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Central Ohio Columbus Ohio Venture Capital Firm
• First Quarter 2009
• Second Quarter 2009
• Third Quarter 2009
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First Quarter 2009
| Ohio Department of Development Awards $1.5 Million Grant to NCT Ventures |
| This past quarter, NCT was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development's "Pre-Seed Fund Initiative" as a part of the Third Frontier Project. This is in addition to a $2 million grant that was awarded in 2006 which NCT used to successfully create new jobs and spark economic growth in Ohio. |
| "This grant will be a part of the NCT Fund helping mitigate some of the risk for our limited partners and allowing us to enhance returns on early-stage investments." ~ Rich Langdale, Founder of NCT Ventures |
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| Jeff Bell Joins NCT Board of Advisors |
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For 20 years, Jeff Bell has been growing and turning around businesses in Corporate America. Most recently, as Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business, Jeff was responsible for leading Xbox to its first profitable year, and launching the Games for Windows business. On the creative front, Jeff's team has produced the launch campaigns for Gears of War, Halo 3, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Scene it! And Grand Theft auto IV, and implemented the first global and vertically integrated Xbox marketing campaign. |
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Before Microsoft, Jeff was largely credited with helping revitalize the Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler businesses, returning them to profitability in a significant turnaround from 2000-2006 with the Dodge Ram, Jeep 4-door Wrangler and the Chrysler 300 product launches. Jeff's efforts around social media, web, direct marketing and video games led to Jeff being named Interactive Marketer of the Year in 2005 by Advertising Age. |
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| Spotlight: Embrace Pet Insurance |
 Embrace Pet Insurance is a portfolio company delivering customized pet insurance policies to "pet parents" across the country. The idea of pet insurance is relatively new to the 71 million pet owners in the United States. Less than 3% of all U.S. pet owners have pet insurance. However, in the UK, there are 30 million pet owners and 23% of them have pet insurance! Why such a difference? We believe there is an overall lack of awareness of the benefits of pet insurance here in the U.S. because it is still such a new idea. The first policy wasn't sold in the U.S. until 1987. The first policy in the UK was sold in 1947. In the coming years, the pet insurance industry in the U.S. will continue rapid growth and we believe we have chosen the best pet insurance company with which to tap into this potential. |
| Embrace Pet Insurance is rated over 9 out of 10 in customer satisfaction by customers on petinsurancereview.com. This places Embrace in the top 3 of all U.S. pet insurance companies in terms of customer satisfaction. This dedication to superior customer service along with their company culture of truly embracing their customers and pets will help propel Embrace forward in 2009 and beyond. |
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| Portfolio Company Snapshots |
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DOmedia—Andrew Masinne appointed as DOmedia CEO. |
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As DOmedia prepare to launch their transaction-based revenue model, they already has over $400 million in soft commitments to use the online media buying tool. |
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QStart Labs—Qstart was profitable in its inaugural year of 2008 and has visibility to many new key clients for the latter part of 2009. |
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Embrace Pet Insurance—Embrace is in the process of launching a new website with a remarkably improved quoting/transaction interface. The new site will dramatically increase conversions and boost online sales in the second half of 2009. |
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ClearSaleing—ClearSaling was cash flow positive for the first time in Q4 2008. They are now on a clear path to profitability for 2009. |
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GotCast.com—GotCast.com surpassed the 100,000 registered users mark! They are now the 63,700th most visited website in the World! |
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In addition, they are in negotiations with several studios for exclusive casting partnerships that would greatly improve their revenue trajectories. |
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| What’s Happening in Columbus |
Challenge yourself!
If you've been looking for motivation to get in shape, sign-up for the Capital City Half Marathon!
Date: May 2, 2009 @ 9:00AM |
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Catch a game!
Be one of the first to see a Columbus Clippers game in the newly constructed Huntington Stadium.
Date: April 28, 2009 @ 4:05PM vs. Toledo Mudhens |
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