The Venator Report

Discontinuing the Venator Report

A lot has happened in the 11 years we’ve been publishing our newsletter. During that period we never missed a week and we have now published close to 600 weekly editions.

Although we have a strong base of subscribers (4,000+) that read our newsletter regularly, we no longer see an ROI that justifies the cost. Over 60% of Venator’s business comes from clients that have worked with us before and 95% of our new clients come from referrals from existing clients—mostly CEOs. We simply don’t see new business being derived from our newsletter.

Our biggest concern in discontinuing the newsletter was a fear people would think we went out of business. For that reason it didn’t make sense to discontinue it the depths of a recession. Although not great, the economy has improved dramatically as compared to 2009 and we feel it is now time for us to reallocate the resources we spend on our newsletter to areas we feel will better serve our business.

Venator Partners has been in business for 16 years and we look forward to serving our clients for many more years to come.

“Beginnings are scary. Endings are usually sad, but its the middle that counts the most.” – Unknown Author

Angies List
Indianapolis, IN
Provider of consumer reviews of local professionals and businesses
IPO: $114.3 million
Co-lead underwriters: BofA Merrill Lynch
Nasdaq: ANGI

InvenSense
Sunnyvale, CA
Provider of motion sensor chips for Nintendo’s Wii and consumer electronics
IPO: $75 million
Co-lead underwriters: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley
NYSE: INVN

Yelp
San Francisco, CA
Provider of online review service for local businesses
IPO Registration: $100 million
Co-lead underwriters: Goldman, Sachs & Co, Citi, and Jefferies & co
Symbol: YELP

AdmitPad
Cambridge, MA
Maker of iPad app to help admissions officers review student applications
$3 million
Greylock Partners

Better Place
Palo Alto, CA
Provider of electric car networks to enable mass market adoption of electric cars through a battery switch model
Series C - $200 million
GE, UBS AG, Israel Corp, HSBC Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Ofer Group and Maniv Energy Capital

Braintree
Chicago, IL
Developer of technology that helps online and online commerce companies process credit card payments
$34 million
Accel Partners

Brightroll
San Francisco, CA
Provider of digital video advertising services
$30 million
Trident Capital, True Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, Comercia Bank

Catalog Spree
Los Altos, CA
Maker of catalog shopping app for the iPad
Series A - $6.1 million
Comcast Ventures, BlackBerry Partners Fund and El Dorado Ventures

CounterTack
Waltham, MA
Maker of in-progress cyber attack intelligence and response technology
Series A - $9.5 million
Fairhaven Capital

CustomMade.com
Cambridge, MA
Provider of online peer-to-peer marketplace connecting shoppers with skilled artisan who create unique luxury custom goods
Series A - $2.1 million
First Round Capital, Google Ventures, Founder Collective, Launch Capital, NextView Ventures, Andrew McCollum, David Tisch

DriveCam
San Diego, CA
Developer of video-based driver safety technology
$85 million
Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe

Fashionandyou.com
New Delhi, India
Provider of online fashion and lifestyle eCommerce brand
$40 million
Norwest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Nokia Growth Partners

Fundly
Palo Alto, CA
Provider of social networking service for raising money
$8.2 million
Morgenthaler Ventures, Kapor Capital, Correlation Ventures, Seraph Group and Accelerator Ventures

Ginzametrics
Mountain View, CA
Provider f SEO management and analytics dashboard for global enterprises
$1.3 million
500 Startups, Venture 51, Jeff Miller, Ullas Naik, Shogo Kawada and Ryota Matsuzaki

Happiest Minds
Bangalore, India
Provider of IT services
Series A - $45 million
Canaan Partners, Intel Capital and Ashok Soota

HotelTonight
San Francisco, CA
Provider of location based hotel booking app
Series B - $8.6 million
Battery Ventures, Accel Partners and First Round Capital

Impermium
Palo Alto, CA
Maker of social web spam fighting service
Series A - $8 million
Highland Capital Partners, The Social+Capital Partnership and Freestyle Capital

Klip
San Francisco, CA
Maker of iOS app for capturing, sharing, discovering and view mobile videos
Series B - $8 million
Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners and Alain Rossmann

Rapid7
Boston, MA
Provider of security risk technology
Series C - $50 million
Technology Crossover Ventures and Bain Capital Partners

ServiceMesh
Santa Monica, CA
Maker of enterprise cloud platform
$15 million
Ignition Partners

Spotzot
Santa Clara, CA
Developer of deal targeting platform
Series A - $2.2 million
Cervin Ventures, Inventus Capital Partners and TiE-Silicon Valley Angels

