December 2005
- "Algorhythm & Blues, How Pandora's matching service cuts the chaos of digital music," appeared as a feature article in Fast Company.
- Labrador's Sean Foote was quoted in a story on IMI and its $8.8 Series C financing in the Sacramento Business Journal.
- "Why One Chance is Never Enough," a column by Labrador's Stuart Davidson, ran in The Venture Capital Journal on December 1. This is the ninth in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing in The Venture Capital Journal.
November 2005
- Labrador's Sean Foote was quoted in The Deal article titled "Face-Off" in the October 31- November 6, 2005 issue.
- "Pandora: the Genius Fix for iTunes," appeared as a feature article in Fast Company.
- As part of its new Seed Program, Labrador Ventures invested $375,000 in Buzzage, Inc.
- Pandora was listed first in the music section of Time magazine's cover story titled, "The Most Amazing Inventions 2005."
- As part of its new Seed Program, Labrador Ventures invested $110,000 in Experclick, Inc.
- Aperto Networks demonstrated interoperability with four WiMAX vendors at WiMAX Forum "Plugfest" in Beijing.
- Pandora launched its free, ad-supported service with new features to give music lovers more choice and control.
- Aperto Networks announced the availability in the first quarter of 2006 of its indoor, self-install WiMAX broadband wireless products for consumers.
- Everyone.net debuted its EmailTreo: affordable push email for the Palm Treo.
- Labrador Ventures held its Annual Limited Partners Meeting on November 8 in San Fracisco, CA.
- Everyone.net selected Opt-Intelligence to serve opt-in advertising on its sponsored mail network.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal evaluated mid-term oral presentations for the “Formation of New Ventures” course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal participated on the “From the Boardroom” panel at VentureWire’s Consumer Technology Ventures 2005.
- Labrador Ventures joined by Parker Price Venture Capital participated in an extension to Akira's Series A financing.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal was interviewed for the ReedLogic’s Venture Capital Valuations Conference on CD to be distributed in February 2006 through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others.
- Labrador Ventures participated in IMI's $8.8 million Series C financing led by new investor, American River Ventures.
- "Should startups worry about a brand?," a column by Labrador's Larry Kubal, ran in The Venture Capital Journal on November 1. This is the eighth in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing in The Venture Capital Journal.
October 2005
- Labrador Ventures participated in Pandora's $12 million Series C financing led by new investor, Crosslink Capital.
- GreenBorder released a survey that provides insight into how dealing with malware is diverting enterprises from strategic security initiatives.
- Labrador Ventures participated in an extension to Sentinel Vision's Series B round.
- Labrador's Sean Foote sat on a panel titled, "The Corporate Strategic Buyer Comeback" at the 6th Annual Early Stage Venture Investing Conference in San Francisco on October 20. In addition, Mr. Foote served as an IBF Advisory Board Committee Member for the Conference.
- Pandora was featured in an October 6, 2005 Wall Street Journal article titled, "Unraveling Music's DNA."
- "Don't invest in China," a column by Labrador's Sean Foote, ran in The Venture Capital Journal on October 1. This is the seventh in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing in The Venture Capital Journal.
September 2005
- NextHop Technologies announced the availability of GateD NGC (Next Generation Carrier) 2.7 software to expand the services carriers can offer to their customers.
- ezboard's release of Yuku at DEMO was featured in Computerworld, USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN Money and several blogs.
- Labrador Ventures, along with co-investors Draper Richards, Draper Associates and WI Harper, invested in eBots, Inc. as part of a $4 million Series A financing.
- Pandora named "Gadget of the week" by Time Magazine.
- Labrador’s Sean Foote participated in the Private Equity Analyst Conference held in New York.
- Pandora named "Best of the Web" in Business Week's music category.
- ezboard launched Yuku at DEMOfall in September.
- Labrador’s Larry Kubal participated in invitation-only event “The Future of Digital Media” organized by WaldenVC and UBS.
- Labrador’s Larry Kubal participated in the Gilder-Forbes Telecosm Conference 2005.
- "Dancing along the Long Tail," a column by Labrador's Stuart Davidson, ran in The Venture Capital Journal on September 1. This is the sixth in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing in The Venture Capital Journal.
August 2005
- Labrador Ventures, along with co-investors JK&B Capital, Canaan Equity, Alliance Ventures and Innovacom, invested in Aperto Networks as part of a $17 million Series E financing.
- Labrador Ventures invested in Soligence as an extension to its Series A.
- Pandora's launch on August 29 of its first online music discovery service based on the Music Genome Project's musicological study of contemporary music was featured in IT World and PC World.
- Proficient Systems opened an office and secure data center in London to service existing customers and to support the company’s rapid expansion into Western Europe.
- ezboard was selected to launch its new product at DEMOfall in September.
- Aperto Networks' PacketWave System for enterprise broadband wireless applications was deployed across Northern Holland.
- NextHop Technologies joined the Wi-Fi Alliance, a global, non-profit organization devoted to promoting the growth of wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).
- Proficient Systems signed contracts with two of the top six financial institutions in the United Kingdom.
