VentureBeat

Jaxtr, a service for dodging international calling fees using your phone, has raised $10 million in series A round led by August Capital.

It says it has doubled in size in the last month to a million users.

The Menlo Park, Calif. company (more detail from our past coverage here and here [update: first comment below]) allows you to make free phone calls over the web or your mobile and landline phones, including low local rates for international calls.

When you sign up and make your first call on the web, you get a unique Jaxtr phone number and web address, such as www.jaxtr.com/mattmarshall.

People who want to call you can simply click on the web address link and get directed to your current phone number, as you have it pre-selected on Jaxtr — without you having to reveal your real number.

The company also lets you embed its widget on web pages so you can make or receive calls, say, on your Myspace account; it also launched a Facebook app in late May, but it only has a little over 12,000 users three months later.

Jaxtr has between 70 and 80 percent of its total users making and receiving calls from mobile phones simply because a Jaxtr number can be entered into a mobile address book like any other number, chief executive Konstantin Guericke tells us.

While Skype, Jajah and other internet-based phone services also provide ways to make free international calls, Guericke says this alternative phone number is more convenient for mobile users because they don’t need to download a mobile application, like Skype, or access a web browser, like Jajah. It’s similar to GrandCentral, the company bought by Google, which provides a single number you can use anywhere — although it gives you a single URL instead.

Eighty percent of total Jaxtr users live in 220 countries outside of the US, although Guericke says US users are three times as active, overall.

More than 16,000 users are now registering per day, the company says, with nearly three quarters of users in their 20’s.

Jaxtr was almost acquired recently, Dave Hornik of August Capital tells us — from another private company headed to an IPO (but not Facebook), he says.

While the offer would have been a good return for Jaxtr and its investors, Guericke says Jaxtr took the funding to try to replace the multi-billion dollar industry of selling calling cards with minutes for making international calls.

Jaxtr plans to make money by charging people who use more than their allotted 100 minutes per month; he hopes to get 20 million users in the next twelve months and is planning for only around one percent of these users to pay for additional minutes.

Other returning investors include the Mayfield Fund, The Founder’s Fund and three early Skype backers: Draper Richards, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Mangrove Capital.

David Hornik, a partner at August Capital, a venture capital firm that prides itself at being at the center of Silicon Valley action, likes to wax on about the value of conferences.

He devotes a category on his blog to conferences, which has about 70 posts on the subject, even though he doesn’t post very frequently. Now he’s helped kicked off an elite unconference, arguing that you don’t learn anything from keynotes or powerpoint presentations. In a great conference, his invitation says, “the conversation in the lobby is the content.”

Called “The Lobby,” the conference will take place at the The Fairmont Orchid, The Big Island, Hawaii. It’s two and a half days, and his group has invited an A-List of individuals — including a few well-heeled sponsors, of course — to gather with no distraction to network and converse. Here’s the list, locked to outsiders, which someone slipped to VentureBeat:

Sponsors are August Capital, Fenwick & West, H Int., Intel Capital, Kodak Gallery, Mozilla, Orrick Emerging and Yahoo! We’ve yet to reach Hornik directly, but an assistant at August confirmed he is in charge.

