experience.com, Inc. Secures $20 Million in Funding

Latest Round of Funding Allows Company to Continue Rapid Growth in E-Cruiting Market for Students, Alumni and Employers

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2000--experience.com, Inc., the leader in the college student and alumni ``e-cruiting'' market, today announced it has raised an additional $20 million in venture capital financing to fund its continued growth. Investors in this round of funding include Polaris Venture Partners, the venture firm behind Akamai, Allaire, Avici and DeCode Genetics, and Benefit Capital Management Corporation.

Experience's growth is being fueled by the increasing demand for the company's complete online recruiting solution, which connects students, alumni, career centers and employers.

"The online recruiting market has historically been extremely cluttered, but leaders are now emerging,'' said Jennifer Floren, president and CEO of experience. This backing from the investment community strengthens our position as one of these leaders and ensures that we will be able to address the needs of our diverse customer segments moving forward.

"Over the past 10 months, experience has built a huge competitive advantage by establishing a network of 300 of the best colleges and universities in the country, and launching a suite of innovative recruiting services for employers,'' said Jon Flint, general partner at Polaris Venture Partners, which has lead each of experience's two rounds of financing. We are extremely confident that experience will lead the e-cruiting market for college students and alumni.

"We were attracted to experience because the company offers some key differentiators in the online recruiting market: its university partnerships, original content and advanced job matching technology,'' said Sue DeCarlo, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Benefit Capital Management Corporation.

This is experience's second round of financing. The company has raised over $30 million since March 1999.

About Polaris Venture Partners

Polaris Venture Partners (http://www.polarisventures.com) is a group of experienced early-stage investors with a history of backing successful entrepreneurs in companies developing information and medical technology. With over $1 billion under management, Polaris provides deep domain experience, industry contacts and partnership to technology entrepreneurs. Polaris-backed companies include Akamai Technologies, Allaire Corporation, Centra, SolidWorks, Aspect Medical, Classifieds2000, deCODE Genetics, Exchange.com, and Kestrel Solutions. Polaris Venture Partners has offices in Boston, Seattle and Austin.

About experience.com, Inc.

experience.com, Inc., the leader in the college student and alumni ``e-cruiting'' market, is revolutionizing the way employers attract and retain young talent and the way students and alumni transition into the working world through three distinct components:

• experience.com: the premier online destination that gives employers access to millions of pre-qualified candidates and provides students and young professionals with unique content and job postings specifically targeted to entry-level candidates;
• eRecruiting: the leading Web-based career center solution with an installed base of over 150 colleges and universities nationwide; eRecruiting manages the logistics of on-campus recruiting for employers and career centers; and
• experience magazine: the only publication targeting college students and young professionals with information and insight about the new world of work; the magazine has an audited circulation of over one million subscribers.

Based in Boston, Mass., experience.com, Inc. is venture-backed by Polaris Venture Partners, Isabella Capital LLC, Benefit Capital Management Corporation, and a number of other private investors. More information about the company is available at its corporate Web site, http://www.experience.com.