March 11, 2010

Castanea Partners Hosts CEO Roundtable Forum on Social Media

Castanea Partners hosted an invitation-only event in an ongoing series of unique evening panel and roundtable discussions on driving innovation and growth in small- and mid-sized businesses. Entitled “Driving Revenue Growth Through Social Media,” this latest forum included approximately 40 CEOs and senior executives from various growth-oriented companies consistent with Castanea’s sector focus. The panelists included Todd Dagres, General Partner at Spark Capital (a lead investor in Twitter); Brian Halligan, Founder and CEO of HubSpot, Inc.; and Barry Libert, Chairman and CEO of Mzinga. Jeffrey F. Rayport, Operating Partner at Castanea, introduced and led the roundtable discussion.

“We had a fascinating set of interactions around the table that were sparked by our three superb panelists and their provocative opening remarks. In addition, we were truly delighted to have such an abundance of CEOs in attendance, and to see them so engaged on a topic of burning interest to business people today,” said Rayport. “It was a richly insightful discussion not only about how social media is changing the world for companies and consumers – already a much-discussed story – but also about how to get seriously down to business on how to use social media to drive material wealth creation.” Rayport added: “Even for sophisticated attendees – including our panelists – this roundtable delivered real value, while creating an intimate setting for our friends to interact and network.”

About Castanea

Castanea is a private equity firm that works in partnership with founders and management teams of innovative passion brands to grow their businesses through a combination of capital investment and operating expertise. We are focused on select consumer verticals including beauty, food and beverage, multi-unit services, and enthusiast lifestyle. We typically invest between $15 to $150 million of equity in minority or majority transactions. Our team of talented operating executives offers critical expertise in key verticals and functional areas, and provides our partner companies with strategic and tactical support. Castanea has more than $1 billion in assets under management and is currently investing from a $735 million fourth fund. For more information about Castanea Partners read our story.

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