GARAGE UPDATE
March 2008
The latest from Garage Technology Ventures
The past year has been a very good year for Garage, and 2008 is shaping up to be even more exciting. We’ve added some very interesting new companies to the portfolio, we’ve had some great liquidity events, we’ve expanded the Garage team, we’ve had some impressive achievements in the portfolio, and more.
Here’s the Update:
NEW INVESTMENTS: Garage finds gems by looking off the beaten path
Garage has recently invested in three innovative technology companies — D.light Design, Step Labs, and ThermoCeramix. All of these companies have developed game-changing technologies with the potential to transform major industries. None of these companies falls into a traditional technology sector. The investments reflect the Garage strategy of investing in newly emerging sectors with well-defined value propositions rather than chasing “hot” sectors.
D.light Design: The company was started by a team of Stanford students who set out to create a cheaper, better source of lighting that could replace kerosene lanterns. Garage has invested in the seed round of D.light alongside DFJ, Gray Matters Capital, and Acumen Fund. D.light has already won numerous awards as it focuses on building a for-profit company that can help make life better for nearly 2 billion people around the world who rely on dangerous, unhealthy kerosene lanterns as a source of light. Visit D.light Design at www.dlightdesign.com. [Awards] Step Labs: Garage recently invested in Step Labs, which has developed a better noise cancellation technology for wireless microphones operating in noisy environments (such as bluetooth cellphone headsets outside, and hands-free systems in cars and trucks). Step Labs offers better “voice clarity” in noisy environments than any other technology, as is demonstrated on the company’s website www.step-labs.com. Co-investors included Gabriel Ventures, IVF, and Garage Canada. ThermoCeramix: The company has developed a novel material that improves the efficiency and reduces the cost of a wide range of heating applications. A substantial percentage of all the energy we use is consumed to heat things up — industrial processes, commercial buildings, and residential applications. ThermoCeramix offers a better, faster, cheaper way to heat things up and reduce the consumption of energy at the same time. Garage invested in ThermoCeramix alongside Garage Canada and angel investors. Visit ThermoCeramix at www.thermoceramix.com.
LIQUIDITY EVENTS: Kaboodle and SalvageSale acquired; Hoku Scientific profits distributed
Kaboodle: In August 2007, the Hearst Corporation snapped up Kaboodle, a social shopping site funded by Garage in 2005. Kaboodle was founded by Manish Kumar and a team that developed a novel technology that could automatically extract the key elements of any web page and create a rich collection of website synopses. Visit Kaboodle at www.kaboodle.com. [Business Week Story] SalvageSale: Over the past several years, SalvageSale has grown to become the leading online salvage exchange site, serving primarily the insurance industry and large corporations. Garage initially invested in SalvageSale in 2000. Headquartered in Houston, TX, the company has added many offices and representatives around the world. In 2007, Spire Capital Partners acquired a controlling interest in SalvageSale as part of a buyout transaction. Visit SalvageSale at www.salvagesale.com. [Press Release] Hoku Scientific: We first met Dustin Shindo of Hoku Scientific at the end of 2001, when he and his co-founder were experimenting with a novel material for fuel cell membranes. The company won a number of contracts and went public in 2005 (Nadaq: HOKU), becoming the first “cleantech” company to go public since the tech bubble burst in 2000. Since then, Hoku has broadened its materials science activities to include the development of solar silicon, which has given a boost to the stock price. Visit Hoku Scientific at www.hokusci.com.
PORTFOLIO HONORS: Garage strikes gold investing in green; WhiteHat Security team doubly honored
Three cleantech portfolio companies funded by Garage were named in the Going Green Top 100 list of emerging clean technology companies — Miasole, ClearFuels, and D.light Design. Garage has been very fortunate with its cleantech investments — in a sector thought to be risky because of long time frames, Garage has generated two significant liquidity events: Hoku Scientific went public in 2005 (see earlier story above), and Garage sold a portion of its early investment in Miasole to later stage investors in an oversubscribed follow-on round.
Some other recent honors in the portfolio:
EXPANDING THE GARAGE TEAM: Veteran VC and seasoned serial entrepreneur join Garage
Veteran venture capitalist Joyce Chung, one of the leading women in venture capital, joined Garage in the summer of 2007 as a managing director. Earlier in the year, Henry Wong, a serial entrepreneur with five successful networking and communications companies under his belt, joined Garage as a venture partner. Garage has also made several additions to its Advisory Board. [Press Release][Garage Team]
WHAT RECESSION? Record Q4 for Garage portfolio
As a seed and early stage fund, we expect ups and downs in the portfolio, but in Q4, every single post-revenue company in the Garage portfolio improved revenues over Q3. For almost every portfolio company, Q4 was a record quarter. In spite of the general economic anxiety in the press, entrepreneurs are optimistic: “Economic change is usually good for innovative technology companies; latent demand for a better mousetrap sometimes turns into a desperate need to catch mice cheaper and faster,” says Dan Sanker, CEO of CaseStack. For a summary of Garage portfolio companies, visit our portfolio.
HELPING ENTREPRENEURS: Garage pairs with SVASE and Microsoft to offer “Launch: Silicon Valley”
In addition to offering online resources and seminars to help entrepreneurs get started (Resources for Entrepreneurs), Garage co-hosts “Launch: Silicon Valley” on June 10, 2008, to help entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground once they are ready to go market. If you know any extraordinary startups that are about to launch, sign them up for Launch: Silicon Valley.
HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD: Guy Kawasaki’s blog among top-rated in technology
For entrepreneurs, executives, and everyone else in technology and business who want to get a candid perspective on technology, business, entrepreneurship, or just Life. [Guy’s Blog]
So, that’s the update from Garage. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, or if you know of any brilliant entrepreneurs who are going to change the world, please send them our way!
And thank you for your support!
-- The Garage Team
Joyce Chung, Managing Director, email: joyce@garage.com
Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, email: kawasaki@garage.com
Bill Reichert, Managing Director, email: reichert@garage.com
Henry Wong, Venture Partner, email: henry@garage.com
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