TECH TALK — Eteamz Scores Big by Hiring Past Adidas Chief as CEO

0

Eteamz, a locally based site geared toward amateur and children’s sports, has hit one out of the ballpark by recruiting as its new chairman and CEO a former president and CEO of Adidas America.

Steve Wynne will officially start in his new position this week, though he has been involved with the company on an advisory basis for several weeks.

Wynne grew revenues at Adidas from $400 million when he started in 1995 to $1.7 billion when he left earlier this year. He left the company with no plans except to take several months of rest and spend time organizing his personal affairs, doing things with his family and getting in shape.

Eteamz’s founders contacted Wynne about becoming the company’s CEO, and he initially declined, but did agree to advise the company. He soon changed his mind and agreed to sign on full time.

“I was really drawn to what these guys were doing,” he said. “Youth sports are particularly compelling to me because I have two teen-age daughters.”

Both Wynne’s daughters play soccer, and his younger girl plays basketball and runs track as well.

“Even though time has clearly created a proliferation of sports programs for women, one of the things I’ve seen in the evolution of girls’ sports is that schools haven’t really graduated enough women athletes yet who have their own children,” Wynne said.

As a result, it’s difficult to find mothers who have played sports and are willing to coach their daughters’ teams. Fathers are certainly candidates to be coaches, but often feel more comfortable coaching boys’ teams. All parents can benefit from eteamz, Wynne said.

“What eteamz can do is create a community where people who want to contribute can talk to people who just don’t feel they have the skill set,” he explained. “I think it’s one of those rare opportunities to build a successful business and make a contribution to something you care about at the same time.”

Because the job will involve a lot of online communication and travel, Wynne will work out of his home in Portland, Ore., for now. Eteamz founder Brian Johnson, who had been serving as CEO, will now become the company’s president.

Big Web Bet

Yet another local tech company has bucked the ailing markets and announced a major venture capital investment.

WebVision, a Torrance-based e-business infrastructure services company, was able to raise $45 million in third-round funding, bringing the company’s total equity funding raised in the last 12 months to $62 million.

Although many dot-coms have reported that the capital markets are tightening, WebVision’s experience of pulling in a major investment wasn’t akin to pulling teeth.

“It was relatively easy,” said Craig Froelich, director of marketing and product management for WebVision. “(The investors) believe, as we believe, that this is where the Internet is going: toward a single point of responsibility. They recognized that and they decided to move forward, and it all happened without too much of a hassle.”

WebVision has developed software to help clients sell, auction, buy, hire and conduct other business transactions online. The software also deploys clients’ systems onto the Internet, and manages and maintains the systems once they are on the Web.

Freeman Spogli & Co., a private L.A.-based venture firm, put up an $18.4 million investment, and Goldman Sachs & Co. contributed $7.5 million. Venture capital firms TL Ventures and SCP Private Equity Partners, two firms that invested in WebVision’s second round of funding, invested about $5 million each in this third round. The remainder of the investment came from private funds or investors.

Survey Says

It’s no secret Angelenos love to shop, both online and off.

Now a new study has revealed that dot-coms looking to target potential online shoppers in L.A. could reach their target audience by advertising on cable television.

The study, conducted by research firm Greenfield On-line in conjunction with Adlink, showed an extremely high correlation between watching cable television and having high-speed Internet access, using the Internet for more hours than non-cable watchers, and regularly visiting shopping and auction sites. The correlation was far stronger in Los Angeles than it is nationally, the study showed.

Among some of the more surprising findings, Angelenos with cable television are 26 percent more likely to watch the SciFi Network than the average national cable viewer.

They’re also 67 percent more likely than the national cable viewer to purchase investment products online, 39 percent more likely to make travel purchases online, and 27 percent more likely to purchase food online. While shopping and auction sites were the No. 1 category visited by L.A. Internet users, real estate Web sites were the most popular nationally.

Staff reporter Laura Dunphy can be reached at [email protected].


Site of the Week

— www.novica.com

It’s not unusual to see Ping Pong tables or funky warehouse-style office walls splashed with bright colors at your average tech company. But even some of these shiny new offices can feel sterile and unwelcoming.

For those seeking to add some international or cultural flair to their office space, locally based Novica.com sells handmade crafts from around the globe.

Shoppers can buy masks from Bali and Java for less than $17, intricate jars and vases from Central America for about $30 each, and paintings from West African artists in the several-hundred-dollar range. Craftspeople set the prices for their goods, according to the site.

Several artists and artisans are featured in profiles adjoining their various works of art, so users can learn about each profiled artist, their backgrounds and their influences. Click on a profile of the sandstone carvers of Blahbatuh in Bali, and learn that unlike most crafts produced in Bali, sandstone sculptures are typically not exported for sale. Next to the short profile, a statue of Hanoman, which Bali residents often use to guard their homes from evil spirits, is available for $46.74.

No posts to display