Erik Wachtmeister
Born1955
Sweden
NationalitySwedish
Alma materGeorgetown University (BS, 1977)
INSEAD (MBA, 1983)
Occupation(s)Founder and CEO,
A Small World (2004-09)
Founder and CEO,
Best of All Worlds (2012-present)
Years active1983-present
TitleCount
Spouse
​
(m. 2004)​
Children4

Count Erik Wilhelm Wachtmeister (born 1955)[1] is a Swedish Internet businessman. He founded the social media websites ASmallWorld and Best of All Worlds, both of which were targeted to the wealthy.

Early life and education

Wachtmeister was born in Sweden,[2][3] the son of Swedish diplomat and longtime ambassador to the United States Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister.[4][5][6] He earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, DC in 1977, and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in Paris in 1983.[7][8]

He traveled often during his childhood, and has lived in numerous cities around the world, including Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Stockholm, Moscow and Kiev.[9][10]

Career

Finance

Wachtmeister spent 16 years as an investment banker, working in London, New York and Los Angeles for Lehman Brothers, Rothschild and Ladenburg Thalmann.[3][4] He started his own business in 1993, raising private money for publicly listed companies.[8] In 2000, he became the founding CEO of UK-based investment firm Viking Internet, which he later took public on the London Stock Exchange.[3][5][7]

A Small World

In March 2004, Wachtmeister and his wife Louise Wachtmeister founded the social networking website A Small World[5][11] as an exclusive social networking site for a worldwide community of people already connected by three degrees of separation.[12] It launched at almost the same time as MySpace and Facebook, two years before Facebook was made available to non-college students.[9][13] It was dubbed "MySpace for millionaires" by The Wall Street Journal.[5] To maintain its desired exclusivity, A Small World, while free, was invitation-only, open only to those invited by an existing member.[1][4] Whereas Facebook soon opened its membership to everyone, A Small World remained exclusive.[13]

Wachtmeister has said the idea for an exclusive worldwide social networking site occurred to him in 1998, during a wild boar hunt in the German forest.[8][12][14] Over the course of his travels, he identified an existing niche community of people with similar lifestyles and tastes. He wanted to provide them with a platform to network and share information.[5][12][15]

On May 22, 2006, the Weinstein Company announced its investment in A Small World.[11][14][15] At the time, A Small World had approximately 130,000 members. Harvey Weinstein said his company planned to expand the site's membership and bring in additional advertisers. It was the Weinstein Company's first investment in an Internet property.[15] After launching online advertising in 2006, the website had 100 partners. Advertisers included Jaguar, Diane von Furstenberg, Mercedes-Benz, Cartier, and Moet & Chandon.[6][14]

By April 2009, membership was in excess of 500,000.[4] Wachtmeister resigned as chairman in 2009; he left the board in 2010.[11][16][17] Weinstein sold his stake in the company in 2009.[11][18]

Best of All Worlds

Wachtmeister and his wife launched Best of All Worlds on August 27, 2012,[8] as an invitation-only, free social media website and iPhone and iPad app.[4][11][17] Wachtmeister serves as CEO.[8]

Wachtmeister started circulating invitations for the site in May 2012.[10] The site was financed by a San Francisco-based venture capital firm and private investors from Europe and the Middle East, including a member of the Saudi royal family.[11][17][19] Prior to its launch, 25,000 people from 120 countries had registered through its pre-released iPhone app.[8] As of February 2014, the site claims to have over 30,000 registered users.[20]

Personal life

Wachtmeister is married to Countess Louise Wachtmeister. They were married in 2004.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Simon Crittle, “Clubs for People Who Point and Clique,” Time, October 17, 2004.
  2. ↑ Eloise Alba, “A New Breed of Social Media,” SHE, May 10, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Erik Wachtmeister profile, dld-conference.com. Accessed September 11, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Marshall Heyman, “Social Network Aims to Capture Movers and Shakers,” The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Five Social Networking Sites Of The Wealthy". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  6. 1 2 "Innovative voices: 11 people shaping the industry's future". Archived from the original on 2014-09-11. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  7. 1 2 “Kiwi Collection Welcomes Erik Wachtmeister to Advisory Board,” Hotel Newswire, January 18, 2008.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Herrmann, Joshi (2012-08-28). "The socialite network... do the super rich need their own Facebook?". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  9. 1 2 "socialnetworkingwatch.com". www.socialnetworkingwatch.com. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  10. 1 2 Lance Richardson, “Online’s little black book,” Australian Financial Review, September 14, 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Social network Best of all Worlds targets the one percent". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  12. 1 2 3 Crampton, Thomas (2005-08-29). "Join? Well, if you have to ask ..." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  13. 1 2 "The social network that could have been Facebook – Telegraph Blogs". 2010-11-11. Archived from the original on 2010-11-11. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  14. 1 2 3 Ferla, Ruth La (2007-09-06). "A Facebook for the Few". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  15. 1 2 3 Maria Aspan, “A Weinstein Will Invest In Exclusivity,” The New York Times, May 22, 2006.
  16. ↑ Connie Loizos, “The Count is Back, and He’s in the Market for Capital,” PE Hub, July 20, 2012.
  17. 1 2 3 "Facebook Faces Challenge From Count's Jet-Set Website". Bloomberg. 2012-08-23. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  18. ↑ Harvey Weinstein, “Harvey Weinstein’s Favorite Mistake,” Newsweek, March 6, 2011.
  19. ↑ Padmaparna Ghosh, “’We are not a community just for billionaires’,” Archived 2014-09-12 at the Wayback Machine The Times of India, September 15, 2012.
  20. ↑ Lisa Chau, “Filling the Facebook Gap,” U.S. News & World Report, February 6, 2014.
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