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Media - Monday, July 11, 2005

Scout Media - Profile

HQ: Seattle, WA

Founded: 2001, previously Citadel Media and TheInsiders.com.

Management: Founder & CEO is JC Heckman. He previously was founder & CEO of Scout's nemesis - Rivals.com. Rivals raised $30M but that company sank into an abyss during the downturn in 2001 and closed doors. Heckman left Rivals and later started Scout - and he now boasts that he took the talent and partners with him and indeed Scout is now besting Rivals in terms of traffic.

Investors: In July 2005, the company raised $6M in Series B for acquisitions. Series A investors were Cleveland Pacific Equity Ventures and angel investor David Epstein.

Business Model: The company sells advertising on a network of insider sports sites. In addition to Scout.com, the company has been rolling up a network of fan sites such as Big12 Magazines, The Boneyard, Syracuse Fan, Kentucky Sports Report, and UconnFan.com.

Competitors: Rivals.com, ESPN.

Dirt: Online sports is an expensive and tough business - just ask the guys at Quokka Sports. But for the few that can match up against ESPN and local newspaper/TV coverage, there are big audiences to be found. ESPN is so dominant that it can be arrogant and while it covers everything, it is often hard to drill down into niche sports. Scout Media's approach of managing a network of sports sites gives audiences the impression that they are totally focused on a specific sport or team. We don't know what kind of guy founder Heckman is but we respect his ability to come back from the grave and give the Heisman to Rivals.com, his previous startup. We expect he has learned the hard lessons before and will continue to build this baby until it is a big player.