Marketo
San Mateo, CA
Provider of revenue performance management technology
$50 million
Battery Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Mayfield Fund and Storm Ventures

Medivo
New York, NY
Provider of online network for physicians and patients to connect
Series A - $7 million
Safeguard Scientifics

Medley Health
Dublin, CA
Provider of digital marketing and practice management services to physician practices
Series A - $20 million
Cardinal Partners, Technology Partners and Vivo Ventures

Minted
San Francisco, CA
Provider of online design community and eCommerce site
Series B - $5.5 million
Benchmark Capital, IDG Ventures and Menlo Ventures

newBrandAnalytics
Washington, DC
Provider of customer feedback tracking across social media sites for restaurants, hotels and other businesses
Series B - $26 million
New Enterprise Associates, Revolution Ventures, The Entrepreneur’s Fund, Barry Sternlicht, Neil Shah, Quest Hospitality Ventures and Ted Leonsis

New Relic
San Francisco, CA
Provider of application performance management for the cloud and data centers
$15 million
DAG Ventures, Four Rivers Group, Allen & Co, Benchmark Capital, Tenaya Capital and Trinity Ventures

NexGen Storage
Louisville, CO
Provider of shared storage performance quality of service for business critical virtualization
$10 million
Next World Capital, Grotech Ventures and Access Venture Partners

NextNav
Tyson’s Corner, VA
Developer of technology capable of precisely locating objects in buildings and urban areas where GPS signals can’t reach
$19.2 million
Undisclosed investors

SalesVU
Austin, TX
Provider of cloud-based mobile payment application
$600 thousand
Undisclosed investors

Salorix
Santa Clara, CA
Provider of social media marketing and analytics services
Series A - $3.5 million
Inventus Capital and Nexus Ventures Partners

Seniorlink
Boston, MA
Provider of web-based care management services for the elderly
$5 million
Commonwealth Capital Ventures

SymplifyMD
Alpharetta, GA
Provider of technology to manage electronic health records
$4.5 million
Intersouth Partners

TeraDiode
Littleton, MA
Manufacturer of lasers
Series B - $10 million
Argonaut Ventures, Camros Capital and Stata Venture Partners

Thismoment
San Francisco, CA
Provider of digital marketing platform for brands and agencies
Series A - $7.3 million
Sierra Ventures

Trippy
Manhattan Beach, CA
Developer of mobile app that facilitates trip planning
$1.75 million
Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, SV Angel, Rob Solomon, Tim Ferriss, Brian Lee, Gil Ebaz, Brandee Barker, Chase Jarvis, Randi Zuckerberg, Jason Mraz, and Rachel Zoe

Vyatta
Belmont, CA
Maker of networking technology for cloud infrastructures
$12 million
HighBar Partners, JPMorgan, Arrowpath Venture Partners and Citrix Systems

YCharts
Chicago, IL
Maker of tools and services for stock research and analysis
Series B - $3.25 million
Morningstar, Hyde Park Angels and I2A

YuMe
Redwood City, CA
Provider of video advertising technology and services
$12 million
Samsung Ventures and Translink Capital

Zoomingo
Seattle, WA
Provider of mobile shopping discovery solution
$1.3 million
Naya Ventures and Benaroya Capital

ZooZ
Tel Aviv, Israel
Provider of end-to-end payment solution for mobile app developers to integrate digital payment and checkout options into their apps
$1.5 million
Lool Ventures

Zuora
Redwood City, CA
Provider of eCommerce and subscription billing services
Series D - $36 million
Index Ventures, Shasta, Redpoint, Benchmark Capital, Tenaya Capital and Mark Benioff

Aruba Networks
Sunnyvale, CA
Provider of next-beneration network access solutions for the mobile enterprise
Acquired Avenda Systems
Santa Clara, CA
Developer of network security solutions
Terms were not disclosed

BlueStar Energy
Chicago, IL
Provider of energy efficiency and demand response solutions for businesses
Acquired TruBrite Energy Management
Marysville, CA
Provider of energy-efficient solutions for national business chains
Terms were not disclosed

Kratos Defense
San Diego, CA
Provider of national security technology solutions
Acquired SecureInfo
Reston, VA
Provider of cybersecurity services and solutions
$17.5 million

Quest Software
Aliso Viejo, CA
Provider of solutions for management of databases, applications, Windows, virtualization and more
Acquired VKernel
Andover, MA
Provider of virtualized infrastructure operations management
Terms were not disclosed

RapidBuyr
Maynard, MA
Provider of daily deals site
Acquires BizDeals.com
Los Angeles, CA
Provider of daily deals site
Terms were not disclosed

