In the enterprise, the last few years have been marked by a dramatic shift in how software is built, deployed, priced and consumed. Cloud infrastructure and SaaS applications have heralded a massive opportunity in the mid-market and empowered the “Fortune 5 million” to enjoy the same level of sophistication and insights that only the Fortune 500 could achieve in prior decades. At Trinity Ventures, we believe that consumerization of the enterprise, low cost distribution models and SaaS are secular trends that will define high growth technology companies going forward. We have actively invested in this trend by backing leading B2B SaaS companies like Act-On Software, ServiceMax, New Relic and Taulia – companies that are dominating their respective categories by providing the end user – be it a marketer, service professional, app developer or a finance professional, the ability to be more successful at their jobs and enabling them to try, purchase, consume and be delighted by software without involving IT. With our investment in RJMetrics, we are doubling down on that trend to allow all business users to gain actionable business intelligence with a lightweight, yet powerful, SaaS product.

We were struck by the incredible traction that the company had achieved, and a culture that was built with laser focus on putting the customer first – a testament to the leadership of the founding team of Bob and Jake, whom I’ve known now for over a year. It’s no surprise that in a short amount of time, and with limited capital, RJMetrics was able win over hundreds of happy (paying) customers by making them fall in love with their product and their unwavering dedication to the customer. Over and over, we heard RJMetrics’ customers tell us how much they loved the product, the team and the vision. One particular CEO we spoke with, said “It’s the lifeline of my business. It’s the last thing I look at before I go to bed and the first thing I see when I wake up.”  However, the most frequent comment we heard from customers was, “This was a no-brainer decision for me.”

So today, as we invest in the company to fuel their growth and partner with this amazing team, I’d like to say that this was a no-brainer decision for us! I am proud to be part of this team and look forward to playing a small role as we continue to win over new customers and delight our existing customers, on the path to building RJMetrics to be the defacto Business Intelligence SaaS company for the online enterprise.

Bob, Jake and to the RJMetrics team – Welcome to the Trinity family!

Patricia Nakache, Trinity Ventures, General Partner

Trinity Ventures was one of the first venture capital firms to back brick-and-mortar businesses such as Starbucks, Jamba Juice and P.F. Chang’s, but these days, it has shifted its dollars to e-commerce outfits that are less capital intensive. Patricia Nakache, who joined Trinity during the height of the Internet boom in 1999, says, “I loved this focus on consumers and trying to change consumers lives for the better with technology. What’s really been exciting is watching women become the dominant drivers of social commerce and media. That’s one of my major areas of focus.”

Discussing that focus, Nakache singles out Trinity Ventures’ investment in Care.com, a care-services resource for children, pets and seniors. “As a mom of three kids, it totally resonated with me,” she says. Other investments Nakache is involved in include thredUP, Ruby Ribbon, BeachMint and Weddington Way.

An attractive Web site isn’t enough to convince Nakache an investment is warranted. “Even if you have the technology front end to a commerce business, you really have to understand the back-end operations of retail to deliver great product at decent margins,” she says. She emphasizes mobile should be a priority for social commerce companies. “I’m looking for companies that are thinking about problems with a mobile-first approach,” says Nakache, adding that she asks companies, “Assuming that all your customers are coming from mobile, how would you design the service differently?”

“We are delighted to welcome Prakash to Trinity as an EIR,” says Ajay Chopra, Trinity General Partner, “Prakash’s background is unique in that he has had senior executive level experience at consumer services companies as well as enterprise/SaaS companies, both key focus sectors for Trinity. I am really looking forward to working with Prakash!”

Prakash is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience leading product strategy and technology vision in startups and high growth companies. Prior to joining Trinity Ventures he was the Chief Product Officer at LifeLock where he was instrumental in driving member and revenue growth resulting in a successful IPO in 2012.

Prior to LifeLock, Prakash served as the senior VP of product management and engineering for Gaia Online, a teen and young adult avatar-based social gaming and community website. During his time there, he helped Gaia Online become of the leaders in virtual goods and micro-transactions. Prior to Gaia Prakash was the VP of identity management and security products for Oracle, the world’s largest business software company. In the nine years before Oracle, he served as senior VP of product and technology at Oblix until it was purchased by Oracle.

“I have followed Trinity Ventures over the past several years and I am impressed with the breadth of their investment portfolio,” says Ramamurthy, “ Also their EIR program is highly engaging and immersive with unfettered access to the investment team and their extended network, which makes it ideal for entrepreneurs like me. I am excited to be here and look forward to an interesting experience.”

