CashStar's David Stone leaves company he co-founded
David Stone, a 2012 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year and founding CEO of digital gift card company CashStar Inc., based in Portland, told the Bangor Daily News Thursday that he had left two weeks ago by mutual decision with the company's board.
Steven Boal, chairman of CashStar's board, is listed as interim CEO on the company's website. He also is CEO of Coupons.com Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. Boal and Stone co-founded CashStar in late 2007.
The company's clients include Starbucks, Best Buy, Home Depot and Williams-Sonoma. CashStar employs more than 80 people and has raised more than $30 million in venture capital and private investment, Stone told the BDN. The most recent round was for $5 million last July.
Stone, 56, told the newspaper his passion is building early-stage tech companies, and CashStar's rapid success meant it was time for him to step aside. "It was a good time to turn it over to others who have [bigger companies] in their sweet spot," Stone said. He said he planned "to reboot and refresh" for the time being.
Stone, who has founded six companies, told Mainebiz in 2012 that he had to buck the trend of going to Silicon Valley, though he also said the company planned to open a California office that would concentrate on business development and sales, since many of its clients are there, while the engineering work would stay in Portland. Stone says he worked out the concept in the attic of his Falmouth home, and then began working his network of contacts looking for investors.
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