Febuary2000

The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

From the Pen of Ken...

It’s somewhat hard to believe for myself and others, but today is my last day at Microsoft as I decided to take a career path opportunity that is unique and likely only offered once in a lifetime, if at all. While I have recently (and in the past as a contractor) greatly enjoyed working at Microsoft, I have excepted employment with the newly started venture capital firm XMLFund, LLC in Bellevue, WA. XMLFund is a new venture fund focused on building the next generation of XML-based companies, start-ups to further advance XML technologies, applications and solutions. Pool, an Internet Pioneer, produced the world’s first Internet software suite, “Internet-in-a-Box” as the founder of Spry, Inc. that was later purchased by CompuServe. My title will be Solutions Architect and I will work directly for the founder and president Dave Pool and I will be responsible for all of the technology-centric efforts of the company. My major responsibilities will be researching the technical details for possible investments and assisting with firms which XMLFund has assets in to help evolve and innovate various XML related solutions and technology. I will also be responsible for all internal R&D efforts including working in and contributing to the XML community.

An example of what XMLFund is involved in, refer to the press release below...

XMLFund Invests in PhotoTrustcom to Accelerate the Online Systems for the Exchange and Storage of Photographs

Tuesday January 18 6:03am

BELLEVUE, Wash.—(BUSINESS WJRE)—Jan. 18,2000— PhotoTrust.com, a revolutionary online system for storing, managing and retrieving photographs in any format, has successfully secured a major investment from XMLFund.

“We are excited to partner with such a forward-looking venture group such as XMLFund,” said Skip Franklin, Co-Founder and CEO of PhotoTrust.com. “We share a vision of Photo-XML technology revolutionizing Internet photo management for both businesses and consumers.”

“PhotoTrust’s innovative use of the XML technology will dramatically change the way we experience photos on the web. Standardizing the way we enhance photos, with relevant information, brings a new dimension to the medium that in the mass market has never been achieved,” said Dave Pool, managing director of the XMLFund. “PhotoTrust has gathered an impressive and seasoned executive team with expertise in

eBusiness, database modeling, web development and marketing and together with the Fund hopes to extend the bounds of photos from images to intelligent information.”

XML is the Internet standard “envelope” for the exchange of information between businesses. It is the enabling technology behind the next generation internet trading systems such as CommerceOne (Nasdaq: CMRC), Anba (Nasdaq:ARBA), Freemarkets (Nasdaq:FMKT) as well as for the leading technol ogy companies such as DataChannel, IBM (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), SAP (Nasdaq:SAP) Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL), Redhat (Nasdaq:RHAT), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW).

About PhotoTrust.com, Inc.

Photolrust.com, Inc. based in Bellevue, Washington, is the leader in Photo-XML technology for business and consumer photo management and interchange. Founded in June 1999 by Skip Franklin and Jim Harding who have collectively founded over a half-dozen successful start-ups in the Seattle area including MountainZone.com, Amaze, Inc. Revelation Technologies and InfoModelers. The company has launched two websites to date, PhotoTrust.com ( http://www. phototrust.com) and OnlinePhotoContest.com (httrx// www.onIineohotocontest.com~.

XMLFund was formed in 1999 by David Pool to foster the growth of promising companies that use XML Technology, the world wide standard for data exchange endorsed by Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle. Through the XMLFund, Pool looks for investments that offer break-through solutions for fragmented supply-chains.

A pioneer in the Internet industry, Pool founded DataChannel, the leader in XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) Solutions, in October 1996 to provide a total solution for building an Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) and to unleash the power of the enterprise, enabling the mapping of IT strategy with business objectives. In 1989, he founded SPRY Inc., an Internet software company responsible for Internet In A Box, the world’s first Internet software suite. When CompuServe acquired SPRY in 1995 for $100 million, Pool served as the company’s vice president of strategic development.

Out and About (Con’t from page 2)

of San Francisco, and re-enacted those “good old days” when women didn’t have the right to vote, blacks weren’t members of the legislature, etc., etc., etc. C’mon fellas