- "Blink- the startup," a column by Labrador's Larry Kubal, ran in The Venture Capital Journal in July. This is the fifth in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing in The Venture Capital Journal.
July 2005
- "The Hidden Gold Within Applied Material Science," a column by Labrador's Sean Foote, ran in The Venture Capital Journal in July. This is the fourth in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing in The Venture Capital Journal.
June 2005
- Labrador Ventures, along with coinvestors New Enterprise Associates, Duchossois Technology Partners, and Parker Price Venture Capital, invested in NextHop Technologies as part of a $10.5 million Series B financing. These funds will be used to continue development and marketing of NextHop's converged enterprise wired/wireless LAN switching platform. This new financing brings total funding in the company to $35 million.
- Proficient's CEO, Gregg Frieshtat, presented at the Web Analytics Forum in New Orleans, LA on June 29th.
- Aperto Networks announced on June 27th completion of internal lab interoperability testing between its Fujitsu silicon-based PacketMAX base station and its Intel silicon-based subscriber unit, thus becoming the first WiMAX vendor to accomplish major Silicon vendor interoperability across a single system.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal authored a chapter exploring the entrepreneur and venture capitalist relationship in a book titled, "Inside the Minds: Venture Capital Valuations."
- Aperto Networks was featured in a June 20, 2005 Business Week article titled "Here Comes WiMAX World."
- Labrador, along with coinvestors Sevin Rosen and TPG Ventures, recently increased it's investment in GreenBorder. The new investment will be used to expand sales efforts of GreenBorder's innovative enterprise desktop security software.
- Labrador's Nina Labatt participated in a VCBC panel titled "Tools of the Trade - financial professionals share ways to improve the back office functions of a private equity/venture capital firm" on June 14, 2005.
- "The 5000 Mile Remote," a column by Labrador's Stuart Davidson, ran in The Venture Capital Journal on June 1. This is the third in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing that will appear in The Venture Capital Journal.
- An AP story on Savage Beast Technologies titled, "Companies dissect music to learn consumers' tastes" received extensive coverage, including stories in USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle and ABC News.
May 2005
- Everyone.net announced on May 25th a push email solution that instantly delivers all messages to palmOne Treo 600 or 650 phones at a fraction of the price of alternative solutions.
- Proficient's CEO, Gregg Freishtat, wrote an article on May 6th on CRMGuru.com titled, "Self-Service and Consultative Goods: Some Things Can't Be Bought Online; They Must Be Sold."
- Integrated Materials, Inc. announced on May 18 that the Company received a multiple unit order with a value of almost $1 million for its high-temperature, poly silicon, 300mm boats from a leading semiconductor device maker.
- International Business Forum (IBF) selected Labrador Ventures to join its Advisory Board and speak on a panel at IBF's 6th Annual Early Stage Venture Investing Conference on October 20-21, 2005 at The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
- Everyone.net announced on May 18 that Naresh Makhijani has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, and that Michael Benham has been appointed to the newly-created position of Vice President of Finance and Administration.
- Labrador invested $2.5 million in Altierre Corporation to complete the Series A financing totaling $10 million. ATA Ventures and Kinetic Ventures also participated in the financing.
- Aperto Networks announced on May 10, 2005 that Infoseti, one of Russia's premier business-class Internet Service Providers, will deploy its PacketWave(R) multiservice network across the greater metropolitan area of Moscow.
- Boston Globe featured Savage Beast Technologies in a May 9 story titled "Start-up composes a 'music genome,' huge database is meant to ID world recordings."
- NextHop Technologies announced on May 3 that Huawei Technologies added NextHop GateD Multicast IPv6 routing software to extend its existing software license from NextHop.
- NextHop and Marvell® (NASDAQ: MRVL) demonstrate an integrated wireless LAN switching solution at NetWorld+Interop 2005 in Las Vegas, May 3 — 5.
- "The Hidden Value of Proprietary Information," a column by Labrador's Larry Kubal, ran in The Venture Capital Journal on May 1. This is the second in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing that will appear in The Venture Capital Journal.
April 2005
- "Look for 'Micro-Dots' of White Space," a column by Labrador's Sean Foote, ran in The Venture Capital Journal in April. This is the first in a series of monthly columns on seed and early stage investing that will appear in The Venture Capital Journal.
- OnAir announced a partnership with TotalVid, the leading video download store for action sports, anime, and travel enthusiasts, to offer access to the latest videos on wireless laptops.
- Labrador's Sean Foote participated in the UC Technology Transfer Forum at UC Davis.
- Berkeley MBA students won the $10,000 grand prize at the eighth annual Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) on Saturday, April 9, 2005, at the University of North Carolina's Kenan Flagler Business School. Team members credited their success to the Haas Venture Capital & Private Equity Class, taught by Jerry Engel, Sean Foote of Labrador Ventures, and Terry Opdendyk of Onset Ventures.
- Labrador's Stuart Davidson spoke on a panel titled "Email & Instant Messaging" on April 12 at the VentureOne Summit in San Francisco.
