Here’s a new feature: BE THE VC!  This is where YOU get to make some preliminary evaluations about tech companies. Pretend you are a VC, or rather, a key employee at a major VC. You’ve been asked to take a preliminary look a couple of companies and decide whether you want to invest the time to investigate the company further for the potential of giving them what may be millions in venture capital funding.

There are two companies on your desk today for preliminary evaluation.  You have no business plans, no marketing plans, and no executive summaries to review.  Your boss simply emailed you and wrote,“take a look at these companies and tell me what you think.”  Ready? Let’s start by reading your boss’s email.

“There are two companies I want you to briefly check out and tell me what you think.  The first one my husband told me about. It’s called ‘Big String.com.’  Check it out, it’s some email thing or something.  Lotta people use email. Could be cool. 

The second one is called Inspot.com.  I dunno about that one. My doctor told me about it, but I don’t want to discuss that.  Also, I left a bottle of pills on my desk and can’t find them. My back is bad and I can’t look under my desk, could you come over to myoffice later and help me look?”

Fair enough, you think. You proceed first to the Big String  site.  “Wow!” you think, “pretty interesting.”  As you read the promotional material on the site, you see that they provide an email service  that allows a person to control emails in some novel ways.

For example:

You can keep people from permanently storing your emails.

You can keep your messages or attachments such as photos from being forwarded.  (You wonder at this point, “yeah, but can you keep them from being printed and rescanned?”  You make a note about that and move forward.)

You notice that the technology mentioned is “Patent Pending.”   Okay, but you remind yourself that a patent is not a patent until it is granted.  Then you think, “but, hey, this does sound novel, good chance it could be patented.” You make another note to discuss the possibility of the patent being granted with your in house patent counsel and move on.

Reading more, you learn that the Big String technology can allow you to destroy email that you have sent.  “Hmm, oh boy,” you muse to yourself, “I sure could have used THAT feature a few times.”  You notice that emails can be edited after you send them, too.  You figure that such a feature could be wonderful as long as you changed or destroyed an email BEFORE someone readit.  You wonder if they have the technology to lock up an email and where the receiver cannot open it without calling you on the phone? That could be a good safety feature….

So far, you like what you see. You notice a link to the Over the Counter stock exchange, what is often referred to as the “Fourth Market.” You follow the link.

Zounds! Their stock is trading for 27 cents a share?!  You wonder for a moment. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You like their concept, and think for a moment about buying a few thousand shares.  Then you return to the job at hand. What to tell the boss about this company?

You need to send her a brief email.  What do you say at this point? Think about it for a moment. I’ll wait.

Okay…here’s what you say…

Boss Lady:

“Big String looks extremely interesting. I would need to  know if their technology is likely patentable. We might want to discuss the issue with our in house patent lawyer to get some general feedback. I propose we meet with Big String and discuss investment with them. Let’s get their business plan and check it out. We will probably want to see their patent applications and have access to their patent lawyer.

They could certainly have a great sustainable unfair advantage here. One downside is that people may have to use their software—this could retard adoption maybe, as it would add on an extra burden for people whouse Outlook, AOL, etc. I don’t know about that, so we should ask. I’m not sureat this point, I will have to read more about how their system actually works, but I am intrigued.

I don’t know anything about their executive team at this  point.  We need to know much more about that issue.

Their stock is at 27 cents per share on the OTC. It strikes me as somewhat odd that they are on the OTC, but we’ll have to ask them about that. This may cause some issues if we go IPO with them, let’s talk to our CFO about that. I am not sure how it works regarding converting from the OTC to NASDAQ and so forth. Do we have to go private, buy back the stock and then go to the exit strategy we really want? I really don’t know at this point.

Bottom Line: let’s contact them and start the discussions with them. I recommend you schedule a meeting with their CEO.  Perhaps you can review their business plan etc first and also send it to me for my review and we’ll go from there.  I’m excited to learn more about these guys. This  company has been around for several years and it looks like they finally came across a technology worth crowing about. Their site runs very slow, they may have some financial issues as they have been in business for quite a while and are perhaps struggling, it’s hard to tell at this point. You should find out if they are in debt, if they have had previous rounds of funding and so forth right off the bat. Anyway, they look cool at this point, so let’s learn more. “

You send off the email and think “hmm, wish I had that BigString thingie NOW, sometimes I want to tweak an email I send to the boss afterI send it.”

You then turn your attention to Inspot.com.  Hmm, that can’t be right. What you findi s a company that is involved in something other than the subject you were expecting to see.  So, you give  “In spot.ORG” a try. Jackpot! “Silly boss, you’d think she would, oh, nevermind…”

What the heck? Inspot.org provides a system where you can anonymously send a greeting card to a person that alerts them that you might have exposed them to asexually transmitted disease.”

Okay, that’s useful, you think. Sort of. Well, okay, it’s useful, sure. Easier to send an email then talk to a person in person. Kind of chicken, but better than not telling them.

You muse:

“Just how many people would use this thing? Well…I guess people who have a LOT of sexual partners who are having sex with people whohave a LOT of sexual partners. But, if you had a girl friend, and you sent it to her, odds are she would know it came from you unless she has a lot of other sexual partners. “

But what alarms you is the possibility of abuse of the system.  People sending emails to other people….”Hey, sorry about the STD! You’re really screwed now.  Hahahahahh!”  You shudder.  You notice that inspot.org claims that abuse has been low for them. “Sure,” you think, “until people really discover this site! Then look out!”

Hmm, that makes you take a look at their traffic. Aha! Their traffic is very low….

What do you tell your boss?

Here you go…

Boss:

Inspot.org is very interesting and they provide a much needed social service. The ability to tell people that you have exposed them to a STD without revealing one’s identity is no doubt a very valuable service that benefits humanity.  Their site traffic is very low. I have noticed some news stories about the site and their service, so their traffic could go up shortly. However, I predict that if their traffic goes up it will probably be due to bad guys discovering the site and using it to harass innocent people. Inspot.org has to figure out how to deal with that problem before it occurs.

They are probably a not for profit anyway.  Yep, I just looked, not for profit for sure. I wish them well, their cause is noble to the max, but I think they have a world of heartache coming their way with bogus emails being sent through their system once word gets out about their site. They REALLY better figure out a work around for that asap. Anyway, this one is not for us for a lot of reasons, but I sure wish them well.

I will come by later today and help you find your medicine. Talk to you soon