
What Entrepreneurs Should Know About Raising Money From Google Ventures - jaybol
http://gigaom.com/2010/05/03/what-entrepreneurs-should-know-about-raising-money-from-google-ventures/
======
adrianwaj
_Google Ventures wants to find promising companies that Google can help,
rather than companies that will “wholly” help Google, said Maris._

An irony is that one area where Google can help is with scaling, but as soon
as Google Ventures opens up any portfolio companies up to its IT
infrastructure (after months of learning and confidentiality agreements) such
companies become locked in, and much less acquirable to anyone but Google due
to their proprietary nature. So too integrating with internal systems and
middleware.

Besides for an investment, I think the underlying philosophy of GV as being
the notion of what can Google take from the portfolio company rather than the
other way round could well apply (if Google's going to be a first customer,
they may as well own a bit!). GV would be a good way to capture the ingenuity
of Googlers who leave (or want to leave) to start up: Google is better
positioned to access and capitalize on such companies without them having to
be acquired first.

In any case, one area where GV could help is marketing of its portfolio
companies on the main site, say alongside Google Labs.

One idea that'd be interesting is if VigLink, a GV portfolio company, used
Chrome so that users could claim affiliate revenue for any affiliate links
coming through the browser. At the moment VigLink only works for webmasters,
but why not users through a plugin? This has been an idea of mine called
backscam. Good way for Chrome (or other browsers) to pickup more users by
using VigLink's business model.

