Our Philosophy

The firm seeks strong entrepreneurial teams; innovative concepts with market-disruptive opportunities; and models that take advantage of cutting-edge technologies. Second Avenue also brings a new attitude towards investing which includes a mentoring relationship with portfolio companies. Second Avenue Partners has funded companies such as Housevalues (NASDAQ: SOLD, now known as Market Leader); In Situ; Azaleos; Ice Energy, Qliance; Fantasy Moguls; Newsvine; Coolspotters; Realself; and Rubicon. Second Avenue Partners was formed in February of 2000. The company is led by its founding partners: Nick Hanauer, Pete Higgins and Mike Slade. Our fourth founder, Keith Grinstein, sadly passed away on September 28, 2008. Keith was instrumental in bringing the four of us together, an integral part of our partnership, a dear friend, and constantsource of laughter. The office is quieter and we miss him. Many local journalists and friends took a moment to reflect on the many positive contributions Keith made on this community.

In remembrance of Keith Grinstein

To submit a business plan, contact plans@secondave.com

Portfolio

CoolSpotters

CoolSpotters was founded in 2007 by veterans of leading media, technology, and consumer products companies and is headquartered in Collinsville, Connecticut. They’re a privately-held new media development company committed to building products that uniquely entertainand engage.

Celebrated Chefs

Celebrated Chefs is an exciting program designed to raise money for non-profit organizations all year long. Through this innovative program you can lend valuable support to important causes by dining at participating restaurants. HOW IT WORKS: Once enrolled, Celebrated Chefs restaurants donate 5% of your dining bill to your designated cause. No special cards or identification is required. You simply pay your bill with the AMEX, VISA or MasterCard you enroll as part of your membership and the 5% donation from the restaurant is automatic!

GotVoice

GotVoice provides the only voice messaging service that works effortlessly with home, mobile and work phone systems to send, receive, and create voice messages from any computer or handset. Unlike services that require a new number or call forwarding, GotVoice does not require a change in consumer behavior. The service works with nearly all major mobile and home phone carriers to make voice messaging accessible whether a user is at home, work or traveling. GotVoice eliminates cumbersome phone interfaces and frees users do more with voicemail than they ever thought possible. The service does not replace or compete with current voice messaging offerings; instead, it enhances these systems by enabling consumers to access and create all voicemail messages in one location.

QLiance

Qliance’ unique approach to providing primary care has grown out of frustration with an unmanageable, expensive insurance system and a desire to put good, affordable, personalized primary healthcare back in the hands of patients and doctors. Qliance Medical Group co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Garrison Bliss has been working with patients in this way since 1997. He co-founded Seattle Medical Associates, a highly respected medical practice that was the second primary care practice in the country to convert to a direct, monthly care fee model.

Fantasy Moguls

Leveraging the network of connections and relationships between people, the Fantasy Moguls applications pioneer a radical new distribution model for social and fantasy gaming. Fantasy application deployment integrated into social networks. Product launches in 2007 include direct-to-consumer sports- and entertainment-based fantasy and predictive games as well as high-profile partner launches.

Modumetal

Modumetal™ is a revolutionary nanolaminated alloy that is stronger and lighter than steel and will replace conventional metals and composites in many applications, starting with military armor, and eventually in cars, planes, buildings, and other transportation and construction sectors.

RealSelf

RealSelf.com is an independent health and beauty community for consumers to engage in an authentic conversation about personal beauty, skin care, and wellness. RealSelf.com connects consumers who aspire to look and feel their best, and want honest answers and opinions to inform their research. Our goal is to provide a safe place for consumers to get the opinion of peers and professionals about what products, treatments or procedures are worth it.

Rubicon Interactive

Through innovative technology, Bellevue, WA based Rubicon Interactive delivers comprehensive internet based marketing programs. Rubicon’s first product PACE, which stands for Parents and Community Businesses for Education, moves market share to participating businesses--while at the same time raises thousands of dollars for local schools. The program offers the opportunity for restaurant and retail partners to communicate directly to their customers, through a cost effective promotion that integrates seamlessly with their business.

Sports Technologies Inc. ( Acquired by Sports Illustrated in 2007)

Founded in 2006 by a small team of former ESPN.com employees and other Internet veterans, their mission is to create the world’s largest fantasy sports community and a place where all sports fans can trade opinions and gather information. A web destination that aggregates, filters, and customizes all the relevant player and team content available at any time on the Internet. Instead of searching endlessly for the sports news you want FanNation.com finds it for you and delivers it to one place. You get the news faster and fantasy Fans gain a distinct advantage.

Ice Energy

Ice Energy owns a proprietary technology and a field tested product that unleashes the off-peak potential of our nation's electrical grid. Acute constraints in the grid are caused by our demand for air conditioned comfort. Ice Energy manufactures an efficient, affordable, off-the-shelf Distributed Energy Storage module that directly offsets the single largest contributor to summer on-peak demand --air conditioning.

