Monday, August 06, 2007

Hello made the cover of Venture Capital Journal


.. even if it was a feature about Morten Lund.... (You've got to hand it to the guy - he does get around!)
Not sure I'm allowed to print the entire article here - so I'll settle for the following jewel:

".... Managed by Jakob Langemark, the company’s more than 50 employees can take a next-generation Internet idea and machine it into reality in a matter of weeks. “It was obvious that our ventures would always need this,” Lund says.
One of the Hello Group’s most recent clients was Lund portfolio company Zecco, an Internet brokerage supported by ads so it doesn’t have to charge commissions. The founders came to Lund with just an idea. After seven months with the Hello Group, they had a fully formed product, ready to take on eTrade.
In some respects, the Hello Group exists to service Lund’s portfolio companies. “Making sure his companies succeed is my primary goal,” Langemark says. “If they succeed, we succeed.”
But the Group is expanding to take on new clients. It recently scored a deal with Adobe worth between $2 million and $3 million. It has been interviewing seven to eight people per week to help it expand.It is tempting to compare the Hello Group to an incubator, but the parallel isn’t perfect. The group doesn’t own real estate, for example. It doesn’t have foosball tables set up for entrepreneurs. It is a service company first and foremost. If the group can help one of Lund’s portfolio companies, it will, for a fee.
Call it a venture accelerator instead. The Silicon Valley analogue to the Hello Group might be a company such as Pivotal Labs. Although the software consulting firm isn’t associated with any particular VC firm, it does have a startup practice that will build just about any Web 2.0 service company you want for $100,000 cash. Pivotal will also train a startup’s engineers to help ensure an easy transition after the consultancy pulls out. But the firm doesn’t have the design and marketing savvy that the Hello Group brings to the table. And in a Web 2.0 environment where sizzle is almost as important as steak, marketing can be a real asset. "

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