Our History
Nobska Ventures was formed in 2005 by the partners of Nobska Group, a strategy consulting and merchant banking firm, which has served early stage and middle market clients since 1998. Our first fund, Nobska Venture Partners I, L.P., was launched in April 2005 and made its first investment in May 2005.
Nobska Group was founded in 1998 by Laura Moore, Michael Ward and Charlie Moore . The founders brought complementary skills and experience as well as long-standing personal relationships. Ms. Moore and Mr. Moore were classmates at Dartmouth College , married in 1980 and have worked together since 1989. Mr. Moore and Mr. Ward had been high school classmates and teammates at Gilman School '76 and competitors on the college lacrosse fields of Dartmouth and Harvard, respectively. The founders' backgrounds each combined a mix of corporate strategy, finance, and entrepreneurship, with highly diverse industry exposure and extensive networks of relationships. Their prior employers included Bain & Company, CSC Index, and Alex. Brown, as well as start-up and early stage companies, (see Our Team).
During Nobska's initial years, the firm attracted engagements with a variety of early stage, middle market, and larger companies. Our consulting work with early stage companies involved business model design, strategic partnering, business development, sales and marketing counsel, and advisory services related to venture and private equity financing.
We assisted in the raising of more than $40mm of early stage venture and management buyout capital for several clients and advised on consummated transactions totaling more than $150mm. Clients included business process outsourcing, enterprise software, pharmaceutical, health care, wireless communications, and IT security service and technology companies.
One of Nobska's earliest strategy assignments was with Icing Software, an $850mm 'intrapreneurial' division of IBM created and managed by Mike Beasley. Icing focuses on creating value with software assets and opportunities considered too small or "non-core" by IBM. For instance, Mr. Beasley identified an untapped opportunity to develop database tools, an area IBM had considered uninteresting. Utilizing development resources external to IBM, and initial capital of just $500,000, Mr. Beasley and his team built a $200mm+ business with highly attractive net margins. Mr. Beasley is currently Chairman of the Board of Rocket Software, a rapidly growing $75mm + software company. As a Venture Partner of Nobska Ventures, Mr. Beasley assists with the selection, development and harvesting of the Fund's portfolio companies, particularly those involved with building information and/or communication software businesses serving enterprise markets.
Frank Baitman and Rob Rosenbaum joined Nobska Group in 2002 and 2003 respectively, strengthening the firm's expertise in information and communication technologies and leading to greater focus on creating and building companies in these areas.
Mr. Baitman's background in technology commercialization and, in particular, his exposure gained as a Director of Strategy at IBM and earlier as head of marketing for IBM Research worldwide has been instrumental to Nobska's identification and analysis of emerging companies and technologies. His involvement and ongoing efforts with the Institute for the Future, a non-profit "think tank" serving Fortune 100 clients with analysis of technology trends with 5, 10, and 15-year horizons, promises to keep Nobska Venture's perspective ahead of the curve on emerging technologies and provides access to technology thought leaders and senior business executives worldwide.
Mr. Rosenbaum's operations experience, utilizing technology to enable and manage core business processes, has demonstrated results in reduced time to market and increased profit margins. This operational focus, combined with Mr. Rosenbaum's experience marketing and selling information technology products and services, has broadened Nobska's core strengths. His "user's" perspective has proven to be valuable to the identification and assessment of possible investment opportunities.
Dr. Ari Tuchman joined Nobska Ventures in early 2005, bringing a parallel set of experiences working with entrepreneurs and technology businesses in the Mid-Atlantic. Since 1998, Dr. Tuchman has served as Managing Partner of TechnoVentures, LLC, where he has provided technical, business and management consulting services to seed and start-up companies in the electronics, photonics, biotech and information technology sectors. A seasoned technologist, entrepreneur and veteran corporate executive, Dr. Tuchman has 15+ years experience in cutting edge research and development of advanced photonic and electronic materials, devices and EO systems, and 10+ years experience managing in-house and outsourced technology development, in industrial, government and academic settings. In addition to his experience growing and developing early stage companies, Dr. Tuchman brings to Nobska Ventures a strong technical perspective and deep understanding of technology development.
For the past few years, Nobska Group has invested consulting time and small sums of partner capital into a select number of start-up clients, with substantial success to date. During 2004, we committed to an evolution from our business as a consulting and merchant banking firm to raising our first venture fund, Nobska Venture Partners I, L.P., closing on initial capital in April 2005. The fund is focused on seed and early stage companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Nobska Ventures made its first fund investment in May 2005, into Network Security Consulting (NSC), based in Columbia , MD. We expect to make several additional investments from our current pipeline, and we are actively seeking additional opportunities. (See For Entrepreneurs)