We're a VC funded, Silicon Valley style company located in Portland Maine. Our founders have spent years working for some of the most successful companies in the valley and in New York. We're pushing the edge of how people think about media, broadcasting, and communication. We're already working with some of the biggest media companies in the world.
Erik, Nic, and Erik's sister Mette, around 1970, Truro MA
When he's not working in technology Erik sails across oceans singlehanded. Erik has more than 10,000 solo miles under sail, including the 2002 and 2004 singlehanded transpacific races and 3 solo transpacific passages. Infrequently you may also find Erik performing on stage in light opera, even more infrequently you may find him directing theatrical productions. Erik, his wife and their three kids live in Bath Maine where they are (slowly) restoring a 157 year old shipbuilding magnate's mansion overlooking the Kennebec River.
As partner and vice president since 1994 of Angel Networks, Nic has built database-backed Web applications for clients including the FIX and RIXML Protocol Organizations, Goldman Sachs, the AdCouncil, DuPont, Citibank, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Capital Publishing/Worth Magazine, and SEI Investments. He is an expert in requirements analysis, user-interaction design and testing, data design, rapid- prototyping development methodologies, and object-oriented programming, and is the developer and maintainer of the powerful Angel::Form and Angel::List Web-database software object classes.
Then the internet came about. Angel Networks was born as an ISP, complete with Unix, modem racks and pioneer-style virtual hosting. Mike dealt with the sourcing, care and feeding of the hardware (Nic did the telecom, thankfully) and everyone pulled a developer's oar. Once we saw NCSA Mosaic, we never looked back. We produced some of the first examples of online distrubuted CMS, online bill presentation, online financial presentation as well as tons of marketing support.
Mike and his wife Jessica (a Doctor a few times over) have two young children. They're slowly becoming equestrians again, and Mike has brought out the soldering gun again for fun.
Liza joined Foneshow as Office and Operations Manager in October 2007. She most recently served as Executive Office Manager for Mercy Health System of Maine, where she oversaw all administrative functions and the executive support staff. Prior to her work at Mercy, Liza held Operations and HR management positions in the Greater Boston area for organizations at varying stages of development including CareInsite (acquired by WebMD in 2000), OneShield, Inc. and Synta Pharmaceuticals.
Liza has combined knowledge and experience in office management, benefits administration, systems implementation, recruitment and staff development. Liza oversees Foneshow's Human Resources activity in addition to the Office and Operations function.
A native of Boston, Liza lives north of Portland with her husband and son.
Alana Post and her design skills have benefited the Muskie School of Public Service, the National Academy for State Health Policy, the Maine Film and Video Association, and the online portfolios and web-based communities of many. Her work with the latter was recognized with Maine College of Art's most prestigious grant — the Vision Award — for 2007/8. She has received additional honors from Bates College, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra (as a cellist). Alana currently attends Maine College of Art, where she is designing her own major.
In offline moments, she treasures a vintage Motobecane, a cat named Ibsen (also vintage), inadvisable quantities of books, and her passport.
Jon is doing some business development in the radio industry for us.
Jon B. Sinton has had a varied career in broadcasting, ranging from air personality in the 1970s, to investment banker in the 1990s, to founding what ultimately became Air America Radio in 2002. Mr. Sinton was a founding principal of ABS Communications, Inc. in 1984. Concurrently, Mr. Sinton was President and CEO of Jon Sinton Associates, Inc., a privately held management consulting firm specializing in broadcasting. As an offshoot of the experience gained in the financial markets with ABS, JSA added a boutique investment banking service for broadcasters that closed over $250 million in equity and debt placement in radio and television in 1993 and 1994. In late 2002, Mr. Sinton began work on what is now Air America Radio (AAR), the first ever Progressive Talk network. In March of 2004 AAR went on the air and in less than a year it had set growth records for network radio expansion by being on both satellite radio services and the Internet as well as 50 terrestrial radio stations.
Steve is doing some business development with local TV and radio for us.
With 15 years experience in broadcasting and digital media, Steve has become a frequent presenter at national seminars and conventions on the future of news and citizen media. He has been on panels and hosted talks at RTNDA@NAB, Streaming Media East, CTAM (Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing), The Citizens Media Summit at J-Lab, and the New England Press Association.
As an an expert in the digital media world, he has been interviewed by national and international media outlets including MSNBC, NBC, ABC, BBC, Irish Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe, WNYC-FM (NPR New York City) and MediaWeek.
Steve's writings and musings on digital media have been featured in Neiman Reports from The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, USC Annenberg's Online Journalism Review, The American Journalism Review, Broadcasting & Cable, Poynter Online, CBSNews.com, The Boston Globe, and several other publications, books and websites. He is a founding board member of the Media Bloggers Association and a member of the RTNDA Website & Digital Strategy Task Force.
Steve has a masters degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University College of Communications and a bachelors degree in political science from Trinity College in Hartford. He lives outside Boston with his wife, three children and a dog named "Fenway."
We've been working with Andy Jacobson Design on branding and identity issues.
CEI Community Ventures
Located in Portland, Maine, Community Ventures manages a $10M venture capital fund. Led by a team with extensive operating, investing and consulting experience, Community Ventures works actively to help you build value and realize your business aims. We connect you to critical resources using our relationships throughout Northern New England and greater Boston with banks, other equity funds, the business community and economic development agencies. Our experience, relationships and collaborative style make Community Ventures a value-added partner.
Community Ventures invests from its own fund in amounts ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. Working with partner funds, we also help coordinate and/or lead larger financings (as much as $5 million) with investors that share our outlook and criteria.
Masthead Venture Partners
Masthead is a venture capital fund investing in early-stage technology companies in the following sectors: Internet infrastructure, communications technology and IT-intensive life science applications. Masthead partners combine over 100 years of successful experience in leading and financing companies from founding through public offerings. They have the advanced technical expertise and deep industry relationships to help their venture-backed entrepenuss build companies into category-defining market leaders.
Small Enterprise Growth Fund of Maine
SEGF invests in Maine. Investments from the Fund will focus on industries that support and enhance the economic development strategy of the State. The Fund invests in a wide variety of industries, the key criteria being that the company have the potential for high growth and public benefit. Initial investments are typically between $150,000 and $350,000, leaving capital available for follow-on rounds of investment. Companies must employ 50 or fewer people or have had gross sales of $5,000,000 or less within the past 12 months in order for the Fund to make an initial investment. There is no size limitation for follow-on rounds. Companies must receive a co-investment in an amount at least equal to the amount invested by the SEGF.
Erik Schwartz - Foneshow Inc
Nic Wolff - Foneshow Inc
Mike Gurau - CEI Community Ventures
Steve Smith - Masthead Venture Partners