The Post Money Value

Blackberry Partners Fund: Memo to Windows Mobile Developers

Two words: We Fund em (em isn't a word)

My buddy Mark Relph has a post up about the Blackberry Partners Fund.  I agree, three cheers for Canada and this fund being headquartered here.

He also says:

I had to read Rick’s post twice to notice something -

“we aren't sharing plans or getting sign off from anyone, including RIM, on the investments”

“What Platforms?  All of them. No, really, all of them.  Does that mean if somebody has an application on another mobile device but it isn't running on a RIM device we would fund them? Assuming it was a good investment, yes.  We would expect the RIM devices to be on the roadmap and would certainly fund for that roadmap.”

Correct. Right. Uh Huh. Yep.

And:

"So – if you have a business idea in development on Windows Mobile let us know.  If it’s great, we can go from there…"

I agree. Drop by my office as well, we're in the funding business and great ideas are what we are looking for.

Blackberry Partners Fund: Day Two

• 845 email messages so far. We've been a bit busy.
• 100 speeding dating meetings here at the WES Conference in Orlando with my partners from JLA and RBC. Rumor has it the sun was out.
• 845 emails from around the world and exactly ONE person attached a .VCF. Ben Marcel of Baton Rouge, LA, come on down you've won a free Term Sheet.
• 22 Countries represented in the email flow.
• 8 people wanting tech support for their Blackberry
• 1 person placing an order for the Blackberry Bold WITH a credit card
• 1 person giving me 24 hours to review the company before they were "forced to seek capital elsewhere."
• 12 "sent from my iPhone" emails (tacky people, tacky)
• 82 people wanting to know about funding to port their Palm app to the RIM devices.
• 6 people complaining about Verizon but the IP addresses suggest they are all coming from Mike Arrington's computers.

And my favorite stat of all:

• 24 full business plans WITH NDA's accompanying them.

I LOVE THIS GIG!

How to be authentically fake

A few posts back, I mentioned a company called Projjex.  I poked fun at the team who appeared to be in this photo:

Fast forward to last week when Paul and Leila of Idee Inc, my favorite visual search company.  They were kind enough to let me check out their new product, TinEye. 

It's pretty neat and I wanted to give it a whirl. So, I put in the picture you see above (with my annotations) and (drum roll, can you guess what's coming up?) this picture is a stock photograph which can be purchase here.  Yeah, really.

The caption under this photo reads: "Group portrait of cultural creative business people cheering". 

But wait! There's more.  So now, I'm intrigued even more and decide to dig into the web site a bit more. 

We have this Projjex testimonial from Lawrence:

 

Sweet, eh? Happy customer in Philadelphia.  But, of course, ol Larry here gets around. He has a summer home in British Columbia, Canada.  How do I know? Simple, he is the poster boy for the Success Stories at BC Hydro.  See below:

And in an amazing coincidence, Larry was wearing the same shirt in BC as he was in Philly. Two words, Larry: Bold Detergent.

Lessons for you? Suck up to Leila and Paul. Check out the software they are building and run a check on the stock photography you are using; you never know who else is doing the same voodoo as you.

I'm sure there are a number of people out there with varying opinions on this stuff.  My own is fairly simple.  If I am looking to shoot a 'team shot', I'd use my own people.  And for testimonials? Certainly not Larry! Seems a bit, well, uncool to me.  Your mileage may vary.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Why I am still a proud Microsoft Alumni

Take a kid and head over to this web site.  Amazing.

Mobile Fund: How We Do It In Canada

JLA Ventures and our friends at RBC Venture Partners have teamed up and are co-managing a new $150 million dollar Venture Fund called the Blackberry Partners Fund.  I thought I'd put up a post that will give you the simple facts, process, and opportunities for you.  If you remember nothing else, the simple message is there is a new $150 million dollar fund dedicated to investing in the mobile space and your friendly Canadian venture firms are ready start talking to you. Any mobile platform. Any of them. Come speak to us.

Some background

The prime motivation: To make good investments that have excellent returns for our limited partners.  We collectively believe that with the arrival of super smart/fast/functional devices sitting on top of super fast networks, a radical change in usage was going to happen just as rapidly as the changes which were brought about by the hyper-expansion of the Internet infrastructure.  Before that, by the way, was the telegraph.

[Bonus: If you can find it, get a book called "The Victorian Internet" by Tom Standage.  This book is a roadmap to all that has been and it coming. Again.]

What We are Doing

This is a standard Private Equity Venture Fund with all the associated characteristics.  The fund is an independent and arms length from any of the Limited Partners.  It means that the investing decisions are made by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners collaboratively. No other party is involved.  Are we going to get help from Thomson? Absolutely. Are we going to ask RBC Bank for an opinion? Without Question.  But we aren't sharing plans or getting sign off from anyone, including RIM, on the investments. 

What We are Targeting

The Fund has a broad mandate but will be looking for applications and services in the following areas:

• Mobile commerce (payments, advertising, retailing and consumer banking)
• Vertical and horizontal enterprise applications
• Communications
• Social Networking
• Location-base services (navigation and mapping)
• Media and entertainment
• Lifestyle and personal productivity

What Platforms?

All of them. No, really, all of them.  Does that mean if somebody has an application on another mobile device but it isn't running on a RIM device we would fund them? Assuming it was a good investment, yes.  We would expect the RIM devices to be on the roadmap and would certainly fund for that roadmap. 

The word of the day - Partnership

That's the fun/joy out of working in Canada; the partnerships.  I was involved, up close and personal, to witness the CEOs of Canada's biggest and most successful companies argue passionately for partnerships.  That's the real story in my view.  For example, it's too bad everyone couldn't be in the room listening to Jim Balsillie speak passionately about Canada, the great opportunities and how RIM was excited/delighted to be a part of this initiative.  The same can be equally said for chief executives of RBC and Thomson Reuters.  It was great.

Come talk with us as we'd like to fund some great companies. Including, maybe yours.