Capital Chaos

 Seesmic (San Francisco) finally broke the news on its $6M Series A funding which it had actually closed in Sepetember, 2007.  The news cames as Loic Meur used his blog to disclose both the rationale and what it means to the company.  While the round was led by Atomico (Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis of Kazaaa and Skype fame), it also included roughly 13 other smaller investors including Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

The company is a video-sharing site which encourages conversational clips - think of it as “Twitter of video” as it is often referred to.  It is a means where people can post comments via video and others can respond - similar to that of comments that are left on a blog topic in text but this is in video format.

Seesmic has roughly 1,500 test users who are a helping out the alpha mode the company is in right now. Obviously the question that will arise is when is video babbling just too much?  There is going to be a tipping point in which other users are willing to watch someone rant about something and conceivably speaking, if they are not engaged they just wont watch - sounds like a new form of TV doesnt it?  While Seesmic does “proof” the videos so they can remain short and sweet and even at times splices them just for the “better content”, that may be easy to do with 1,500 users but should this venture be successful the question is going to be how are you going to do it when you have 150,000 users? 

My guess is that Seesmic will end up seeing a variation of its service be applied to online dating sites which are already sticky by nature and offer a platform where this type of technology can be best utilized because of its interactive nature.  However, it may also be possible that Seesmic can develop its own UGP (user generated programming) by which they can get a number of people to offer up start videos that others may find engaging.  In either case, there are some pretty high-profile investors in this entity such as: Ron Conway, VC Jeff Clavier, Steve Case, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Jeff Pulver of Pulver.com, Martin Varsavsky of FON, Michael Parekh, Ariel Poler, Dan Gillmor, Steve Garfield, and Mark Pincus to name a few.

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 Atomico considers themselves a “risk capital group” simply because most of their investments are made in early stage companies and are usually in seed or Series A rounds.  These guys just know their stuff.  As pioneers of some of the webs most disruptive technologies (Kazaa, Skype) and investors in the same (Joost, Jawbone, last.fm, Technorati etc.) they seem to have the Midas touch for understanding web applications.

With such a diverse understanding of the web and applications, the key with pitching these guys is not only to express your passion for your idea but also understand the ramifications of what you engaging in.  While there is always room for other players in pre-existing markets, what must set you apart is how your business rises above the noise and ends up becoming the noise. 

As former and current entrepreneurs, they know the situation you are in and are very sensitive to it.  As established winners in the space, they understand some of the pitfalls you may encompass along the way - including going up against other major competitors or even a government or two.

If you are interested in pitching them, best bet is to submit a business plan to - businessplans@atomicoinvestments.com or see them at a convention and just walk up and introduce yourself.  These guys make an incredible partner if you are lucky enough to captivate their interest.