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Old-fashioned networking leads to a new social networks venture in Carolinas – Jute Networks to merge with Swamp Fox

John Warner

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Jute Networks, a software startup focused on social networking technology, is merging with Swamp Fox, which has developed a community of its own across South Carolina, western North Carolina and Georgia.

Oddly, the founders of both firms met a year ago at the Carolina Connect venture conference in Asheville. The merger is being announced today at the 2008 Connect event.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The combined company will maintain offices in Asheville, where Jute was launched, and Greenville, S.C., where Swamp Fox is located.

"Today at Carolina Connect in Asheville, N.C., we are announcing the merger of Swamp Fox and Jute into a combined company called Jute Networks, which will manage the Swamp Fox Community and market the Jute NRM software,” said John Warner, who founded Swamp Fox. He will be the chief executive officer of the merged company.

Warner, a hard-driver for technology development in South Carolina and nearby regions, is a venture capitalist who also puts on a venture-technology event called InnoVenture. The Swamp Fox community he has built over the past several years has helped bring international attention to tech entrepreneurs in South Carolina,.

“The Swamp Fox Community will be tied together with Jute,” he added. “Our combined strengths position Jute to (be) among the first to market and to become the leader of the fast-growing network relationship management market."

Jute’s founders, Sean McDonald and Matt Raker, and Butler Mullins of Swamp Fox will form the remainder of the Jute team.

The company’s executives describe Jute’s NRM software as a “simple, intuitive tool to help manage and grow the in-person and online aspects of critical networks.”

The Swamp Fox “community,” as Warner describes it, already includes scores of businesses and universities as well as other institutions and thousands of individuals.

"Matt and I have always strived to work with the best of the best, and we know that John and Swamp Fox bring the talent, experience and resources necessary for Jute Networks to capitalize on an exceptional opportunity," McDonald said in a statement. "This merger is good news for Matt and me, our investors and the region's entrepreneurial community."

Jute has received funding support from NC IDEA, which is based in Research Triangle Park, and a loan from Advantage West, an economic development group in western N.C.

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