Fatdoor Hires Yahoo! Veteran Jennifer Dulski as CEO and Secures $5.5 Million in Funding Led by Norwest Venture Partners

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fatdoor™ (www.Fatdoor.com), a neighborhood community platform, today announced the addition of Yahoo! veteran, Jennifer Dulski, to its team. The company also announced that it has secured $5.5 million from an investment group led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and also including KeyNote Ventures. Fatdoor will use this first institutional round of funding to expand its market presence, scale its infrastructure and further build out the company’s innovative, community offerings.

“Fatdoor is solving a problem by giving people online tools to help them connect in the real world,” said Sergio Monsalve, Principal at Norwest Venture Partners. “No one has cracked the code in the local market arena, and we believe Fatdoor has the seasoned team, technical expertise and proven ability to engage consumers and be the leaders in this area.”

As part of the investment, Sergio Monsalve will join Fatdoor’s board of directors. Monsalve joins an experienced team of board members including technology veterans Bill Harris, former CEO of Paypal and Intuit, and seasoned investor Jeff Drazan; Fatdoor’s advisory board also includes such leaders as Rajeev Motwani, Google investor and CS Professor at Stanford University.

“Building online local communities that scale is an extremely difficult problem to solve, but the market opportunity is immense and consumers are craving a solution that will make this vision a reality. I’m thrilled to be joining Fatdoor at this time because the company has the right team, scaleable technology and go-to-market strategy in place to shift the current local market landscape,” said Dulski, CEO of Fatdoor. “Securing funding from leading investors such as NVP and KeyNote Ventures is a testament to the confidence they have in Fatdoors’s technology, team and vision.”

Fatdoor began testing its service through an alpha site open in Silicon Valley, CA earlier this year. It will continue that alpha with existing users and incorporate the feedback and recommendations it gathers for the public launch, which is planned for spring of 2008.

Expert in Online Communities Joins Team

“Jennifer has extensive experience and a proven track record in running business divisions that pertain to Fatdoor. Namely, her most recent position as Head of Yahoo! Local Markets and Commerce, makes her the prime choice for the CEO position at our company,” said Chandu Thota, founder and CTO of Fatdoor. “Jennifer’s expertise in growing local online markets will be invaluable to Fatdoor. With Jennifer on the team, we will continue to enhance our platform to bring a greater sense of local community online.”

One of the pioneers at Yahoo!, Dulski has held a variety of roles during the past nine years, including group vice president and general manager (VP/GM) of Local Markets and Commerce; VP/GM of Yahoo! Autos and VP of Business Unit Marketing. As Group VP/GM of Yahoo! Local Markets and Commerce, Dulski was responsible for the strategy, operations and P&L for Yahoo! Local &Maps, Shopping, Travel, Autos and Real Estate. Under Dulski’s leadership, all of those businesses became #1 or #2 in their category for the first time in Yahoo!’s history (ComScore 9/07). Previously, Dulski served as Vice President of Business Unit Marketing, leading Yahoo!’s marketing strategy for portfolio of businesses including Search, Local, Shopping, Personals, Sports, News, Entertainment, Music, Groups, My Yahoo! and Small Business.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Dulski was the founder and executive director of Summerbridge Pittsburgh, an academic program for at-risk students. Dulski graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University. She also holds an M.B.A. from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

About Fatdoor

Fatdoor is a neighborhood community platform that will launch publicly in the spring of 2008. The company is a privately held and funded by Norwest Venture Partners as well as prominent individual investors. The company was founded in February of 2007 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA. Co-founder and CTO Chandu Thota previously worked at Microsoft where he was a central figure in building the Microsoft Virtual Earth online mapping platform and Live Search Maps; he has also authored several books including the leading text on Virtual Earth and online mapping technology from O'Reilly Publishers.

About Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 45 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: consumer Internet and media, software, services, enterprise and communications systems, and semiconductor/components. The firm currently manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo Alto, California.

NVP has funded over 400 companies since inception. Some of the firm’s recent investments and transactions include Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), deCarta, mBlox, Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), TURN, and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). For more information, please visit www.nvp.com.

About KeyNote Ventures

KeyNote Ventures (KNV) is an early-stage venture capital firm located in Menlo Park, California. KNV's general partners have helped entrepreneurs create leading companies for many years. KNV primarily invests in young companies that serve large markets, in sectors where the partners have significant relationships and expertise. The firm’s areas of investment include: software, infrastructure, consumer Internet and media, mobility, and semiconductor/components.

Some of the firm’s recent investments and transactions include BroadWare (acquired by Cisco), F-Origin, Loadstar Sensors, Platial, Precoad, Spatial Wireless (acquired by Alcatel), Valere Power (acquired by Eltek Energy) and Webify (acquired by IBM). KNV's general partners have also funded such market leaders as BrightMail, Brocade Communications, CDS, Cybermedia, MediaVision, and Tasmania Networks. For more information, please visit www.keynoteventures.com.

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