Tom Freston
Principal @ Firefly3 LLC
New York, United States
Tom Freston is a funding round investor at Firefly3 LLC in New York focused on Video and Media and Entertainment. Tom Freston formerly served as President and CEO of Viacom, until his resignation on September 5, 2006. Freston was named Co-President & Co-COO of Viacom (along with Leslie Moonves) in 2004 when President & COO Mel Karmazin stepped down.The dual appointment with Moonves led to the Viacom board of directors agreeing to split thecorporation into two separate companies after Chairman & CEO Sumner Redstone retired. Freston was named President of the new Viacom, Inc., which included the MTV and BET television networks and Paramount Pictures.Viacom received increasing ratings every year under Freston, and experienced tremndous growth in new markets, both domestic and overseas. Freston also pushed for the launch of numerous supplementary product lines featuring various characters and segments from popular series within his networks.Prior to Viacom he was one of the founding members of MTV: Music Television, and as the head of marketing, created the “I want my MTV†ad campaign. In 1987 he became the CEO of MTV Networks.Freston currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Emerson College in Boston and has been speculated to be one of the likely nominees for Yahoo’s new board of directors proposed by Microsoft.
- Total investments:
- 5
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 0%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Tom Freston invests in
Stages Tom Freston invests in
Countries Tom Freston invests in
Contacts
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Investment Focus
Industry
- Video 2 (40%)
- Media and Entertainment 2 (40%)
- News 1 (20%)
- Audio 1 (20%)
- Local 1 (20%)
Stage
- Funding Round 2 (40%)
- Seed 1 (20%)
- Series A 1 (20%)
- Series D 1 (20%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Kaleidoscope
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Kaleidoscope is an audio company that delivers adventure and thrilling true stories filled with heart. It's like a modern Indiana Jones racing down the Amazon. It's getting lost in space with a Russian cosmonaut and falling in love with the ground handler. It's the excitement of underwater discoveries combined with the thrill ofbeing on the run with a real-life Robin Hood. Stories have the power to shift perspective and broaden horizons. | $5M / Series A / Jul 14, 2025 | |
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Kaleidoscope
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Kaleidoscope is an audio company that delivers adventure and thrilling true stories filled with heart. It's like a modern Indiana Jones racing down the Amazon. It's getting lost in space with a Russian cosmonaut and falling in love with the ground handler. It's the excitement of underwater discoveries combined with the thrill ofbeing on the run with a real-life Robin Hood. Stories have the power to shift perspective and broaden horizons. | $3.6M / Seed / Jan 20, 2022 | |
Vice Media
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Vice Media, a global youth media company, engages in print, event, music, online, television (TV), and feature film business activities in the United States and internationally. It specializes in publishing a magazine that covers information in various subjects, such as sex, drugs, music, fashion, photos, travel, sports, technology, food, not safefor work, and conflicts. Vice Media also produces and licenses its content for mobile, TV, film, and magazine companies and publishes videos across various content categories for the web. Moreover, it offers magazine subscriptions, books, and DVDs through its online store. Gavin McInnes, Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi founded Vice Media in 1994. Its headquarters is in Brooklyn in New York. | Apr 05, 2011 | |
Veoh
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Veoh: Open. Personalized. Free. TV.Veoh is an Internet TV service that gives viewers the power to easily discover, watch, and personalize their online viewing experience. With a simple broadband connection Veoh gives you free access to all of the great TV and film studio content, independent productions, and user-generated videos on theWeb. From hit CBS, WB, NBC, FOX and MTV Networks shows to your favorite YouTube clips, Veoh turns the vast universe of Internet video into an easy-to-use, high-quality, personalized experience that TV fans everywhere can enjoy. Who can publish on Veoh?Veoh is an open platform for content publishers of all sizes and sophistication who want to reach tomorrow's television audience. Currently more than 100,000 publishers - from forward-thinking, well-known entertainment brands to independent, made-for-the-Web producers - use Veoh to connect with an audience of more than 28 million engaged, influential viewers. In addition, Veoh's unique publisher optimization program gives publishers powerful tools to help them raise awareness of their content and cultivate loyal viewing audiences. Who's behind Veoh?With offices in San Diego and Los Angeles, CA, Veoh is home to a diverse team of entertainment industry insiders, outsiders, technologists and creative types who share a common vision: To make Veoh the most valuable video experience on the Internet. And like any good business, we have our fair share of suits -- Veoh is privately held and backed by leading technology and media investors, including Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Michael Eisner's Tornante Company, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner Inc., Intel Capital, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Gordon Crawford, Tom Freston and Jonathan Dolgen. | $30M / Series D / Jun 03, 2008 | |
PlumTV
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Plum TV is a premium local cable TV network creating original programming for some of the nations most affluent communities. These communities currently include Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Sun Valley, Miami Beach, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and The Hamptons. It's programming is distributed via Comcast, Cablevision, Hulu, and YouTube. | $20M / Dec 22, 2006 |
Co-Investors
About Firefly3 LLC
Tom Freston's Firefly3 LLC, a private company that invests and consults in the media and entertainment businesses. Tom Freston served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom (NYSE: VIA) from January 1, 2006 to September 5, 2006. Previously, he was Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of the former Viacom Inc., a predecessorof the Company, since June 2004. Prior to that, Mr. Freston was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTV Networks since 1987. Under his leadership, MTV Networks grew to reach 164 countries through 100 channels worldwide, including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, TV Land, Spike TV and CMT, among many others.
Firefly3 LLC Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
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Tom Freston
Principal
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FAQ
What does Tom Freston invest in?
Tom Freston invests primarily in Video, Media and Entertainment and News startups, most often at Funding Round and Seed stage. Most of the 5 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Tom Freston?
Public channels for Tom Freston include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Tom Freston last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Tom Freston closed in Jul 2025. Shizune tracks 5 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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