Olson’s Observations

I saw on Scoble’s blog the other day that CNN and Business 2.0 had put together a cool article in which top VCs say what idea they want to fund, how much they’ll write a check for and list their e-mail addresses so entrepreneurs can pitch them. Apparently the article is a couple of months old but for some reason I never caught it. Even considering the age of the piece I still think it is worth discussing.

Out of the 20 company ideas listed I think these are the three most interesting:

1. The Ultimate iDrive
2. A Better Energizer
3. The eBay of Product Placement

The Ultimate iDrive

The premise for the Ultimate iDrive is to have a computer in the dash of a car with a keyboard in the steering wheel and a full screen heads up display projected on the windshield. The investors are looking to invest $5mm to a 20 person team for a prototype and a plan to pitch a commercial version to automakers within three years.

I originally wondered about the safety of this system (especially since I commute on my bike and almost get hit every single day by cars) but I suppose, as Fram says in the article, it will be safer for people checking their e-mail on a heads up display so they can still look forward. If you think you’ve got this company down you can send your pitch to Jonathan Fram (jfram@maveron.com).

A Better Energizer

I don’t think there is any questions that we all need better batteries. Technology has advanced so much in the past 10 to 20 years while the battery has pretty much remained stagnant. There is a huge opportunity for the team that comes up with a better battery since most device makers will use them and devices are increasingly mobile.

Samir Kaul and famed investor Vinod Khosla are looking to fund a better battery to the tune of $2mm for a team of 10 - 15 to show proof of concept. The concept: a lithium-ion battery with five times the life of anything found in today’s portable devices. If you think you’re up for this challenge shoot your plan to cj@khoslaventures.com.

The eBay of Product Placement

This one is more up my alley in terms of being able to understand it since I am in the media space (read: I will talk about this one a bit longer). Apparently it is very hard for brand managers to find product placement opportunities in movies and TV shows these days since they are so scattered and there is no central listing. That said, Roger Lee, a general partner at Battery Ventures, is willing to fund a site that will aggregate product placement opportunities and place them into an online listing where brand managers can bid on them.

Roger also thinks value could be added at the statistical level. This start-up could provide data back to the brand advertiser like viewership tracking and box-office figures compared against sales of the product or service in order to create an “product placement effectiveness” score/metric.

The one problem with this start-up is a classic supply and demand issue. You need enough opportunities on the site for big brand managers to notice and you need big brand managers to get the Hollywood studios to spend time sending you the opportunities. While this problem can probably be solved fairly easily (basically these product placement opportunities are found money for the studios so they’ll probably work with you a bit and allow for a ramp up) I also see another solution for the issue: online media.

Why not start off by catering to the guys like Ask A Ninja, French Maid TV and Something to be Desired? Not only are these guys eager to earn more money with their creations they are also more able to insert product placements on the fly and work with you as you ramp. Since they are also smart about technology and are show producers they will be able to give you great feedback on how to build the system. Get a couple of these guys going, get some feedback, iterate and then start showing the big studios and brand managers. I think it could work.

If you’re up for the challenge Roger is willing to plunk down $6mm to get the site developed and running in 18 months. Not bad at all. Shoot your plan to rlee@battery.com.

One More Idea and One that’s Done

Steve Krausz from U.S. Venture Partners is looking to drop $2mm on an ad solution for vlogs. To get the $2mm you’ll need proof of concept and sign-on from some top-advertisers. This caught my eye because I think that the “eBay of product placement” idea, if started as I suggested, could serve this need as well.

With new forms of media the best advertising message is one that blends in with the media. This is not to say that traditional pre, post and mid roll ads won’t work. They are working and working well. However, I bet that product placement integrated into the media in tasteful ways may suit the audience better. I’d love to see the “eBay idea” and the “vlog” idea combine to form a slick product placement network for media from the head of the tail all the way down the slope (man, if I only had a venture fund behind me!).

Now, to the one that’s done. Amanda Reed from Palomar Ventures is looking to invest $5mm for a web-based spreadsheet platform that will allow better sharing, viewing and updating in organizations. Seems like Google now has that covered with Google Spreadsheets. Sure, its lacking in places but if they continue to work on I think it’ll be indispensable to businesses. I like the platform now even with it’s limited functionality.

I suppose the one down side is that you can’t put the platform behind your firewall. Since a lot of spreadsheet data is confidential I would see the need for a web-based platform that sits behind a companies firewall. If you think you want to give this a shot send an e-mail and a plan to businessplans@palomarventures.com.

The End…

Some of these ideas are a lot of fun and it’ll be exiting to see what breaks out of the mix. If any of you guys reading this are going to attempt any of these ideas please give me a shout (eric@ventureweek.com) and let me know how your pitches go!

To read all of the ideas and get all the details click here.

Photo Credit: Joshua Davis (aka articnomad) on flickr