Grotech Ventures related stories
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NexGen Storage Inks Series A from Grotech, AccessStorage provider NexGen Storage has raised an undisclosed amount of financing from Grotech Ventures and Access Venture Partners. Grotech led the Series A round, which will help the company expand its team and bolster development. Louisville, Colo.-based NexGen develops storage area network solutions for virtual server environments.
- Ecommerce Bounces Back
It was another monster year for the Internet, thanks in large measure to the growth of Groupon and other social shopping sites
- Groupon Sale Could Inspire More Clones
When Todd Rideman first heard about Groupon, he figured he could do it, too. After all, what's so hard about putting up a Website, offering a few deals each day from local merchants -- like $20 worth of cupcakes for $10 -- and then watching the cash roll in? So Rideman poured $100,000 of his hard-earned money into his own daily deal site and, at the beginning of the year, launched WowWhatSavings, targeting the Boston area. He quickly learned, however, that building a profitable Groupon clone isn't as easy it looks. "I was able to get the local merchants, but getting people to come to the site was costing a fortune," said Rideman. After six months, he had just a few thousand people on his distribution list. He has since morphed his business into a deal site for restaurants only, and has seen sales perk up. WowWhatSavings, based in Waltham, Mass., is one of more than 130 Websites that offer daily deals like Groupon, according to Yipit, which aggregates the deals. Now, with the New York Times reporting that Google is negotiating to buy Groupon for up to $6 billion, the space is likely to grow even more crowded.
Success of Groupon Inspires ImitatorsDespite Groupon’s dominant market share and continued growth, clones of the group buying site continue to spring up and attract venture capital
- Longer Exits Are New Norm in VC Deals
Exits are longer to come by in the VC world, says Don Rainey, a general partner with Grotech Ventures. Last week, Madison Dearborn Partners bought a majority stake http://www.suntimes.com/business/2750362,fieldglass-sold-madison-dearborn-092710.article in Fieldglass, which provides software that lets companies manage their temporary labor force. The transaction provided an exit for Grotech, an early-stage investor that has funded firms including Broadsoft, MedAssets and Verity. Grotech held its Fieldglass stake for five years. "That is the state of the exit markets nowadays," Rainey says. "It's not atypical to have six, seven or eight year holding periods."
- LivingSocial Hires Ex-AOL Executive Eric Eichmann
LivingSocial, which is backed by former AOL chairman Steve Case, has created a COO position and hired Eric Eichmann, a former AOL hand and a Rosetta Stone exec, to fill it, according to the Washington Post. Living Social offers daily Web deals with local merchants. In March, the company raised $25 million in a round led by US Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and Case’s Revolution LLC.