Eagle River Interactive, Inc.

(Formerly Nasdaq:ERIV, now part of Omnicom)

In 1994, Terry Graunke, the cofounder and chairman of Lake Capital, invested $500,000 of his own capital to start Eagle River Interactive, an interactive development and electronic commerce company. As CEO, Terry guided Eagle River through its early stages of growth. Two years later, he took the company public with an IPO that raised more than $50 million.

Eagle River was one of the first interactive developers to recognize that size matters to Fortune 500 companies willing to commit funds to internet-based operations and communications. Growing rapidly to encompass larger-scale business operations and services such as IT training, Eagle River quickly added six offices in the U.S. and one in Paris. In addition, Terry recruited top senior managers such as Kevin Rowe, who had technology experience plus similar business philosophies, from leading systems integrators in order to differentiate Eagle River from advertising agencies.

In 1997, Eagle River's interactive development business was sold to Omnicom Group. Omnicom paired Eagle River with one of its other interactive assets, AGENCY.COM, to create one of the world's largest interactive developers.

After the sale, the continuing company was renamed Mastering, Inc. to reflect its ongoing focus on leader-led and computer-based IT training. Mastering was subsequently sold to PLATINUM technology in April 1998 in a transaction valued at more than $225 million.