About Trinity Ventures:

Founded in 1986, Trinity Ventures is a boutique, early stage venture capital firm dedicated to partnering with passionate entrepreneurs to transform revolutionary ideas into reality. With over $1 billion under management, Trinity Ventures believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment with entrepreneurs. Trinity focuses on early stage and seed technology investments with particular emphasis on social commerce and entertainment, digital media, Saas, and cloud and infrastructure.

Trinity Ventures has invested in more than 100 ventures, including such leading companies as 21Vianet, Affinity Labs, Aruba Networks, BeachMint, Bix, Blue Nile, Crescendo Communications, Extreme Networks, Forte Software, Infoblox, IntruVert Networks, KIXEYE, LoopNet, Modulus Video, Network Alchemy, Photobucket, SciQuest, Speedera Networks, Starbucks, Sygate Technologies, Trion Worlds, Wall Data, and Zulily.

Featured in DowJones/VentureWire, Written by Lizette Chapman

Offering pop-up parties selling shapewear that blends Lululemon style with Spanx support, Ruby Ribbon Inc . has won fresh investor backing to expand nationwide, VentureWire has learned.

The company, which has grown to 100 stylists in 30 states since first crafting the product 8 months ago, closed an $8. 5 million Series B round led by Mohr Davidow Ventures with participation from existing investor Trinity Ventures. Valuation was north of $25 million.

The idea behind Ruby Ribbon is similar to that of jewelry company Stella & Dot, kitchenware company Pampered Chef and other virtual retailers building a national brand with an army of independent sales people who tap their smartphones and social networks to host events. But the Burlingame, Calif. -based startup has a more intimate focus, selling camisoles, slips, pencil skirts and other shaping basics made with a material which sucks in and smooths select body areas.

“There’s a reason why there are two women on the board,” said MDV’s General Partner Katherine Barr, who led the round on behalf of her firm and joins Trinity Ventures General Partner Patricia Nakache as a director. Asked whether it was awkward bringing the deal to her mostly male partnership at MDV to evaluate, Ms. Barr replied it wasn’t.

“I work with a bunch of adults, so there was no snickering,” said Ms. Barr. “Anna (Zornosa) did a good job of focusing on the business opportunity, but yes the guys had to go to their wives” to completely understand how the product works.

Along with enthusiasm for the $100 billion apparel category, Ms. Barr said Ruby Ribbon founder and Chief Executive Anna Zornosa impressed her team with her business acumen and entrepreneurial skills. She also liked the sales model of independent stylists which cost Ruby Ribbon virtually nothing to enlist.

“It’s shockingly capital efficient. In order to scale it doesn’t need much,” added Ms. Barr.

Ruby Ribbon provides Web sites to individual stylists who, after watching a training video and investing about $200 to buy samples of the product for women to try on at parties, set up their own mini-shops. On their Web sites, stylists can order product, track earnings and inventory, plan and manage pop-up parties in living rooms, exercise studios, beauty salons and other sites.

Most parties draw between 6 to 8 women and result in $750 in sales, according to Ms. Zornosa. Stylists, who are paired with a mentor so they can share sample inventory and grow their business in tandem, are paid a higher percentage of each sale as they increase their volume.

For example, stylists earn 20% commission on sales up to $750 and 40% on sales of $1,500 and above.

The recent round will be used to improve back-office functions, adding a gamification layer to stylist Web sites and purchasing more samples in anticipation of bringing on new stylists.

Ms. Nakache said although she had known Ms. Zornosa since she served as an adviser to Trinity-backed Affinity Labs Inc. nearly a decade ago, and had heard good things about her from several startups since, she wasn’t certain she wanted to back her until she saw her in action.

“What sold me was watching her learning curve over those three months” she spent doing due diligence on whether the idea worth her time, said Ms. Nakache. “I watched her network her way into all these industries, develop a core set of advisers and common team. I thought, ‘wow, if this is indicative of her longer-term trajectory then I’m getting on this bus.”

Trinity Ventures, which invested $3 million in Ruby Ribbon last year, also backed retail startups Starbucks Inc ., Jamba Juice Inc . and Blue Nile Inc . and more recently Zulily Inc . and Beachmint Inc .

Consequently, in the past couple of years, Perfect Market CEO Julie Schoenfeld says her 60-person company has gone from helping publishers monetize content in their archive (“Found money for many publishers,” notes Schoenfeld) to monetizing content as it is created, since “60% of all traffic hits on the first day of the story.”

With the new strategies in place, Schoenfeld claims that things are going well. The company saw triple-digit growth last year and expects more of the same in 2013 with no need for additional funding, though she adds, “Sometimes when you’re in a good place and you’re expanding, money comes at you. And so, we certainly wouldn’t turn it away.”