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Bullpen Capital

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Bullpen Capital A new early-stage fund has formed to make follow-on investments in the slew of companies that have recently raised seed and angel funds.

Bullpen Capital is an early-stage venture fund being formed to make follow-on investments in Internet technology companies that have been initially funded by super-angel capital efficient funds. Extending the capital efficient model beyond the seed stage keeps options open for the founders and investors.

The rise of the super-angels is a capital market response to a new technology trend: the rise of the lean venture, typically an Internet service deploying fast-to-market technology which enables rapid market validation before large capital requirements. The super-angels are emerging as a natural response to a decades long over-sizing of venture firms, built more to fund the semiconductor factories of the past than Internet firms of today.

Bullpen works with its super-angel partners to:

• Extend a seed round to give a start-up more time to prove itself
• Fund a company requiring more early money than the usual seed deal
• Restart a company that is a “fallen angel” but still has great promise
• Fund a “rising star” needing a small B round it before it goes to VC auction

The lean model does not depend on the lightning strike of finding the rocket-ship that is immediately successful after its seed round. Almost every rocket-ship has a rocky start, requiring post-seed nurturing before ascending. This usually entails one or more “pivots”, in which a company’s basic direction must be changed to find its market. These changes are wrenching, and require additional capital before proof points are met. Bullpen’s major role is to lead post-seed stage rounds that support these pivots.

Milestones

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  Bullpen Capital invested in echoecho . (5/7/12)
  Posted 5/7/12 at 8:16pm via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in DoubleDutch. (4/23/12)
  Posted 4/23/12 at 6:35am via dowjones.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Lifecrowd. (4/19/12)
  Posted 4/19/12 at 5:05am via venturebeat.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Appboy. (3/26/12)
  Posted 3/26/12 at 1:39pm via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Tello. (2/28/12)
  Posted 2/28/12 at 10:27pm via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Engagio. (2/15/12)
  Posted 2/15/12 at 8:22pm via venturebeat.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Life360. (9/1/11)
  Posted 12/13/11 at 6:38pm via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Appboy. (11/23/11)
  Posted 11/14/11 at 10:09am via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in chart.io. (10/31/11)
  Posted 10/31/11 at 5:41pm via thealarmclock.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in PixelFish. (7/21/11)
  Posted 7/21/11 at 5:27pm via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Ness Computing. (7/19/11)
  Posted 7/19/11 at 9:08pm via techcrunch.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Proformative. (5/10/11)
  Posted 5/10/11 at 6:26pm via prweb.com
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  Bullpen Capital invested in Desk. (1/4/11)
  Posted 1/4/11 at 11:47am via techcrunch.com
• 
  Bullpen Capital — Bullpen Capital Targets $50M To Back Up Seeded Start-Ups (12/27/10)
  Posted 12/26/10 at 9:45pm via dowjones.com

Investments

Videos

Sources

Bullpen Capital Targets $50M To Back Up Seeded Start-Ups (fis.dowjones.com) [edit]
1. Google Ventures-Backed Location-Sharing Service EchoEcho Raises $750k From Bullpen, PROfounders (techcrunch.com) [edit]
2. DoubleDutch Secures $2M To Sell Geolocation To Businesses (pevc.dowjones.com) [edit]
3. Social events marketplace Lifecrowd raises $5M from Lightbank, Bullpen, others (venturebeat.com) [edit]
4. With Another $1.5M, Appboy Launches App Management Platform, Hootsuite CEO Joins Board (techcrunch.com) [edit]
5. Tello Raises $2.7M From True Ventures To Give Businesses Consumer Feedback On The Fly (techcrunch.com) [edit]
6. Engagio goes from the comment section to a $540K seed investment (venturebeat.com) [edit]
7. AppBoy Raises A Cool Million To Let App Developers Better Engage And Understand Their User Base (techcrunch.com) [edit]
8. Dashboard Creation's Chart.io Raises $3.15M (thealarmclock.com) [edit]
9. Life360′s Family Safety App Grabs $3.5 Million Series A (techcrunch.com) [edit]
10. PixelFish Raises $4 Million To Help Small Businesses Tap Into Web Video (techcrunch.com) [edit]
11. With $5 Million In Their Pockets, Ness Has Quietly Built A Subjective Search Engine (techcrunch.com) [edit]
12. Proformative Announces $1.1M in Series A Funding (prweb.com) [edit]
13. techcrunch.com [edit]