Monday, October 13, 2008

The Next Big Idea in Online Payments?

Sunday's Globe column focuses on two recent Boston College grads who are focused on developing a better way for groups to handle expenditures. The company is called WePay, but the service isn't yet up and running.

Here's the video:



My favorite quote comes at the end, from Lee Hower, a veteran of PayPal and LinkedIn who now works at Point Judith Capital in Rhode Island:

    [Hower] says he believes there are opportunities for entrepreneurs to find important problems to solve, even in tough times. After leaving PayPal, Hower went on to help start LinkedIn. The founders began brainstorming in 2002, with much of the tech world and the larger economy still in a funk; the company went on to grow into the largest social networking site for businesspeople.

    "Negative macro trends are a bad omen, for sure," Hower says. "But they also affect things like finding office space and hiring people. The nuts and bolts of building a business can actually become easier when the overall economy is trending downward, as opposed to when it's in a bubbly state."

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Friday, September 21, 2007

New England's New Crop of Early-Stage Venture Firms

In working on my Innovation Economy column for this Sunday's Globe, I was hoping to be able to squeeze in a run-down of the newest early-stage venture capital firms in our neck of the woods.

That didn't work out. (Totally my fault: trying to fit in too much good stuff.)

So here's my list -- with much more material than I would've been able to fit into the column. If I've missed anyone who has raised a new early-stage fund in 2007, please post a comment.

Fair Haven Capital
Boston, MA
Partners: Paul Ciriello, Managing Partner; Rick Grinnell, Managing DIrector; Jim Goldinger, Managing Director; Dan Keshian, Managing Director; Cheryl Goyette, Partner and CFO
Size: $200 million
Investments so far: Everyzing (formerly Podzinger), Cocona Fabrics, Xtranormal, and one Boston company that is currently at the term sheet stage
Sweet spot for A rounds: averaging $4 million

Ciriello says the firm spun out of TD Capital Ventures; Toronto Dominion Bank is an LP in the new fund. Fair Haven will focus on consumer tech, enterprise tech, security, and materials. (Cocona is developing a new fabric derived in part from coconuts.) "We do have a bias toward eastern North American," he says.

.406 Ventures
Boston, MA
Partners: Maria Cirino, Co-Founder and Managing Director (formerly of Guardent/Verisign); Larry Begley, Co-Founder and Managing Director; Liam Donohue, Co-Founder and Managing Director
Size: $125 million (could grow as large as $150 million)
Investments so far: Veracode, RatePoint, Memento
Sweet spot for A rounds: A few hundred thousand to $3 million

Cirino says, "We're very clued in to the fact that savvy entrepreneurs don't want $10 million bucks jammed down their throat when all they need is a couple. Take all the money you want? That idea is dead. Savvy entrepreneurs want to preserve their equity, and the way to do that is take as much money as you should, but as little as you can." Firm will focus on IT security and tech-driven services. "Part of what we look to do is avoid spaces that have been overheated by a lot of venture investment," she says.

Point Judith Capital
Providence, RI
Partners: Gina Raimondo, General Partner; David Martirano, General Partner; Sean Marsh, General Partner; David Mixer, Founding Partner; Michael Doyle, Venture Partner; Brad Waugh, Venture Partner; Jeff Weiss, Venture Partner
Size: $73 million (this is the firm's second fund; all others on this list are on their first)
Investments so far: Novare Surgical, Envista Corp., Music Nation
Sweet spot for A rounds: $500,000 to $3 million

Formerly an affiliate of Village Ventures. From the site, "We focus our investment activity in communications, information, Internet, and healthcare technologies." First three investments are in Silicon Valley, Beverly, MA, and New York.

DACE Ventures
Waltham, MA
Partners: David Andonian, Managing Partner; Jon Chait, Partner; Doug Chertok, Venture Partner (Chertok is based in New York)
Size: Slightly over $70 million
Investments so far: Panraven, Cityvoter, AuctionPal, LocaModa
Sweet spot for A rounds: $1 million to $3 million

"We're looking for capital-efficient, early-stage Web businesses," Andonian says. "There are not many firms filling the capital gap, as VC firms have gotten bigger and bigger." Andonian says the focus at DACE is businesses built either on the Web or on mobile platforms.

Kepha Partners
Waltham, MA
Partners: Jo Tango, Founder (formerly of Highland Capital Partners); Ed Hamilton (acting CFO)
Size: Roughly $50 million
Investments so far: PeerMeta, AutoVirt

Tango wouldn't talk to me, but this is from their site: "To deploy the vast amounts of capital the venture industry has raised, many firms are pursuing new strategies, models, countries and later-stage investments. Many are becoming venture bankers. KP has a back-to-basics approach focused on pre-seed, seed and Series A companies. We call this 'venture building,' and it is what created the venture industry in the first place." Is he hoping that people will associate his KP with that other KP on the West Coast?

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