Betaworks

Betaworks is a startup studio that builds and invests in next generation internet companies. Founded in 2008, betaworks is a company of builders. A tightly linked network of ideas, people, capital, products and data brought together in imaginative ways to build out a more connected world. At first glance we seem to do many things. But first and foremost, we're builders, seeking to create a more sustainable innovation model. The more we build, the more we learn, the more we get ideas for peripheral things, all related, connected -- in a loosely coupled network of products and companies. betaworks is structured as a company-- a single company that owns larger pieces of the things it has built and smaller pieces of the things it has invested in. It operates as a network: a tightly linked network of ideas, people, capital, and data united to build out a more inspired and useful connected world. betaworks makes seed-stage investments in this ecosystem. To us, seed investing means "first money in." Our typical investment size is $150,000-200,000. We always invest as part of a syndicate of angels and early stage VCs. Our requirements from an investment perspective are simple, though narrow. Investments must be early stage, heavily tech focused, and have a working (public or private) prototype. We are a powerpoint-free zone. We build and work closely with companies that we view as core to our vision, examples include: Summize/Twitter Search, bitly, TweetDeck, Chartbeat. And more recently, Digg, Dots, Giphy and Instapaper, which betaworks acquired in April of 2013. We attract the kind of people who could start their own company, but they don't necessarily want to run a company. They'd rather be the co-founder of eight things than tied down for years as the sole founder of one. They'd rather build.