Business Editors
PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 2000
SnapNames Inc., today announced it has closed on a two-part convertible debt financing round of $1.73 million to fund the development and launch of the first phase of its unique on-line service for the protection and acquisition of domain names.
The source of financing is an international mix of strategic partners, founders, angels, and the Portland-based venture capital firm, Empire Ventures, LLC. The company was initially financed and incubated through Venture Mechanics, LLC, of Portland, Ore., and began formal operations in June of this year. After a five-month intensive development effort the SnapNames.com web site is currently in beta test with a number of major law firms and corporate users.
In gearing up for its product launch debut scheduled for late December 2000, SnapNames has recruited a seasoned staff of Internet executives. The key principals of Venture Mechanics have also taken permanent executive positions with SnapNames, placing the incubator/accelerator entity into indefinite hibernation.
SnapNames' chairman and CEO, Ron Wiener, formerly CEO and chief mechanic of Venture Mechanics, comments, "From our unique vantage point as a venture accelerator, we reviewed hundreds of Internet opportunities and financed a few, both before and after the `dot com bubble'. Of all the technology ventures we had the opportunity to back, SnapNames was the most compelling in terms of scalability, profitability, extension of its patent-pending technology, and substantial competitive advantage. We soon found ourselves comparing every other deal to SnapNames and realized that all others paled in comparison to its multi-billion-dollar upside potential." Operating as a syndicate rather than a fund, the principals of Venture Mechanics had the freedom the change course and direct their energies to this best of breed seedling venture in its portfolios.
Wiener is a serial entrepreneur, formerly founder and CEO of PrintBid.com -- which was successfully sold to ImageX.com (Nasdaq:IMGX) in 1999. His previous ventures included Distribution Sciences Corp./JetStream Aviation (Portland, Ore.), founded in 1994 and Azure Technology (San Jose, Calif.), founded in 1988. Both were leading developers, manufacturers, and distributors of aviation technology products including flight simulators and navigation avionics; JetStream an early pioneer of Internet e-commerce.
