Capital Chaos

 Quantcast (San Francisco, CA), the media measurement company who is determined to surpass comScore, Alexa, Compete and HitWise just finalized a $20M Series B round from Founders Fund II and Polaris Ventures Partners.  The funding comes on the heels of $5.7M Series A round which was spearheaded by Founders Fund and Revolution Capital back in March, 2007. 

The goal for Quantcast is to provide an open Internet ratings system whereby advertisers can receive detailed reports of their visited that went to their websites.  They are using Akami’s EdgePlatform which is incredibly robust and has an extensive worldwide presence to mitigate any lag.  It’s a very intuitive approach that should help advertisers discern real meaning behind who is visiting what pages and the usage behind such data.  The measurement tool is what the company believes sets itself from the rest of the pack.

Quantcast co-founder and CEO, Konrad Feldman is no stranger to technology.  He was the former CEO of Sarchspace (now Fortent) and is also part of the  Intelligent Systems Laboratory at University College London.  They also have a killer “scientific advisory” board in Dr. Trevor Hastie who is Chairman and Professor, Department of Statistics at Stanford University and Jerome Friedman who is a Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Statistics and recognized as one of the world’s leading researchers in statistics and data mining.  Talk about strategic value, Konrad has tapped into serious talent to support his initiatives.

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 On the heels of just closing Founders Fund II for $220M as we reported back in December, ‘07, the guys are making quick work of putting the capital to use with their second investment into Quantcast.  These guys are the real deal in terms of truly understanding and appreciating what it means to start something from scratch.  The Founders Fund is exactly what it sounds like, founders who have money they want to put to good use in the form of a fund.  They are familiar with every stage in a company’s lifecycle from seeding, to building defensible products to increasing shareholder value through a public offering - you name it, they have seen it, done it and most importantly - been successful at it.

If you get a chance to pitch these guys, make sure you are air tight and not only have a passion about what you are doing but can articulate it in a fashion that makes sense and more importantly makes sense to others.  Your team has to be a cohesive engine that has little margin for error in terms of your dynamics - the business may need to be polished but your team should be a unit from day one.

Typical investment size ranges from $500,000-$5,000,000 and they dont just provide cash but the experience and know how to help you make your vision a reality.  If you are serious about reaching out to these guys, submit a 10 - 20 page PowerPoint presentation containing an overview of your business, including your company idea, your team, the market, the competition, and your distribution model.

submissions@foundersfund.com

These guys are up there as one of the top early stage VC’s.  If given the chance, really try and pitch Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal).

Contact:
1 Letterman Drive
Building C Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94129