J Allard, VP, Microsoft
Dave Alles, Media Center Extender team, Microsoft
Dr. Phillip Alvelda, Chairman and CEO, MobiTV
Chris Anderson, Editor In Chief, Wired Magazine
Marc Andreessen, Founder, Ning
Adam Bain, EVP Technology, Fox Interactive Media
Mitchell Baker, CEO, Mozilla
Jim Bankoff, Former EVP Product, AOL
Raanan Bar-Cohen, Director of Product Strategy, Dow Jones
Jeff Barr, Web Services Evangelist, Amazon
Peter Barrett, CTO, MSTV, Microsoft
Joe Belfiore, Corporate VP, eHome Group, Microsoft
Chris Bell, Director of iTunes, Apple
Rob Bennett, GM, MSN Entertainment, Microsoft
Brad Berens, Editor, iMedia
Jeff Berman, SVP, MySpace (Fox)
Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon
Angela Biever, Vice President, Intel Capital
Jeff Blackburn, VP Worldwide Business Development, Amazon
Michael Bloom, VP, Digital Music, MTV Networks
Shelby Bonnie, Co-Founder, CNET
Steve Boom, SVP, Broadband & Mobile, Yahoo
Emmanuelle Borde, Vice President, Sony Pictures Digital
Paul Bricault, SVP, William Morris Consultants
Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology, Google
Don Buckley, SVP of Interactive Marketing, Warner Brothers
Michael Buhr, Sr. Director of Corporate Strategy, eBay
Brett Bullington, Board Member, Flickr, JotSpot, Oodle, Wink
Katie Burke Mitic, VP, Mareting and Operations, Skyrider
Garrett Camp, Co-Founder, StumbleUpon
John Caplan, President, Ford Models
Sean Carey, EVP of Digital Distribution and Production Acquisition, Sony
Mike Cassidy, CEO, Xfire (Viacom)
Betty Cohen, President and CEO, Lifetime Entertainment Services
June Cohen, Director of Media, TED Conference
Kevin Cohen, SVP, Strategic Planning, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Matt Cohler, VP Strategy and Business Operations, Facebook
Beth Comstock, President, Digital Media and Market Developement NBC Universal
Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora
Kevin Conroy, EVP of Product, Marketing and Distribution, AOL
Andrew Conru, Founder and CEO, Friend Finder Network
Toby Coppel, SVP Corporate Development, Yahoo
Jonathan Coulton, Founder, JonathanCoulton.com
Sky Dayton, CEO, Helio
Lisa Ellis, EVP, Sony BMG
Tony Fadell, SVP, iPod Division, Apple
Josh Felser, Co-Founder and CEO, Grouper (Sony)
Shana Fisher, SVP of Strategy and M&A, Interactive Corp.
Erik Flannigan, VP of Programming, AOL
Jason Flom, Chairman and CEO, Virgin Records
Bill Flora, Designer, Zune, Microsoft
Tod Francis, General Partner, Shasta Ventures
Dave Geary, SVP Business Development, BetZip
Bernard Gershon, SVP and General Manager, ABC News Digital Media
Tom Glocer, CEO, Reuters
Shawn Gold, SVP, Marketing and Content, MySpace (Fox)
Seth Goldstein, Founder, AttentionSoft
Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Martin Green, SVP, CNET
Jordan Greenhall, CEO, Divx
Joe Greenstein, CEO, Flixster
Jim Greer, Founder and CEO, Kongregate
Andre Haddad, SVP Product, eBay
Brad Handler, Co-Founder, Exclusive Resorts
Heather Harde, CEO, TechCrunch
Scott Heiferman, CEO, Meetup
Jay Higginbotham, VP New Initiatives, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Brent Hoberman, Chairman and Chief Strategic Officer, Lastminute.com
Chad Hurley, Co-Founder and CEO, YouTube (Google)
Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings
Arriana Huffington, CEO, Huffington Post
Alex Kazim, SVP, Skype (eBay)
Patrick Keane, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, CBS Interactive
Kourosh Kharimkany, GM, Wired.com
Ben Kilgore, Xbox Live, Microsoft
Zach Klein, VP Development, CollegeHumor (IAC)
George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer, NBC Universal
Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot (Google)
Justin LaFrance, Co-Founder, StumbleUpon
Roger Lang, CEO, TransAria
Jim Lanzone, CEO, Ask.com
Doug Leeds, VP Products, Ask.com
Jordan Levin, Partner, Generate
