Principals
David Moore
Greg Kiernan
James Kiernan
David Moore
David Moore is an experienced senior operating executive, venture capital and private equity investor and transactional entrepreneur with a strong background in direct marketing and service businesses. He has held a wide range of leadership and board positions in public, private and not-for-profit organizations.
Currently, David’s business activities are centered in three key categories: Operating Businesses, Private Equity/Venture Capital Investing, and Senior Advisory Work. The operating businesses include majority and controlling interests in seven businesses with over 400 employees and $500 million in annual revenue. The private equity and venture capital activities involve personal and partnership investments in over a dozen different small and mid-sized businesses, including sourcing and evaluating deals as a partner of Trivergance Capital Partners, LLC, Sonostar Ventures and Moore Holdings. Advisory work includes a senior advisor role to brand incubator 100 Mile Group and its founder, Jesse Itzler; board member of Spanx, Inc., Relationship Science and Young Entrepreneur Council (a member organization for start-ups and successful entrepreneurs) and Alternative Investment Management, LLC, an independent, privately held investment management firm, registered with the SEC.
David is currently Chairman & CEO of Moore Holdings, LLC. He was previously CEO of Register.com (NASDAQ: RCOM), a business services company with 500 employees and two million small business customers, following a successful turnaround and sale to a private equity firm. He is a founding Partner and Chairman of Sonostar Ventures, LLC, a private equity/venture capital firm he co-founded in 1997, which has invested in more than 30 entrepreneurial ventures.
Since 2000, David has served on the Boards of ten different companies, seven of them public (two NYSE and five NASDAQ). He is currently a Board member of Spanx, Inc. (the leading shapewear brand for women founded by Sara Blakely), Relationship Science (an online business development software and networking tool) and YEC – Young Entrepreneur Council (the leading start up organization bringing together successful entrepreneurs). Previously, he has served on the boards of a wide range of companies: Network Solutions, one of the largest domain registration and online small business website services companies; Chairman of Garden State Brickface, one of the largest remodeling firms in the United States, direct marketing to consumers and small businesses; Chairman of Renewal by Andersen of New Jersey, Long Island, Virginia-DC, Orange County and Los Angeles. Former member of the Board of Directors of CBS Marketwatch.com (NASDAQ: MKTW), a leading provider of business news and financial information (company sold in January 2005 to Dow Jones), Vice Chairman of Marquis Jet, Inc., and U.S. Home Systems, Inc., the country’s largest kitchen cabinet refacing company. Other public board experience includes Lumen Technologies and Bolle Sunglasses, both public companies.
Over the past ten years, David has had extensive involvement in a wide range of educational, social service, religious and health-related organizations, including: President of the Board of Trustees, City Parks Foundation, Chair and Leadership Gift Chair for the Amherst College Annual Fund; President of the Society of the Alumni for Amherst; New York Area Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee of the “Campaign for Amherst”, Chairman of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Metro Chapter in New York City; Trustee and Co-Chair of Development for Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, Trustee and Fundraising Chair for Central Synagogue, one of the country’s largest synagogues; Chairman, T-L Youthworks ( a NYC School System program); Trustee, Museum of Eldridge Street, restoring a landmark building in NYC; and volunteer and tutor, East Harlem Tutorial Program.
In addition to his professional and charitable activities, David is a professional stand-up comedian. He also lectures on the subject of using humor as a leadership and motivational tool. He has headlined at Caroline’s on Broadway, and been featured in the New York Comedy Festival as well as The Friar’s Club, Stand-Up New York, and the Comic Strip in New York City, the Improv in Los Angeles and Bocanuts in Boca Raton, Florida. David received a BA in Economics, magna cum laude, from Amherst College in 1978 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1980. David resides in Manhattan with his wife and their two children.
Greg Kiernan
Greg Kiernan is the President and CEO and a founding partner of Sonostar Ventures, LLC, an investment, private equity and venture capital firm which he established with David Moore in April 1997. In addition to his role in Sonostar Ventures, from 2005 – 2016, Greg was the Managing Partner of Sonostar Capital Partners, a $20+ million investment fund which he founded to pursue early stage entrepreneurial ventures.
Prior to founding Sonostar Ventures, Greg worked on Wall Street at Lehman Brothers, Salomon Brothers and then for 10 years at PaineWebber, where he was a Senior Managing Director in charge of the firm’s institutional Corporate Bond, High Yield, Preferred Stock and Mortgage Backed Securities Departments. Greg served as a senior member of PaineWebber’s Executive Operating Committee, as the Fixed Income representative on the firm’s Risk Management Committee and as one of eight voting members on the firm’s Commitment Committee. Until he left PaineWebber in 1997, Greg served as a Director on the Executive Committee of the Public Securities Association. Before starting his Wall Street career, Greg worked for Cravath, Swaine and Moore as an attorney admitted to practice law in New York State. Greg holds a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Amherst College, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
Greg serves on the board of directors of several of the companies in which Sonostar has invested, as well as on the board of the 2100 Condominium Association in Palm Beach, Florida. In addition, he is an active member of several charitable ventures focused on education for underserved children.
He resides in Chappaqua, New York with his wife, Vera and together they take great pride and joy in their five grown children and their families.
James Kiernan
James Kiernan is a Managing Director at Sonostar Ventures, LLC, an investment, private equity and venture capital firm. James joined Sonostar in 2022 to focus on evaluating new venture opportunities, and to assume day-to-day management of KFAM Ventures, LLC, one of Sonostar’s affiliates and a frequent co-investor in Sonostar deals.
Prior to joining Sonostar Ventures, James began his career path at TRANZACT, a leading provider of Direct-to-Consumer marketing solutions for prominent companies across various sectors, with a particular focus on the insurance space. From there James moved to HSBC Securities (USA) Inc, where he spent 10+ years as Vice President within their institutional Equity Sales Trading group. James was a senior member of the global equity portfolio trading team, where he offered coverage to top quantitative institutional funds across North America and was responsible for providing market insight, access, and execution strategy for baskets of securities comprised of equities from over 70 Developed, Emerging and Frontier markets across the globe. James held various internal roles at HSBC, including several years as managing member of the committee responsible for developing internal commission reporting platforms, and sophisticated client-facing tools used to conduct Trade Cost Analytics.
James graduated from Fairfield University in 2009 with a BS in Marketing. Fairfield is also where he met his wife, Jennifer, and together they reside in Manhattan.