The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · May 2013

Wanderful Media aggregates newspaper circulars, coupons and local retail advertising for delivery on mobile devices and in shopping tabs on newspapers' websites. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company launched in 2013 with an iOS app and has since released its Find&Save app for Android while rolling out location-based services for both platforms. It was formed with a $22 million investment in 2012 and has attracted additional funding from large media owners. The company manages national retail advertising relationships while regional newspapers handle local and regional retailer relationships and placement. Since launch Wanderful has generated less than $10 million in revenue but places content in front of about 100 million monthly uniques. CEO Ben Smith says the company focused on mobile and tablet to reach audiences and modernize the circulars experience. Wanderful Media’s core product is Find&Save, a local deal service that aggregates offers from newspaper circulars, retailers, and other data sources. The company recently relaunched Find&Save with added personalization and social features, including shopping lists and the ability to follow retailers and other users. The relaunch followed Wanderful’s acquisition of Travidia, the print-to-digital conversion company that started Find&Save. Find&Save integrates with newspaper sites (for example the San Francisco Chronicle) and the company says its network reaches 100 million unique visitors each month. Executives report positive response to the relaunch and plan to use new funding to increase distribution and to launch mobile and tablet apps as a next step. Financially, Wanderful has raised an additional $9 million in the latest round, bringing total funding to $36 million. Wanderful Media digitizes newspaper circulars and local retailers' coupons via its Find n Save platform. Find n Save powers deals and shopping sections on newspaper websites in more than 250 markets and the company planned to expand to 600 sites in 2013. Wanderful acquired Travidia to convert print coupons to digital and operates a conversion center in Chico, Calif. The company raised $22 million from 12 newspaper publishers, who also serve as key distribution partners. CEO Ben T. Smith IV said retailer adoption drove publisher partnerships and that tablet and smartphone apps were imminent, with the tablet positioned as the core discovery-shopping experience and phones for in-store alerts. Management plans to extend the underlying technology beyond Find n Save into other industries over time.

Led · Seed · Oct 2012

ExecOnline delivers applied-learning leadership development programs to enterprise clients via a proprietary online platform and partnerships with elite business schools. The company reports participant completion rates above 90%, strong NPS scores, and measurable ROI for clients. Its platform combines on-campus engagement dynamics with scalable online delivery to serve corporate executives. ExecOnline has delivered transformational learning experiences to leaders at over 500 global organizations since 2012. The company plans to invest in sales and marketing, expand its content Experience Library, and enhance its technology platform to accelerate growth. ExecOnline develops and delivers enterprise leadership development programs combining in-person training with online learning, covering strategy, innovation and change, leadership, and operations and finance. Its portfolio includes proprietary offerings and programs run with elite schools such as Berkeley, Columbia, IMD, MIT, Wharton, and Yale. The company has delivered leadership development experiences to more than 250 organizations and 12,000 business leaders, with customers including over 250 corporations, mainly in the Fortune 1000. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO Stephen Bailey, ExecOnline operates from New York City. The company plans to use new funding to further develop proprietary L&D program offerings and to increase sales and marketing efforts. ExecOnline is a NYC-based provider of online leadership development programs that partners with business schools including Berkeley-Haas, Columbia, IMD, MIT-Sloan, Wharton, and Yale. Its university-certified programs cover leadership, strategy, innovation, and operations and combine on-demand video lectures, self-paced application exercises, and live online collaboration with faculty and a global community. Founded in 2012 by CEO Stephen Bailey, the company has delivered leadership development experiences to more than 150 organizations and 7,000 business leaders. ExecOnline intends to use the Series B proceeds to extend sales and marketing capabilities and to grow its suite of enterprise-focused online leadership development offerings. The company works with enterprise clients to tailor dynamic content to corporate objectives and focuses on measurable organizational impact. ExecOnline delivers school-certified online executive education programs in partnership with elite business schools such as MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School and Berkeley‑Haas. Its core product is a proprietary enterprise learning platform featuring on-demand HD video lectures, self-paced application exercises, and live video collaboration with professors and executive peers. The company powers programs that are school-certified and delivered to corporate cohorts. Over 1,000 executives from approximately 70 companies were committed to attending programs with UC Berkeley‑Haas and Columbia, and nearly 400 executives from 35 countries participated in Fall 2014 programs. Led by founder and CEO Stephen Bailey, ExecOnline plans to use new funding to improve offerings, enrich its platform, establish additional business‑school partnerships, expand sales and marketing, and scale operations. ExecOnline offers an end-to-end online executive training platform that partners with top 10 business schools to deliver branded curriculum and interaction with business school professors. The service lets executives complete training from their desks without traveling to campus. It targets Fortune 500 companies that typically send executives to immersive programs at schools like Harvard. Founder Stephen Bailey says the product solves the staffing crunch companies face when executives are away for extended on-campus programs. The startup raised $800,000 in seed funding from The Washington Post and has two companies signed up so far. ExecOnline is slated to go live in January and does not yet have a website; competitors mentioned include degree-focused providers like 2U and platform providers like Moodle.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2011

