Venture Capital: Straitshot took roundabout way to its first financing

Straitshot Communications was formed amid the telecommunications meltdown by two entrepreneurs in their mid-20s who had never run a company before.

Working out of a spare bedroom in Bellevue, Marc Coluccio and Jeff Hautala knew their chances of raising venture capital were slim. After all, it was late 2002, and venture capitalists were still suffering from the dot-com hangover.

"They were deciding which companies to close down, as opposed to funding new ventures," said Hautala, the 29-year-old co-founder of Straitshot. "It just wasn’t conducive."

So instead of knocking on the doors of venture capital firms, the entrepreneurs engaged a boutique investment bank, wrote a private placement memorandum, hired some experienced executives and started looking for angel investors to back their next-generation communications network.

By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

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