SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 05/19/08 -- Ivory Madison is the only CEO in America
who moonlights as a comic book writer. Part one of Madison's debut comic
book miniseries/graphic novel, "Huntress: Year One," published by DC
Comics, hits stores this week. It features Batman, Catwoman, Batgirl, and
tells the origin story of a strong female superhero, the Huntress.
Madison is the founder and CEO of San Francisco-based internet startup
redroom.com. The site launched four months ago in beta and has raised $1.8
million in investment capital. The investor community includes Craig
Newmark of Craigslist; celebrity chef Thomas Keller; Chronicle Books owner
Nion McEvoy; and several founders and directors of Wall Street investment
banks and private equity funds, including Gruber & McBaine Capital
Management founder Jon D. Gruber (sometimes called the "father of
technology investing").
Madison dropped out of school at age thirteen, which places her in the
company of CEOs and founders including Sir Richard Branson (who dropped out
at age sixteen); college dropouts Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison,
Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Ralph Lauren, and Mark Zuckerberg;
and graduate school dropouts Larry Page and Sergey Brin (both "on leave"
from Stanford's Ph.D. program, and neither having completed a comic book).
After many years as a serial entrepreneur, she eventually attended law
school (without finishing high school or attending college), where she was
Editor-in-Chief of her law review, and interned at the California Supreme
Court. A former management consultant to startups and the Fortune 500, she
has finally combined her love of writing with her business acumen.
While a lifelong dream to write about Batman may be irrelevant to most job
descriptions, Madison's longtime involvement in the literary scene and
not-so-hidden identity as a comic book writer are part of what
differentiates Red Room from other web startups. Red Room is a social
networking site created by a writer for other writers -- much like MySpace
was co-created by a musician and thrived to a large extent because it
worked so well for other musicians.
"With the Huntress, I'm writing an archetype for girls to see that you can
overcome a tough childhood to become a strong woman and maybe even a hero,"
said Madison. "I never got over not being a superhero, and writing one is
probably as close as I'm going to get." Madison also wrote in an essay for
redroom.com that, growing up, she had even planned out her secret identity
as a "captain of industry and noted philanthropist." She said, "Now, if I
achieve just that, I'll be happy."
ABOUT THE RED ROOM -- Red Room is the online home of many of the world's
greatest writers and the only social network to feature celebrity authors
including Khaled Hosseini, Dr. Maya Angelou, Salman Rushdie, Amy Tan,
Candace Bushnell, Tobias Wolff, Alice Hoffman, and James Patterson. Dubbed
"a literary MySpace" by the San Francisco Chronicle and covered by Vanity
Fair and USA Today's Technology Live blog, Red Room provides authors and
members with free, easy-to-use, elegant online homes. It's a place where
the literary community can promote their work, express themselves, and
connect with their favorite authors. By showcasing writers, redroom.com
fosters community between authors and readers, and inspires the next
generation. Red Room also gives a percentage of profits to its authors'
favorite causes. See redroom.com.
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