Fab operates a design-focused online lifestyle shop offering unique home, wearable and gift products and says it has millions of customers worldwide. The company has shifted away from a flash-sales model and centralized operations at its New York headquarters to become a comprehensive global online lifestyle retailer. Fab recently debuted a new design store and is experimenting with brick-and-mortar locations as part of its international expansion strategy. Management acknowledged recent layoffs while describing momentum, growth, and a solid team. Fab is targeting Asia for growth and is pursuing partnerships and acquisitions to accelerate that expansion. Fab operates a design-focused e-commerce marketplace that emphasizes home and lifestyle products, with roughly 14 million users and sales in 27 countries. The company reported $120M in revenue last year and projected about $250M in 2013 sales, achieving 43% gross margins. About two-thirds of sales now come from non–flash-sale commerce, with 50% of revenue in home categories and one-third of orders placed via mobile. Fab is expanding its own product lines and exclusive designer partnerships, experimenting with brick-and-mortar (first store in Hamburg) and investing in mobile and social. International growth is a priority—1M members in the U.K. generate nearly 40% of European sales, and the company intends to expand in Asia with partners. Operational investments include faster fulfillment (75% of orders ship within 24 hours), a Netherlands warehouse to serve Europe, and a planned Las Vegas–area warehouse in 2014. Management expects U.S. and European operations to be profitable by Q4 2014 or Q1 2015. Fab is a design-focused e-commerce site that sells curated home and lifestyle products online. The company launched in June 2011 and was founded by Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer. Fab has expanded to 26 countries and reaches more than 10 million people. Since launch it has raised over $150 million in financing. The company reported strong recent sales, selling more than $6.5 million of product in the last week of November, up from $1.7 million in the same period the prior year (≈300% growth). Fab is targeting further international expansion, specifically looking at South America and Asia, and is pursuing an India market strategy. Fab began as social site Fabulis in 2010 and pivoted to a design-focused e-commerce marketplace, officially launching Fab on June 9, 2011. The site curates handpicked products and emphasizes merchandising, social sharing and mobile shopping; roughly 90% of items aren’t available on Amazon. Fab grew rapidly (title notes 9 million users; the article reports 8 million members a year after launch), with strong engagement metrics: four products sold per minute, 67% of daily purchases from repeat buyers, and mobile driving roughly 40% of revenue (Fab cited $50M in revenue this year and projected $150M in sales). The company has been focusing on logistics (building warehouses in New Jersey and on the West Coast) and moving from drop-ship to in-house/3PL fulfillment. Fab plans to expand internationally, scale private-label/Fab-branded basics (targeting 10–20% of sales), continue mobile and social investments, and explore brick-and-mortar and new categories. Fab operates a design-focused flash-sales e-commerce site that curates and sells design products. The company confirmed $105 million in new funding in a Series C led by London-based VC Atomico. Atomico’s participation is intended to help Fab scale its international presence, according to CEO Jason Goldberg’s blog post. The new round reportedly values Fab at about $600 million. This Series C brings Fab’s total outside investment to nearly $160 million, up from a $40 million Series B closed the prior December. Goldberg emphasized a grounded approach to growth and responsibility alongside the large financing.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2010

Ongo Inc. is developing an online platform that aggregates and presents digital news and information from a variety of publishers in a single, consumer-friendly experience. The service is designed to let users read and share articles seamlessly across multiple outlets. The company plans to introduce the product before the end of the year. Ongo is led by founder and CEO Alex Kazim, whose nine-year tenure at eBay included heading Skype, leading new ventures, and overseeing marketing and business operations for PayPal. To finance its launch and product development, the company has secured $12 million in initial funding from three major newspaper companies. No user, revenue, or growth metrics have yet been released. The fresh capital positions Ongo to finalize development and execute its go-to-market strategy.