I wrote a post earlier today about Matt Blumberg. This afternoon, I was thinking about Jim Lejeal, another great entrepreneurs (and blogger) that I get to work with.
Jim is the founder and CEO of Oxlo Systems (we are investors.) Jim was previously the co-founder and COO of Raindance Communication (again, we were investors – see a pattern?) We’ve worked together on various things since 1997 – Jim’s continued persistence was one of the reasons I invested in Dante Group (which was then acquired by webMethods for a nice 3.5x return in six months in 2003 – not a home run – but a nice venture deal – especially after the dry spell that was 2001 – 2002.)
Jim had a busy spring. On May 31, he announced that Oxlo had closed a $5 million financing consisting of us, Appian Ventures, and Waypoint Ventures. This loads up their gas tank nicely through the end of 2006. Jim wrote a couple of posts on the financing process – including Fundraising…, Expectations and the First Chicago Method, Not everyone calculates an IRR, Well I did it again (a priceless story), and Everything-Assured Capital. If you are raising VC money – or thinking about it – run, don’t walk your mouse – to read these posts. Now that the financing process is over, I hope Jim will write more about it.
While it’s easy to fall into the trap of “stopping everything else” when you are fundraising, Jim knows that’s an ineffective way to run a young company. Oxlo continues to make steady progress with two major announcements in May – an exclusive partnership with BIGFNI and an integration relationship with RouteOne’s Credit Application Management System. If you know anything about the auto industry, you know these are two big dominos that Oxlo needed to get to fall – and they have. Well done Jim and team.