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WASHINGTON AREA GETS TECHNOLOGY
BOOST WITH NEW VENTURE GROUP

Venturehouse to Invest in & Build Technology Companies, Based in Downtown Washington and Northern Virginia

WASHINGTON, DC (November 18, 1999) -- A new company to be based in the booming greater Washington, D.C. entrepreneurial community will create, invest in and help build technology start-ups was announced today. The company, Venturehouse Group (www.venturehousegroup.com), will be headed by Mark Ein, formerly of The Carlyle Group, includes an initial group of investors including local technology entrepreneurs Jeong Kim, Alex Mandl and Raj Singh. The firm will have an initial investment pool of at least $50 million.

Ein said the new company, with offices in downtown Washington and Northern Virginia, would not only provide early stage financing to young private companies, but also would serve as business partners, offering strategic guidance, infrastructure support and facilitate other professional services including legal, accounting, recruiting and marketing.

Ein said the initial focus of Venturehouse will be on business-to-business Internet-based companies and other Internet companies that leverage broadband and wireless telecommunications networks creating new business models or improve old ones. Venturehouse will also invest in and/or acquire strategic IT and telecom services companies.

"Venturehouse is a company whose mission is to build highly successful entrepreneurial businesses," Ein said. "We’re going to bring more than just money to start-up companies. We’re going to work very closely with a small group of entrepreneurs and offer a complete support system designed to maximize young companies’ chances for success. Our management team, advisors and investors represent an extensive worldwide network of high-level corporate contacts that we’ll utilize to its fullest to the benefit of our partner companies."

Ein was previously with DC-based Carlyle Group for seven years where he had responsibility for many of its telecommunications investment activities including: LCC International (NASDAQ: LCCI), Telcom Ventures (a founding shareholder of Teligent (NASDAQ: TGNT)), several companies that were merged into Nextel, a company that was merged into American Tower Corp. (NYSE: ATC) and Prime Cable (which acquired cable systems in the Washington DC and Chicago markets from SBC and later formed a strategic relationship with Comcast). Several of these were very early stage investments in companies that became, or became part of, companies with greater than billion dollar market values. As a personal angel investor, he has invested in numerous successful early-stage technology companies including: Aether Systems (NASDAQ: AETH), which recently experienced a highly successful IPO, cha! Technologies (which was recently merged into CMGI), and Musicmaker.com (NASDAQ: HITS).

Ein said Venturehouse has already made investments in two early-stage business-to-business Internet companies with a third pending as well as two later-stage companies — XM Satellite Radio, which has already gone public (NASDAQ: XMSR), and VarsityBooks.com (which has filed to go public).

Venturehouse’s Advisory Board will include prominent local entrepreneurs including: Jeong Kim, founder of Yurie Systems and now President of Broadband Carrier Networks at Lucent Technologies; Alex Mandl, Chairman and CEO of Teligent; and Dr. Raj Singh, CEO of Telcom Ventures, LLC, a leading telecommunications investment holding company. Other Venturehouse investors include: Nobel Prize winner and former head of Bell Labs Research, Arno Penzias; Toucan Capital founders, Linda Powers and AES co-founder Bob Hemphill; and President of Allbritton Communications, Robert Allbritton.

Building on the explosive growth of technology business in the greater Washington area, Ein — a Washington, DC native — will locate Venturehouse offices in a building in downtown Washington, where physical space and infrastructure support will be provided for Venturehouse-sponsored companies. Offices will also be maintained in Tyson’s Corner, VA.

"We’re big believers in the emergence of greater Washington as a national technology powerhouse, especially for Internet-based companies," Ein said. "With world-class companies like AOL, MCI, Nextel, UUNet and others built right here in our backyard, this region is poised to be one of the most fertile areas of entrepreneurial activity in the country in the coming years."

Prior to joining the Carlyle Group, Ein was an Associate at Goldman Sachs and at Brentwood Associates, a leading west coast venture capital firm. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He presently serves on the Board of Directors of Aether Systems and LCC International as well as several private technology companies. Born and raised in the Washington area, Ein attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

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