The Corporate Investor
I’ve made a lot of investments over the years with corporations as partners in the investor syndicate. It’s never a perfect fit. I shared some of my thoughts on the subject last week with Matt Richtel of the New York Times and he included a couple of them in this article which ran late last week. I just saw it today.
Comments (Archived):
Funny he didn’t mention the Times past investment in http://www.newstand.com.
It is interesting that you have not had good luck with these corporate partners. Our experience so far has been really great in having partners such as NBC and Time Warner. The value they gain is multiplied by the true partnership and value that the two organizations bring each other. This value is more than the measure of the investment, but the ability to have an existing top down relationship that provides a momentum based relationship for both parties.The funding is important to the start-up, and the larger media company can continue to tap into leading edge technology and services. The ability for these larger media companies to cut through the bureaucracy within their own organizations and connect from a top down can become extremely valuable and can accelerate their utilization of more cutting edge technology.Of course I don’t know the long term impact of these investments, we were lucky to have VC’s at comScore during the slowdown in corporate spending. I have no clue what would have happened during the series D if comScore had loaded up with strategic investors, but I am sure it wouldn’t have been pretty. I do think some of the corporate strategic investments could have helped gain traction and also provide a flexible and learning oriented relationship for the larger media companies. I have seen it first hand, and it is working very well.
I am looking for a corporate investor. This is a start up company, we have been in business for about 20 months and we are running out of capital. If you would be interested in investing into this business. Contact me at [email protected]