Venture investors have various strategies for coping with the information overload and potential deal opportunities that can come their way.
Some rely on their trusted network and follow people with a good reputation into a round; others look at the hype cycle and try and invest ahead of the bulge; and others take the Remington approach and buy what they like using, which can be anything from pubs to lingerie shops to the makers of the plastic trophies used to record their deals.
David Sacks fell into the third category when he said: “I found Houzz as I was remodeling my own home.”
With Sacks’s help, Houzz, a US-based website for home renovations, raised $35m in its series C round – this week’s Big Deal. But Sacks also pulled in his network to fill out the cheque. “I’m delighted to join an amazing group of investors like Alfred Lin [partner at Sequoia], [ex-Apax Partners partner] Oren Zeev, Hany Nada [founder of GGV], Paul Hsiao [partner at NEA] and Mary Meeker [partner at KPCB].”
He did not mention the corporate venturing unit from cable company Comcast, which also invested in the C round. But Comcast Ventures’ involvement could potentially help Houzz in an interesting direction – providing content for a cable show.
Given the never-ending popularity of house remodelling shows, and with an obvious client list of rich-and-interesting folks, such as Sachs, it could be an interesting opportunity: “Use our service and would you like to be on television?”
Sachs was the founder of Yammer, which was sold to software provider Microsoft last year, and author of The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford’ alongside PayPal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
Comcast was unavaible to comment on this potential opportunity but it could possibly bring in a broader audience than Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, executive-produced by Randi Zuckerberg (sister to Facebook co-founder Mark).
It would be an interesting commissioning meeting to attend though.
