Charles R. Lax
Managing General Partner
Charley is a Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital, focusing on investments in Internet infrastructure, software and software services, security and storage applications, mobile media, financial technologies and services, and wireless technologies and services. Charley’s investment career includes investments in 54 portfolio companies, which have resulted in 42 exits thus far. His track record includes 15 companies that went public, of which 10 achieved market caps in excess of $1 billion. The combined value of exits during Charley’s venture career has been over $6.1 billion which includes the $4.6 billion purchase of GeoCities by Yahoo!. Charley was recently named one of the top 50 venture capitalists on the east coast by AlwaysOn. Charley currently serves on the boards of a number of GBC companies, including OpenExchange. after its merger with KnowledgeVision.
Charley has sponsored and managed investments in Art Technology Group (Nasdaq:ARTG), Backweb (Nasdaq:BWEB)(sold to Oracle Corp), E*Trade (NYSE:ET), FreeLoader (sold to Individual Inc.), Firefly Networks (sold to Microsoft), GeoCities (Nasdaq:GCTY; sold to Yahoo!), Gamesville (sold to Lycos), GSI Commerce (Nasdaq:GSIC)(sold to eBay, Inc.), Impulse Buy Network (sold to Inktomi), Interliant (Nasdaq:INIT), InvesTools (sold to Telescan), Launch Media (Nasdaq:LAUN; sold to Yahoo!), Mainspring (Nasdaq:MSPR; sold to IBM), Email Publishing/Message Media (Nasdaq:MAIL), Multex Systems (Nasdaq:MLTX; sold to Reuters), Personalogic (sold to AOL), Talk City (Nasdaq:TCTY), TheStreet.com (Nasdaq:TSCM), Third Age Media (sold to MyFamily), Webhire, Yoyodyne Entertainment (sold to Yahoo!), Exactis (Nasdaq:XACT; sold to 24/7 Media), 1800Flowers.com (Nasdaq:FLWS), Connected Corporation (sold to Iron Mountain, Inc. Nasdaq:IRM), Colubris Networks (sold to Hewlett-Packard Company(NYSE:HPQ)), Incipient (sold to Texas Memory Systems (Nasdaq:TMS)), Coradiant (sold to BMC Software (Nasdaq: BMC)), OutStart (sold to Kenexa (NYSE:KNXA)), Vela Systems (sold to Autodesk (Nasdaq:ADSK)), Ember Corporation (sold to Silicon Laboratories (Nasdaq:SLAB)), Savored (sold to Groupon (Nasdaq:GRPN)), TIM Group sold to MergerMarket Group and SiliverRail sold to Expedia Group (Nasdaq:EXPE).
Background
Charley is also a founding General Partner of SOFTBANK Venture Capital (established in 1997), an early-stage venture capital firm, and SOFTBANK Capital Partners, originally a strategic late-stage fund (established in 1999). In addition, Charley co-created Flatiron Partners in 1996, a New York City-based venture partnership, sponsored by SOFTBANK and JPMorgan Partners and was a member of its investment management committee. Prior to the creation of SOFTBANK Venture Capital, Charley served as a Vice President of SOFTBANK Holdings Inc., the predecessor venture investment arm of SOFTBANK. Charley was the first investment manager hired to focus solely on venture investments by SOFTBANK. Before his affiliation with SOFTBANK, Charley was a Venture Partner with Boston-based VIMAC Ventures LLC.
Prior to his career in venture capital, Charley worked for a series of software companies in marketing, product management and sales roles, including Phoenix Technologies Ltd., the BIOS developer.
Charley currently serves on the Advisory Boards of Boston University Athletic Department and recently retired from the President’s Council of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.
Education
Boston University, B.S. (magna cum laude), 1982
He was elected secretary of Boston University’s Alumni Council in 2005 and was a member of its Executive Committee. He is also an Advisory Board member to Boston University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) Ignition Award Program. In 2001, Charley received the Boston University Alumni Award for Distinguished Service and gave the Class of 2001 Graduate School of Management commencement address titled, “Lessons Learned from the Internet Bubble.” In 2003, the Boston University Entrepreneurial Management Institute awarded him the Henry Morgan Award for outstanding contribution to the Institute. Charley is also a founding judge of the university-wide Boston University Entrepreneurial Management Institute’s yearly business plan competition. In 2019, The Charley was honored with the Roger “Moose” Washburn Memorial Award and thereby inducted into the Boston University Athletic’s Hall of Fame.
Interests
Charley is very involved with his portfolio companies. In addition to his involvement with Boston University, Charley is active in teaching entrepreneurial management at various business schools and is a noted industry speaker on venture capital and has been invited to speak in London, Israel and Canada.
A retired big-wall climber, Charley is now an enthusiastic but challenged golfer and a founding member of TPC Boston, an internationally recognized cigar aficionado and a proud member of the Boston University Cigar Aficionado Society, and enjoys chasing his Springer Spaniel as an upland bird hunter. Charley is also co-chairman of the Charles River Chapter of “Ducks Unlimited”.