Emerging from the .Bomb era, Shasta Ventures is part of a new wave of investment groups determined to break away from more “set in their ways” venture firms. The founders, all successful entrepreneurs in the technology space, focused heavily on building early stage technology companies.
Their namesake is the highest peak in Northern California, and one of the largest volcanic peaks in the world. As a symbol for the firm, it has many similarities to the entrepreneurial experience – a challenging ascent and the ability to weather many storms but provide a great reward for those who experience its majesty.
The brand leverages a kind of ‘from the people for the people’ positioning with a ‘founded by entrepreneurs to help entrepreneurs’ spin.
These core brand communication points of the Shasta imagery, the partners themselves, and their portfolio companies were used create a simple and bold clarified statement of value for Shasta. Users are never more than a click away from a person or company success story, and the overall effect conveys Shasta’s focus.
The website is fully CMS-driven, and boasts an interactive and flexible portfolio company search capability – a first-to-market for this kind of search interaction in the VC space, and one that is now frequently imitated.
On Partner bio pages, the CMS gives the ability to provide extensive resources, and news/event information, creating a valuable knowledge center for inquiring entrepreneurs. Partners become resources even before the pitch meeting. Person to person; entrepreneur to entrepreneur.