eCompanies Staffs Internet Incubator –

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – One month after raising $130 million, Internet incubator eCompanies Venture Group in October hired five executives to round out its management team.

While eCompanies’ founders Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton will continue to manage the fund, which has made two seed-stage investments to date, the new hires are expected to provide technical, financial and marketing support to companies prior to their first round of institutional financing.

“eCompanies has a different model than idealab!,” Winebaum said. “We will provide more depth and support to our individual start-ups by putting everyone together in the same house where they will be five feet away from the head of marketing.”

Among eCompanies’ new hires are Chief Financial Officer Andrew Greenebaum, who previously held positions at Disney and CD Radio Inc., and former Ticketmaster Online CitySearch executive Michael Guttentag.

eCompanies has recently recruited its first group of portfolio companies. Winebaum said he expects potential portfolio companies to spend three to six months within the incubator before seeking external funding.

The firm, which invests exclusively in enterprises based in Southern California, targets companies that focus more on the applications of the Internet rather than its underlying technology.

“We have a good understanding of the consumer market,” Winebaum said. “The venture activity is a little less frothy here than it is in Silicon Valley.”

Both of the firm’s investments, business-to-business independent contractor eWork and consumer site eHobbies, were made in companies that developed outside of the incubator.