Stealthy Sagamore Finds FundingStealthy Sagamore Finds Funding

Broadband access startup Sagamore Systems Inc. isn't just in stealth mode -- it's completely unknown.

From the board to the founders, the company has amassed a series of puzzled looks and shrugs from industry sources as Light Reading has attempted to dig into what the company is doing with the $3.5 million in venture capital it raised earlier this year.

One source says the company is working on a broadband access software and hardware solution for carriers that will speed up DSL connections from the carrier side of the pipe. In other words, it presumably won't be a bookend solution like what Celite built back in the day. (See Celite's Out.)

The company's founder and VP of marketing, Eric Hedlund, hails from General Signal Networks and Turnstone Systems. He worked on DSL loop testing products at each place. Publicly available information shows he's never led a telecom equipment company before. He declined to comment for this story.

The company's sole venture capital source is Prism Venture Partners and its franchise tax reports list Bill Seifert as being on its board of directors. Seifert is best known for being the founder and CEO of Agile Networks, which Lucent bought in 1998. He was also a founder and CTO at once-famous Wellfleet Systems, the router company that was supposed to conquer Cisco (but instead ended up somewhere inside Nortel).

Prism's Website, however, lists Will Kohler as being the current board member for Sagamore. Kohler is best known for his behind-the-scenes work at Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) and for wearing blue shirts. He also didn't return calls for this story.

Beyond that, there's little else known about the company, which is named for Sagamore, the tiny village in the town of Bourne, on Cape Cod's western side. The headquarters location isn't in Sagamore.

Until more details surface, please ping us on the boards and let us know: Is there something more to Sagamore?

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading