PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, New York, June 16, 2009

First Growth Venture Network Seeding Early Stage New York Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups through Mentoring Program

A consortium of leading venture-related players has formed First Growth Venture Network, a mentoring program for high potential seed and early stage start-up tech companies in and around New York City.

First Growth’s founding group includes venture capital firms - Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, First Round Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners, North Bridge Venture Capital, and Valhalla Partners; angel investors – Grape ArborVC and AngelVineVC; the Tech Group at law firm Lowenstein Sandler and the tech investment banking firm GCA Savvian.

"Our goal is to help promising New York-area early stage tech companies by sharing sector expertise, operating experience, and networks to cultivate the conditions for sustained growth into best of breed companies," said Jeff Bussgang, a First Growth founder and a general partner at Boston-based Flybridge Capital Partners.

The network accelerates the first growth of promising entrepreneurs by first, connecting them with its team of venture capitalists, angel investors, successful entrepreneurs and advisors, all of whom have spent years in and around tech start-ups; second, matching each start-up with a First Growth Advisor Team of successful mentors; third, providing two days per quarter of substantive information and networking across the entire First Growth community; and fourth, fostering a peer group of similar tech leadership teams within the First Growth program.

The name First Growth Venture Network is derived from "First Growth" Bordeaux wines, those wines classified as best of breed in the famous Bordeaux classification of 1855, which many in the wine arena still rely on today. First Growth Chair Edward Zimmerman, who founded the Lowenstein Sandler Tech Group as well as Grape ArborVC and AngelVine VC, is admittedly a bit wine-obsessed, and explained the connection between nurturing vineyards and tech start-ups. "First Growth Venture Network is dedicated to helping companies with their first burst of growth; in building this program, we want to create the best possible growing conditions for start-ups right here in New York City."

The program accepts applicants who are working full time on a tech start-up headed by a first or second time CEO. Notably, First Growth will not require payment in cash or equity from the selected companies that participate, because doing so would, according to First Growth Executive Committee member, Brian O'Kelley (CEO of AppNexus and an active angel through GrapeArborVC), "be inconsistent with First Growth’s efforts to foster growth for seed stage companies in our area."

Each selected applicant will be assigned a First Growth Advisor Team consisting of a venture capitalist, an angel investor/successful senior executive, and an advisor from Lowenstein Sandler's Tech Group and/or GCA Savvian.

For more information on and applying to the program, please visit www.firstgrowthvn.com or contact: Ed Zimmerman (ezimmerman@lowenstein.com) or Jeff Bussgang ().

# # #

One of the East Coast’s leading networks of venture funds and angel investors, AngelVineVC meets in New York City and brings together 30 venture funds with dozens of angels and a handful of select start-ups.

Battery Ventures is a 25 year old venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs from seed stage through buyouts, in technology, digital media, financial services and cleantech. Battery has more than $3 billion under management and four offices around the world: Boston, Silicon Valley, Israel and India.

Charles River Partners, founded in 1970, is one of the nation’s oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with approximately $2.1 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in high growth technology and media sectors. Since the firm’s founding, CRV funds have been ranked among the industry’s top performers. CRV has offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA.

First Round Capital is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build remarkable companies. First Round is not afraid of investing in pre-revenue companies - and often provides a company's first outside capital. As former entrepreneurs, First Round understands the challenges of launching a new enterprise and looks to take an active role in most of the companies in which it invests. First Round believes its insight and expertise are far more valuable than its capital -- and looks for entrepreneurs who feel the same. First Round Capital invests nationally and has offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Flybridge Capital Partners is an early stage investor that teams with talented entrepreneurs to grow innovative global companies in the consumer, healthcare and information technology markets.

GCA Savvian is a leading investment bank serving growth companies through its merger and acquisition advisory and capital market financing services. GCA Savvian covers sectors including technology, media, communications, healthcare, business services, financial technology and consumer commerce, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, London, Menlo Park, New York and Tokyo.

Grape ArborVC is one of New York City’s most active teams of angel investors. Its 12 members have completed dozens of angel investments in the last three years.

Highland Capital Partners was founded with the mission of helping great people build great companies. Since its inception in 1988, the firm has taken a sector-focused approach to investing in exceptional communications, consumer, digital media, healthcare and information technology companies. With over $3 billion of committed capital and offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Geneva, Highland has invested in and worked to create such firms as Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, CheckFree, Conor Medsystems, Continental Cable, Helicos BioSciences, lululemon athletica, Lycos, MapQuest, Navic Networks, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, P.A. Semi, Quigo, Starent Networks, Sybase, Telica and VistaPrint.

The Lowenstein Sandler Tech Group is a leading tech and venture capital law practice that has closed well over 200 venture and angel deals in the last two years. From offices in New York, New Jersey and Palo Alto, the Tech Group represents VCs, angels, PE funds and the companies they back in critical transactions (M&A, financings, strategic alliances) and protecting and commercializing intellectual property.

North Bridge Venture Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, Massachusetts and San Mateo, California.

Valhalla Partners is a trusted partner and advisor to technology entrepreneurs in their quest to build world-class companies. Based in Vienna, Virginia, the firm's management team has made more than 120 investments over the past twenty years and produced almost $1 billion of investment proceeds. Valhalla prefers investments where the mission of the company is to innovate, challenge and fundamentally change the dynamics of new and existing markets. Investments by Valhalla's team include Advertising.com, BDMetrics, CareerBuilder.com, Clarify, EnterpriseDB, Epicor, Exchange Solutions, JumpTap, LeftHand Networks, Mobius, NextLink, Nirvanix, Progress Software, Proxicom, RealOps, Register.com, Riverbed Technologies, SafeNet, SEPATON, ServiceBench, Trilogy, and webMethods. Valhalla Partners brings the full power and network of its experienced team to every investment it makes, helping companies grow faster and smarter regardless of size or maturity.