Inkd

Inkd was founded in September 2008 by Kelly Smith (Curious Office) and Second Avenue Partners. Inkd is the world's first user-generated marketplace to buy and sell professional graphic designs for business. Designers upload brochures, note-cards, business cards, letterhead and more while businesses can download and customize high quality creative for thousands less than developing a design concept from scratch. The files are fully editable as if you created them from scratch. Inkd's goal is to enable designers to reach more business customers and to enable businesses to access better creative for less money and in a shorter period of time.

Azaleos

Azaleos is an Issaquah, WA based messaging company working in stealth mode. Azaleos will deliver solutions that make messaging simple. More information about Azaleos will be available sometime in the 2nd quarter of 2005 at the company’s website located at http://www.azaleos.net.

Insitu Group

The Insitu Group is a pioneer developer of long-range unmanned aircraft. Dr. Tad McGeer founded Insitu in 1992 to develop the Aerosonde miniature aircraft for offshore weather reconnaissance. Insitu led the engineering effort from initial concept through, by mid-1999, about 1000 flight-hours of field trials around the world.

Market Leader (Formerly known as HouseValues.com)

Market Leader is the Web’s leading destination for finding the value of homes and real estate throughout the United States. Since 1999, Market Leader has helped more than one million homeowners nationwide understand the current market value of their home.

WaveMarket

WaveMarket uses an algorithmic approach based on 10 years of MIT and Berkeley research to build performance and user experience-enhancing technology for LBS. WaveMarket's products include the following: Alert System, Dynamic Map Experience (high performance vector based map solution for mobile devices) and Location Intelligent Middleware (robust and ultra scalable geo-server specifically developed for LBS).

Terabeam

Terabeam has established the industry standard for broadband wireless products and technologies. Terabeam systems dramatically improve the performance, flexibility and cost of last-mile connectivity for telecommunications carriers and enterprises. The company offers a high-performing alternative and complement to fiber optics, lower overall costs than fiber, plus fast and seamless integration into networks.

Essention

Essention is a vertically focused application service provider (ASP) and leading supplier of Web-based property and facility management solutions. The company’s products and services are designed to improve efficiency, cut operational costs, and ultimately increase the profitability of its customers through a unique combination of Internet technologies and personalized customer service desk support. essention delivers the very best of high-tech and high-touch to property and facility management.

Submitting a Business Plan

Management, Strategy, and Capital for Early Stage Companies

We're happy to review your business plan. However, there are a few things you may want to note to insure that we can give the plan adequate consideration.

Step 1:
Consider the following questions: Is your company bringing a new technology-based product or service to market?

Is your company at the "seed" or first stages (i.e. raising less than $10 Million)?

Is your company headquartered in the Pacific Northwest United States?

Will your company offer 40%-60% compound annual returns on Second Avenue Partner's' money?

Are there multiple exit strategies for your company (a company should not only be a potential candidate for IPO, but also a potential target for acquisition by other players in the industry) within a 5-7 year time frame?

Step 2:
If the answer to each of the above questions is yes, then prepare your business plan to submit to plans@secondave.com. Second Avenue Partners has no required format for business plans, but as a minimum, each plan should include: Detailed information on the background of the founders and members of the management team.

A clear description of the product or service the company is bringing to market.

A detailed breakdown of the market for the company's product. This should include current and potential market size, and descriptions of all competitors in the area (either for equivalent products or services, or those which you plan to displace with your new offering).

Financial projections for the first five years of the company's operations(or the next five years plus historical financials for companies already in business).

A clear and concise (generally less than 2 pages) executive summary that provides the basics on the team, the product, the market and the opportunity. A strong executive summary is one of the most important elements of your plan when you are raising money. Venture capital firms typically see hundreds or even thousands of plans each year, and while we at Second Avenue Partners pride ourselves on paying careful attention to each opportunity we see, a well-written plan helps us more quickly determine if there is a good fit between your company and our portfolio.

Please do not include non-disclosure agreements as part of your package, as we will not be able to sign them, and will have to return your plan unread (for a discussion of why this is the case, see our Note on NDAs). Second Avenue Partners is happy to provide feedback on business plans or guidance as you prepare your plan. If you have questions or concerns about what to include in your plan, feel free to contact the nearest office (again, see the home page for contact names and contact information for each office).

Step 3: Submit your business plan to plans@secondave.com. We will get back to you within one-two weeks of receiving your plan to let you know if we have further interest.

Thank you!

Job Opportunities

No open positions

Second Avenue Partners is not currently hiring. There are multiple ways you can submit your resume - fax, email or regular mail. However, it is generally our preference that resumes are mailed to our offices. You can get our physical mailing address here.

Otherwise, you may send your resume to humanresources@secondave.com. We review every resume and will contact you if there is a good fit for our firm or with any of our portfolio companies. Due to excessive amounts of email and telephone correspondance our office receives, we cannot respond to candidates that are not first contacted by a member of our staff.

Thank you!

For further information on Second Avenue Partners, or to submit a resume, contact humanresources@secondave.com