Although Sonostar’s corporate identity was formed in 1997, David Moore and Greg Kiernan, Sonostar’s principals, have been friends and business partners for more than 40 years, dating back to their earliest venture partnerships (a late-night pizza delivery service and a college calendar business) when the two were students at Amherst College.

After college and graduate school, David continued his entrepreneurial bent, running his family home remodeling business and starting and successfully running a number of companies. Greg pursued a career on Wall Street where he ultimately rose to a senior level position at Paine Webber, Inc. As the two pursued their respective careers, they stayed in regular contact with one another, investing in and advising each other on various ventures that each was pursuing.

In 1995, David approached Greg with an idea to restructure a troubled publicly traded home improvement company. Over a period of about a year, the two built a significant position in the target company’s stock and worked to successfully implement David’s restructuring ideas. David was able to convince the company to implement a series of strategic shifts that dramatically improved the company’s operating margins. In the process, David became a member of the Board of Directors, and together David and Greg became the largest individual shareholders in the company. In the fourth quarter of 1995, that company's stock was the number one percentage gainer on the NYSE, and by the spring of 1996, the company's market capitalization had increased almost ten fold from a year earlier.

Armed with the profit from this investment, the two principals determined that it would be in their financial best interest to formalize their partnership and devote their full time energy to deal making and venture capital. Sonostar Ventures LLC was formed in April of 1997. Since the time of its formation, Sonostar and its principals have invested in nearly three dozen private securities transactions, with our current investments described in our “Portfolio” tab. From 1997 – 2005, our portfolio investments generated more than 460% in cumulative realized gains. In 2005, David decided to devote his full time efforts to Moore Holdings LLC, an investment vehicle he formed to manage his and Sonostar’s current and planned investments in Renewal by Andersen, the leading residential replacement window company in the country. Greg became a significant minority investor and David, through Moore Holdings, a controlling investor in Renewal by Andersen’s operations in New Jersey, Long Island, Virginia, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, Toronto and others. Collectively these businesses are generating annual revenues of $500 million or more, and the company’s consistent returns represent the most successful investment by Sonostar’s principals to date. At the same time that David moved to Moore Holdings, Greg launched, and David invested in, Sonostar Capital Partners, a $20+ million private equity and venture capital fund that operated from 2005 – 2016. Sonocap completed its final distribution in 2016, and since then, Greg has rededicated his full-time energy to Sonostar Ventures. Greg and David have resumed and revitalized their investment partnership and deepened their relationship with the Two River Group. Collectively, this team has made significant investments in our promising portfolio of venture backed companies.