Founding Member of Governor Ritter's Innovation Council

October 15, 2007 Tom Moore

Truly honored to be asked last week to join as a founding member of Governor Ritter's Innovation Council. The Governor announced the formation and mission of the Council at the CSIA Demo 2007 event last Thursday. The mission of the Council, as envisioned by The Colorado Promise, is to bring together entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, leaders from established technology companies, government officials, pioneers in the non-profit world, and academics to promote innovation in Colorado’s technology sector, government, and academic institutions.

The first three key initiatives include: (1) developing a plan to facilitate broadband deployment throughout the state; (2) assist the State CIO as a sounding board on Colorado state government’s effective and efficient use of technology; and (3) support the Governor’s Office of Economic Development as international ambassadors and champions of Colorado’s technology industries and promoting Colorado as an ideal place to nurture technological development and start-up companies.

All three initiatives are worthwhile but I am especially excited about the first. The Council includes a great group of leaders including Phil Weiser (CU), Cathy Fogler (Charter), Don Gips (Level3), Dick Green (CableLabs), Brad Feld (Foundry Group), Monty Sooter (ClickBank), Juan Rodriquez (Exabyte) and others and I am honored to be asked to be a part of it!

Bag Borrow Or Steal Raises $15M

June 18, 2007 Tom Moore

Bag Borrow or Steal closed $15M in a third round of financing today. BBOS is the largest online "borrowed luxury" retailer allowing women to borrow designer handbags and jewelry, today announced a third round of institutional funding, totaling $15M. The round was led by Steelpoint Capital Partners and Madrona Venture Group and included investments from Kuwait Holding Company, Hilltop Investments and TimesArrow.

"We've achieved tremendous success over the past year and the additional financial support will fund our continued growth and drive expansion into new product categories," said Michael Smith, chief executive officer. The company has a membership base of over a quarter of million subscribers and the company stocks over 3,000 styles of luxury handbags.

WaveBender Closes $4.5M In "A Round"

May 31, 2007 Tom Moore

WaveBender, Inc. announced the closing of a $4.5M "A Round" of equity venture financing led by ATA Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds, TimesArrow Capital, and ORR Partners. The funding follows several seed rounds and will allow the company to commercialize its ground breaking flat panel antenna technology initially targeting the satellite TV (DBS) reception market. The company's growing product line is center around patent pending innovation in the fundamental physics of radio frequency antenna reception.

"We are extremely excited to add ATA Ventures and Sevin Rosen to our world class team of venture investors. They not only validate our technical and business development vision, but will be invaluable in the realization of that vision," said Avery More, the CEO.

In connection with the venture investment, the company also announced that Jon Bayless of Sevin Rosen and Mike Hodges of ATA Ventures will join Avery More, Guy Sella and Thomas Moore on the company's board of directors.

WildBlue Secures $200M Of Shareholder Financing

October 10, 2006 Tom Moore

WildBlue announced today that it closed a secured credit facility of over $200M to fund the continued growth of its subscriber base and to facilitate the launch of the company's second satellite in the fourth quarter of 2006. The lending group includes Liberty Media, the NRTC, and TimesArrow.

"We are extremely pleased with the closing of this financing, which reiterates the commitment and confidence of our shareholders in this business, and reinvigorates our near-term expansion plans," said Dave Leonard, CEO of WildBlue.

"WildBlue has been able to fulfill its promise of reaching consumers who are not served by other broadband alternatives," said Mark Carleton, board member and Liberty shareholder representative. "Since WildBlue's launch, consumer demand for the service has been strong, and this financing demonstrates Liberty's continued commitment to help WildBlue meet that demand into the future."

WaveBender Files Initial Patent App

May 24, 2006 Tom Moore

WaveBender announced today the filing of its first comprehensive patent portfolio for innovation in the fundamental physics of radio frequency antenna reception as it applies to next generation flat panels. Unlike traditional flat antenna systems based on active electronics, the patent pending Dedi Element and the associated Ded Array relies solely on passive geometry to yield high efficiency structures that are not only low cost and easy to manufacture, but support antennas with unprecedented performance benefits.

"I have always wanted to develop flat panel antenna technology that is based on simple, fundamental elements in nature - metal and air. This patent pending break through is so simple and yet it yields unprecedented benefits in efficiency, wideband application, multi-beam forming capability, and low cost manufacturing for flat panel antennas", said Dedi Haziza the company's founder and CTO.