Ross Levinsohn, Former President, Fox Interactive Media
Peter Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media
Ellen Levy, Director, MediaX (Stanford)
Jeremy Liew, General Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
John Lilly, COO, Mozilla
Jakob Lodwick, CTO, CollegeHumor (IAC)
Nancy Lublin, CEO, Do Something
Zander Lurie, SVP, Strategy and Development, CNET
Joel Makower, CEO, Green World Media
Mike Marquez, VP Corporate Development, CBS Interactive
Chris Maxcy, VP Business Development, YouTube (Google)
Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products and User Experience, Google
Ian McCarthy, VP Product Marketing, Orb Networks
Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO, MTV Networks
Fred McIntyre, VP of Video Products, AOL
Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Vivek Mehra, General Partner, August Capital
Rick Mueller, President, LiveNation
Chris Michel, CEO, Affinity Labs
Jon Miller, Former CEO, AOL
Perkins Miller, SVP, NBC Universal
Louis Monier, Distinguished Engineer, Google
Bob Morgan, VP and GM, Shozu
Sean Moriarty, President and CEO, Ticketmaster
Steve Mosko, President, Sony Pictures Television
Walt Mossberg, Founder, D: All Things Digital
Rajeev Motwani, Professor, Stanford Universirty, Advisor, Google
Ashwin Navin, President and COO, BitTorrent
Steve Newhouse, Chairman, CondeNet
Kent Nichols, Creator, Ask A Ninja
Martin Nisenholtz, SVP Digital Media, New York Times
Elliot Noss, CEO, Tuckows
Mathieu Nouzareth, CEO, Boonty
Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay
Thomas Oscherwitz, Chief Privacy Officer, ID Analytics
Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products, Google
DJ Patil, Corporate Architect, eBay
Sunil Paul, Angel Investor
Gil Penchina, CEO, Wikia
Chris Petrovic, VP Busines Development, Playboy
Peter Pham, VP Business Development, Photobucket
Jeremy Philips, SVP, News Corp.
Anil Podduturi, Supervising Producer, MTV Digital Media
Ariel Poler, Founder and CEO, TextMarks
Will Poole, SVP, Microsoft
Geoff Prentice, VP Strategic Partners and Corporate Development, Skype
Arvind Rajan, President and CEO, Grassroots Enterprises
David Richter, VP and General Counsel, Divx Networks
Danny Rimer, General Partner, Index Ventures
Antonio Rodriguez, CEO, Tabblo
Scott Roesch, VP and General Manager, Atom Films
Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO, Linden Labs (Second Life)
Steve Rosenbaum, CEO, Magnify Media
Richard Rosenblat, CEO, Demand Media
Bruce Rosenblum, President, Warner Brothers Television Group
Dan Rosensweig, Former COO, Yahoo
Sean Ryan, CEO, Meez
Kevin Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO, ShopWiki
Adam Rymer, SVP, Digital Platforms, Universal Pictures
Chris Sacca, Head, Special Initiatives, Google
Matt Sanchez, CEO, VideoEgg
Scott Sangster, Director, Strategy and Development, Disney Interactive Group
Chris Satchell, GM, Game Development, Xbox, Microsoft
Joshua Schachter, Founder, Delicious
Munjal Shah, Founder and CEO, Riya
Tina Sharkey, CEO, BabyCenter
Kevin Shields, GM, Media Center, Microsoft
Willy Shih, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
Ram Shriram, Board Member, Google
H.B. Siegel, Technical Director, IMDb (Amazon)
Josh Silverman, CEO, Shopping.com
Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive
Geoff Smith, Co-Founder, StumbleUpon
Megan Smith, Director, New Business Development and Strategy, Google
Rick Smolan, CEO, Against All Odds Productions
Gregg Spiridellis, Co-Founder and CEO, JibJab
Danah Stalder, SVP, Marketing and Business Operations, PayPal
Mark Stevens, Partner, Fenwick & West
Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder and CEO, Meebo
Lisa Stone, Co-Founder, BlogHer
Jeremy Stoppleman, Founder and CEO, Yelp
Kara Swisher, Founder, D: All Things Digital
Dan Surratt, EVP Digital Media, Lifetime Networks
Craig Syverson, Founder and CEO, Grunt Media
