Teneology

Teneology is an acquisition fund based in Mercer Island, Washington, in the Seattle area, formed in 2013 to acquire existing internet and digital media businesses judged to have unrealized potential — particularly those that had been bootstrapped or only lightly funded. The firm was created by Cliff Sharples, previously an executive at Cheezburger, HomeAway and Kinetx Living, together with co-CEO Lisa Sharples, formerly an executive at Allrecipes.com, and co-founder and CFO Ben Sternberg. Rather than acting as a passive investor, the firm operates a corporate office on Mercer Island that supplies acquired properties with reach, monetization, programming and technology infrastructure capabilities they could not build or afford independently.

The business was later rebranded as Fexy Media, under which Cliff Sharples described a strategy of owning and growing leading digital brands in consumer categories such as food, health, fitness and lifestyle, with substantial emphasis on digital video as the format favored by younger consumers. By early 2015 the firm had acquired three media companies — one from Seattle and two from the East Coast — without disclosing the targets or amounts paid, and reported additional deals in its pipeline. In January 2023, The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. acquired certain assets of Teneology, Inc.

Founding story

Cliff and Lisa Sharples, who co-founded Garden.com in 1995, took it public in 1999 and sold it in 2001, first discussed their next venture during a family ski trip at Crystal Mountain, wanting to work together again. Both left their jobs in 2013 — Lisa Sharples departing Allrecipes.com after its sale to Meredith for $175 million, Cliff Sharples after serving as COO of Cheezburger — and spent roughly a year traveling the world with their five children through Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and South America, documenting the trip at projectequator.com. Cliff Sharples formed the fund during that period, running Skype conference calls from different parts of the globe; the trip ended in September 2014.

Business model

Teneology operates as an acquisition vehicle: it buys controlling positions in existing internet and digital media businesses and then centralizes resources — audience growth, monetization, editorial/programming and technology infrastructure — at its Mercer Island corporate office to increase the value of portfolio properties. Value creation is intended to come from building acquired brands into category leaders rather than from building products from scratch.

Traction

Teneology reported a $10 million round in December 2014 and, at that time, about 25 people working at startups in its portfolio. By early February 2015 the firm reported roughly $10 million raised and 35–40 employees, and had closed three media company acquisitions with further deals in the pipeline; the identities of the acquired businesses and amounts paid were not disclosed.