Salesforce.com
San Francisco, CA
Provider of cloud computing services
Acquired Model Metrics
Chicago, IL
Provider of mobile and social cloud consulting services
Terms were not disclosed

Sega
Tokyo, Japan
Maker of video games
Acquired Three Rings Design
San Francisco, CA
Maker of digital games
Terms were not disclosed

TrustedID
Palo Alto, CA
Provider of credit and identity protection services
Acquired Unsbscribe.com
Santa Monica, CA
Developer of social network security for consumers
Terms were not disclosed

Walt Disney
Burbank, CA
Acquired Bubble Media
New York, NY
Provider of online parenting platform
Terms were not disclosed

Yahoo!
Sunnyvale, CA
Acquired interclick
New York, NY
Developer of data-valuation platform for advertisers
$270 million

ActiveVideo Networks
San Jose, CA
Creator of cloud-based application platform
Named Brian Sereda – Chief Financial Officer, formerly Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer – Virage Logic

BigLever Software
Austin, TX
Provider of systems and software product line engineering framework, tools and services
Named Dr. Paul Clements – Vice President of Customer Success, formerly Senior Member of the Technical Staff – Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Ceragon Networks
Paramus, NJ
Provider of wireless backhaul solutions
Named Aviram Steinhart – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, formerly Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - Lumenis

Criteo
Palo Alto, CA
Provider of performance display advertising
Named Frank Weishaupt – Senior Vice President of Sales, formerly Vice President of North American Advertising Marketplaces – Yahoo!

Envysion
Louisville, CO
Provider of managed video as a service solutions
Named Gregory Hodges – Chief Operating Officer, formerly Chief Operating Officer - Digitalsmiths

Hortonworks
Sunnyvale, CA
Contributor to Apache Hadoop projects
Named Mark Himelstein – Vice President of Engineering, formerly Chief Technology Officer - Quantum

Intermec
Everett, WA
Developer and integrator of products, services and technologies to identify, track and manage supply chain assets and information
Named Yukio Morikubo – Senior Vice President and General Counsel, formerly General Counsel and Corporate Secretary – Drugstore.com

Lithium Technologies
Emeryville, CA
Provider of social customer solutions
Named Jim Drill – Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, formerly Vice President of Americas Sales – BMC Software

Magnify.net
New York, NY
Provider of video curation platform
Named Parmjit Kang – Chief Executive Officer, formerly Chief Financial Officer – Fab.com
Named Brittany Gevanter – Seniro Web Project Manager, formerly Media and Project Manager – Best Effect

Morphlabs
Manhattan Beach, CA
Provider of converged dynamic infrastructure services for the enterprise
Named Lee Thomson – Chief Technology Officer, formerly Chief Technology Officer of Consumer Travel and Transportation – HP

Net@Work
New York, NY
Provider of business technology solutions
Named Seth Ellertson – Director of Client Care and Inside Sales, formerly Sr. Director of Sales – Sage

Nimbic
Mountain View, CA
Provider of 3D full-wave electromagnetic integrity solutions
Named Keith Morton – Vice President of Worldwide Sales, formerly Vice President of Global Accounts – Magma Design Automation

OpTier
New York, NY
Provider of business transaction driven application performance management solutions
Named Mark Thompson – President, formerly General Manager and Managing Director for global sales and Sales Support – CA Technologies

Polycom
Pleasanton, CA
Provider of unified communications solutions
Named Dan Sibille – Vice President of North American Channels, formerly Director of Americas Channels – LifeSize Communications

SpotXchange
Denver, CO
Provider of global marketplace for video ad inventory
Named Matt Von Der Muhll – Publisher Development Director APAC, formerly Solutions Manager and Partnerships - Responsys
Named Dylan Robinson – Director of APAC Agency Sales, formerly Advertising Sales Manager – Tribal Fusion
Named Kylie Partridge – APAC Client Services Director, formerly Sales Campaign Management – Tribal Fusion

ThinkVine
Cincinnati, OH
Provider of marketing optimization software
Named Darcy Hoffmann – Vice President of Customer Success, formerly Vice President of Marketing and Product Development – Merrill Corp

Unirac
Albuquerque, NM
Provider of infrastructure for solar power
Named Peter Lorenzen – Chief Executive Officer, formerly President - Quanta Renewable Energy Services

Violin Memory
Mountain View, CA
Provider of fast, scalable Flash memory arrays
Named Scott Metzger – Vice President of Corporate Development, formerly Vice President of Product Engineering and Operations - Apigee

Virtustream
San Francisco, CA
Provider of cloud solutions
Named Shaw Chuang – Vice President of Engineering, formerly Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Emerging Technologies – PGP Corp

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