David Sze, General Partner, Greylock Capital
Peter Thiel, President, Clarium Capital
Scott Teissler, CIO and CTO, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Selina Tobaccawala, SVP, Product and Technology, Ticketmaster Europe
Bill Trenchard, Chairman, LiveOps
Owen Van Natta, COO, Facebook
Yossi Vardi, Chairman, International Technologies
Michael Van Swaaij, Chief Strategy Officer, eBay
Martin Varsavsky, Founder and CEO, Fon
Steve Venuto, Partner, Orrick
Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia
Charlie Walk, President, Epic Records
Hunter Walk, Manager, Google Video, Google
Ted Wang, Partner, Fenwick & West
Paul Wehrley, VP of Strategic Operations, Ask.com
Mark Weinberg, Director of Engineering, Zune, Microsoft
Jeff Weiner, SVP of Search, Yahoo
Steve Weinstein, President and CEO, MovieLabs
Alex Welch, Founder and CEO, Photobucket
Kara Welker, Partner, Generate
Denmark West, EVP, Chief of Operations, MTV Networks
Tim Westergren, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Pandora
Eric Wheeler, CEO, Neo@Ogilvy
Luke Wood, Head of A & R, Universal Music
Andrea Wong, EVP, Alternative Programming, ABC
Will Wright, Creator, The Sims, Spore
Sam Yagan, Co-Founder and CEO, OKCupid
Jerry Yang, Co-Founder and Chief Yahoo!, Yahoo
Jim Young, Co-Founder, HotOrNot
Niklas Zennstrom, Founder, Skype (eBay), Joost
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
Mitch Zuklie, Partner, Orrick
Jay Adelson, CEO, Digg
Andrew Anker, SVP, Six Apart
Mike Arrington, Founder and Editor In Chief, TechCrunch
John Battelle, CEO, FM Publishing
Shana Berger, Founder, Readymade
Barak Berkowitz, CEO, Six Apart
Danah Boyd, PhD Candidate, School of Information (SIMS) at Berkeley
Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder, Flickr (Yahoo)
Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur in Action, Sequoia Capital
David Carson, CEO, Heavy
Jeff Clavier, Founder, SoftTech VC
Tony Conrad, CEO, Sphere
Ron Conway, Founder, Angel Investors
Dick Costolo, Co-Founder and CEO, Feedburner
James Currier, CEO, Ooga Labs
Stan Chudnowski, CTO, Ooga Labs
Ethan Diamond, Co-Founder, Oddpost (Yahoo)
Craig Donato, Founder and CEO, Oodle
Rael Dornfest, Founder and CEO, Stikit
Caterina Fake, Co-Founder, Flickr (Yahoo)
Iggy Fanlo, CEO, AdBright
Lisa Gansky, Co-Founder, Ofoto, GNN
Brad Garlinghouse, SVP, Yahoo
John Girard, CEO, Clickability
Steve Glenn, Founder and CEO, LivingHomes
Matt Haughey, Founder, MetaFilter
Rob Hayes, General Partner, First Round Capital
Marc Hedlund, Co-Founder, Wesabe
Reid Hoffman, Founder, LinkedIn
Auren Hoffman, Founder and CEO, Rapleaf
James Hong, Founder, HotOrNot
Bradley Horowitz, VP Product Strategy, Yahoo
Joi Ito, Board Member, Mozilla, Creative Commons
Michael Jackson, President of Programming, Interactive Corp.
Mark Jacobsen, Managing General Partner, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures
James Joaquin, Venture Partner, Bridgescale
Rob Kalin, Founder and CEO, Etsy
Mitch Kapor, Chairman, Open Source Applications Foundation
Philip Kaplan, Founder, AdBright
Josh Kopelman, Managing Director, First Round Capital
Tariq Krim, Founder and CEO, Netvibes
Max Levchin, Founder and CEO, Slide
Rob Lord, Founder and CEO, Songbird
Eric Lunt, Co-Founder and CTO, FeedBurner
Om Malik, Founder and CEO, GigaOm
Matt Mullenweg, Founder, Wordpress
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craig’s List
Mark Pincus, Founder, Tribe
Tim O’Reilly, CEO, O’Reilly Publishing
Kevin Rose, Founder and Chief Architect, Digg
Ted Rheingold, Co-Founder and CEO, Dogster
Narendra Rocherolle, CEO, 30 Boxes
Toni Schneider, CEO, Wordpress
Dave Sifry, Founder and CEO, Technorati
Gina Trapani, Guru, LifeHacker
Ben Trott, Co-Founder and CTO, Six Apart
Jeff Veen, Founder, MeasureMap (Google)
Evan Williams, Founder, Obvious Corp. (Twitter)
Mena Trott, Co-Founder and President, Six Apart