Entrepreneurial leaders from Indeed, Lending Club, SkinMedica and Workday, Inc. receive EY's 2013 Venture Capital Award of Excellence

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Six entrepreneurial leaders from Indeed, Lending Club, SkinMedica and Workday, Inc. will receive EY's 2013 Venture Capital Award of Excellence which will be presented, as part of the EY Strategic Growth Forum and National Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Program in Palm Springs, California, on Wednesday, November 13, 2013.

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"Clearly, venture capitalists play an outsized role in the American economy. They not only mentor entrepreneurs that are creating the jobs of tomorrow, but they also provide access to valuable networks and offer the wisdom they have gained by investing in numerous enterprises," said Bryan Pearce, EY Americas Director, Entrepreneur Of The Year™ and a member of the Venture Capital Advisory Group of Ernst & Young LLP. "The Venture Capital Award of Excellence was created to recognize four companies that have truly benefitted from these important relationships."

Now in its eighth year, the Venture Capital Award of Excellence winners are selected from those EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ regional winners whose companies have been backed by venture capital funding.  The recipients were selected on the basis of VC funding, equity and revenue growth, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margins, and the stories of their founding.  The winners were selected out of 50 nominees by an independent panel of judges, comprised of four leading venture capitalists from across the country including: Jeff Fagnan – Atlas Venture; Steve Goldberg – Venrock; Richard Heitzmann – First Mark Capital; and Adele Oliva – Quaker Partners.

"Square 1 Bank is proud to continue our partnership with Ernst & Young for this year's Venture Capital Award of Excellence," said Doug Bowers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Square 1 Bank.  "Since the Bank's inception, our mission has been to serve the venture capital community and help entrepreneurs succeed.  Our support of this award furthers this cause, and we are pleased to be a part of an event that recognizes interesting companies backed by visionary investors.  We look forward to congratulating winners and their investors in Palm Springs."

Highlights from the 2013 Venture Capital Award of Excellence winners' stories include:

Indeed, Rony Kahan, Co-founder and Paul Forster, Co-founder:
During the first year that co-founders Rony Kahan and Paul Forster started Indeed, they were almost entirely bootstrapped. In 2005, venture capital played a significant role in helping them reach profitability, with a single round of funding from Union Square Ventures, NYT and Allen & Co. Kahan and Forster previously had co-founded jobsinthemoney.com, a job search site for financial professionals, and sold it to Financial News in 2003. They took the experience they gained and applied the pay-per-click model to the hiring space. Indeed now has sites in 53 countries and is available in 26 languages. In October 2012, Indeed was acquired by Japan-based Recruit Co. Ltd. in one of the five largest acquisitions of venture-backed companies that year.

Lending Club, Renaud Laplanche, Founder, CEO:
After contemplating why he should pay 18% interest on his credit card balance to a bank that pays him 1.5% on his deposits, Renaud Laplanche decided to create Lending Club. Removing banks from the equation, the company's online platform is designed to connect investors with borrowers and cut out a large portion of costs involved. Now, Lending Club is one of the largest issuers of personal loans in the United States, and it's attracting money from venture capital investors in one of the hottest VC markets. Lending Club has more than doubled its business each year since its' founding.

SkinMedica, Mary Fisher, CEO:
Built on significant funds from leading health care venture capital firms, SkinMedica started as a specialty pharma company with skin care products. For years, the company struggled to make a profit while operating two distinct divisions: non-prescription skin care and prescription dermatology, which was stagnant. When Mary Fisher joined as CEO in 2008, she had a vision to transform the organization by growing the aesthetic skin care division while divesting the prescription business. But in a bold move, Fisher sold off SkinMedica's prescription business, enabling the company to repay debt and pay shareholders a significant dividend, returning roughly one-third of invested capital. Within a year, she successfully turned the company around and it now sees consistent annual double digit sales growth with an improved bottom line and overall financial strength.

Workday, Inc, Aneel Bhusri, Chairman, Co-founder, Co-CEO and David Duffield Co-founder, Co-CEO
Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri met as co-workers at another internet-based benefits company and together in 2005 created Workday, which has quickly grown to become a leader in enterprise cloud applications for human resources, finance and analytics.  Considering the risk in organizing Workday among competitors that are big players in the technology industry, Bhusri and Duffield recruited the best thinkers and engineers in the business technology space. They also initially funded Workday with Duffield's personal investment and backing from Greylock Partners, the venture capital firm where Bhusri had served as a partner. The company has demonstrated robust investor interest in vendors of cloud-based applications, with shares soaring on the first day of trading upward of 70% and a customer base that now exceeds 300 customers.

About EY's Strategic Growth Markets Network
EY's worldwide Strategic Growth Markets Network is dedicated to serving the changing needs of rapid-growth companies.  For more than 30 years, we've helped many of the world's most dynamic and ambitious companies grow into market leaders. Whether working with international mid-cap companies or early stage venture-backed businesses, our professionals draw upon their extensive experience, insight and global resources to help your business achieve its potential. It's how EY makes a difference.

About Square 1 Bank
Square 1 Bank is a full service commercial bank dedicated exclusively to serving the financial needs of the venture capital community and entrepreneurs in all stages of growth and expansion. Square 1's expertise, focus and strong capital base provide flexible resources and unmatched support to meet our clients' needs. The bank offers tailored products and solutions aided by the latest in technological innovations. Square 1 has offices coast to coast in Austin, Boston, Denver, Durham, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.square1bank.com.

About EY
EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

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This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member of the global EY organization that provides services to clients in the US.

SOURCE EY