- Aperto Networks announced the appointment of Bill Waters as its senior vice president of worldwide sales.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal spoke to a class titled "Starting Up Startups" in the Continuing Education Program at Stanford University on April 11.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal will be speaking on a panel titled "From the Boardroom" at the November 8 & 9 Dow Jones VentureWire's Consumer Technology Ventures Conference in Redwood City, California.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal evaluated the mid-term oral presentations of a group of students enrolled in a course titled "Formation of New Ventures" at Stanford's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES).
March 2005
- Labrador invested in EoPlex as part of a $4.3 million Series B financing.
- Proficient's VP of Marketing, Cindy Curtin, had a byline article in the March issue of Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine titled, "Customers Love Online Interaction."
- KeyLabs, a leading independent testing laboratory, released a March 22 report stating GreenBorder is “an innovative and highly effective defense against malicious software.”
- GreenBorder received substantial press coverage following the March 22 launch of its software, including stories in Red Herring, InfoWorld, Information Week, Network World Fusion, Spire Security Viewpoint and Aunty-Spam's Net Patrol.
- Labrador Ventures led a $2.0 million Series A investment in Akira Technologies, Inc., a start-up with technology that enables publishers of rich media to display content on cell phones. Parker Price Venture Capital also participated in the financing.
- Proficient Systems hosted a free webinar on March 17 titled, “The Importance of Cross-Channel Experiences,” featuring Javad Ra’ed, co-founder and SVP of Sales and Professional Services for Proficient Systems, and Forrester analyst Ron Shevlin.
- OnAir is featured in a March 9 iMedia Connections story titled, "Extending Entertainment Brands: Entertainment properties from TV channels to TV shows are branching out through the media universe."
- NextHop Technologies announced on March 1 that Enterasys Networks licensed and integrated NextHop GateD routing software into its Matrix X family of secure core routers.
February 2005
- Traverse Networks showcased its service at the DemoMOBILE Conference on February 13-15 and was featured in USA Today and Forbes.com. Additionally, Labrador's Stuart Davidson was quoted in a story on Traverse and its recent financing in a February 14th issue of Venture Wire Professional.
- Labrador's Larry Kubal participated in Pacific Crest's VC Breakfast Series "A Slice of the Digital Lifestyle" held at the Quadrus Confrence Center on February 23.
- Labrador invested $375,000 in Proficient Systems as part of a $4,000,000 Series B financing. Existing investors Kinetic Ventures, Fuqua Venture Partners and GIMV also participated in the financing.
- Labrador invested $370,000 in Greenborder Technologies to complete the second tranche in a Series C financing totaling $6,000,000. The initial tranche closed in July 2004. Existing investors TPG Ventures and Sevin Rosen also participated in the financing.
- GreenBorder Technologies previewed its new desktop security software solution at the RSA Conference 2005 and was featured in SearchSecurity.com article.
- Labrador’s Larry Kubal participated in the Deloitte Accelerator / Silicon Valley Bank Investor Forum held at the Quadrus Conference Center.
- Labrador hosted its Annual Mardi Gras Party for the Silicon Valley Venture Capital community on Tuesday, February 8.
- NextHop Technologies and Traverse Networks presented at the Dow Jones Network Ventures Conference in Redwood City on March 8th & 9th.
- Labrador's Stuart Davidson was a panelist at the February 8th PricewaterhouseCoopers' Q4 2004 "Shaking the MoneyTree" Event titled The Venture Capital Community’s Equity Investments. Other panelists included: Joanna Rees-Gallanter, Venture Strategy Partners, Erik Straser, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Sharon Wienbar, Bank of America Venture Partners.
- NextHop Technologies announced its strategy for delivering a series of wireless local area network (WLAN) software solutions to the networking industry.
- NextHop Technologies announced that high-speed network access equipment maker Kentrox licensed and integrated NextHop GateD routing software into its Q-Series QoS access routers.
- Aperto Networks announced that Iberbanda, a leading Spanish carrier, deployed Aperto's 3.5 GHz PacketWave systems throughout Spain.
January 2005
- Labrador invested $750,000 in Sentinel Vision as part of a $975,000 Series B financing. Existing investor Compass Venture Partners also participated in the financing.
- Labrador's Stuart Davidson was quoted in a January 24, 2005 Red Herring article titled Return of the Seed.
- Proficient Systems received Beagle Research's CRM WizKids Awards for its standout customer implementation success and was featured in a DestinationCRM.com article.
- NextHop Opens India Office in Bangalore, India. The new office, headed by director Sampath Napoleon, will house a team of development, quality assurance (QA) and technical support staff working as a team with NextHop's three other development facilities, as well as handling local business opportunities.
- Labrador invested $1.0 million in IntruGuard Devices as part of a $6.5 million Series B financing. AsiaTech Ventures also participated in the financing.
- Labrador's Nina Labatt receives positive reactions, "the presentation you gave was very helpful - none of our other firms gave us such a clear analysis of the current trends," after hosting a group of students from the Wharton School MBA program as part of the school's annual San Francisco/Bay Area Career Trek on January 7. Students interested in operating roles at early stage technology companies and in Private Equity as a career participated.
