoding information.

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