WaveBender is an early stage, venture backed company, founded to pursue the development of next generation flat panel antenna innovation, The company was established in 2006 and backed by Seven Rosen Funds, TimesArrow Capital, ATA Ventures and ORR Partners.

Congrats to Dedi and the entire team on this incredible milestone! Keep up the great work.

WildBlue Appoints David Leonard As CEO

August 23, 2005 Tom Moore

WildBlue announced today my decision to step out of the CEO role and the incredible addition of David Leonard to that post starting September 1, 2005. Although a tough decision for me, my contributions have always been in formulating ambitious dreams and starting things from scratch and WildBlue now needs a world-class operating talent to drive the company to the next level of success. Dave has those incredible talents and I am really looking forward to seeing what he is able to accomplish. Dave brings almost three decades of experience in media and telecommunications to WildBlue. Most recently, he has been working with Liberty Global overseeing operations in Argentina, Chile and Puerto Rico and prior to that he was the CEO and founder at VeloCom, Inc., which established the largest competitive local exchange carrier in Latin America. He has extensive corporate leadership and board experience with entities including VTR (Chile), Cablevision (Argentina), Metrocall Wireless (USA), United International Holdings, Kabelvision (Sweden), and United Cable of Colorado. He was also named the Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2000. Dave will add a brand new dimension of management expertise to WildBlue and also brings great relationships with our largest shareholders. I couldn't be happier to have him join the team.

I plan to stay actively engaged on the board and as an owner and also participate on strategic initiatives where I can help. This will also give me the opportunity to spend more time on my activities at TimesArrow which is really important to me. All in all, good for me, good for the shareholders and Dave and great for the company!

WildBlue's First Customer

June 3, 2005 Tom Moore

Big day in the WildBlue world today! We installed our first customer, David and Theresa Tuttle of Strasburg, Colorado marking the start of nationwide availability of the WildBlue service. The Tuttle’s live over two miles from their nearest neighbor and had only dialup prior to the WildBlue installation. “This is going to be so awesome,” exclaimed Thersa. “We are so excited. We have tumbleweeds and dirt, no Kmart or big grocery store, and I have no complaints as far as that goes. But with the digital world and where we’re headed, getting on the Internet just isn’t fast enough.” The Tuttles own and operate a professional photography business and should benefit greatly from the higher speeds.

“Rural areas though out this country now have an affordable option to receive reliable high-speed broadband Internet access,” said United States Congressman Mark Udall in support of the new WildBlue service. “The benefits the Internet has provided are invaluable. However, access to this technology has created a divide between haves and have-nots in our country. I am excited at the new opportunities being presented to rural communities by WildBlue and I support them as they begin to provide this service though out the state and the nation.”

Advisory Board - CU Graduate Telecom Program

March 8, 2005 Tom Moore

I was asked to join the Advisory Board for the CU Graduate Telecom program and am happy to be a part of such a great group. ITP was the first program of its kind, and it continues to lead. ITP is a highly integrated and comprehensive program combining technology, policy and business. As the longest running telecom program, ITP has well over 3000 graduates in companies from eBay to Google to Yahoo, from Brocade to Cisco to Comcast, and start-ups, as well as the leading government agencies of many countries.

CU-Boulder is a tier 1 research university and the College of Engineering and Applied Science is ranked among the top 40 engineering graduate schools in the nation. The Interdisciplinary Telecom Program offers a wide selection of study in the most important and emerging fields of networking, security, wireless communications and telecom policy.

The board of ITP includes many professionals with whom I am pleased to be working, including Kenneth Fellman (partner, Kissinger & Fellman, PC); Ilse Gayl (Chaiman, OneRain, Inc); Richard Green (former CEO, CableLabs); Dale Hatfield (Senior Fellow, Silicon Flatirons Center); Steve Mace (Senior Director, Systems Technology, National Cable & Telecommunications Association); Roger B. Marks (Consultant, Consensii, LLC); Terry Mayes (Director, Academic Programs and Assessment, College of Engineering and Applied Science CU-Boulder); Robert F. McKenzie (Director, Crown Castle International); Boli Medappa (Managing Director, Hermes Consulting Group); and Pieter Poll (Sr Vice President, Network Services, CenturyLink).

Tom's Thoughts

Included here are a collection of my random thoughts - things that interest me, an incomplete archive of important events for TimesArrow, our investments, or companies we are associated with, pointers to accomplishments of colleagues or people that are interesting or just things that seem important at the time. It is not intended as a political or social commentary and hopefully will not insult or irritate. Please let us know if you find things that are inaccurate, incomplete or infuriating or on the chance you find some of the content compelling please feel free to share.