News
New Platforms Fund Launched by New York based Herman blackbook
January 2, 2009 (New York, NY) - Herman blackbook (Hb), a new breed of consulting and advisory firm launches the New Platforms Fund to empower developers of applications on top of platforms such as Twitter, Boxee, AppNexus, Trulia, iPhone, and more. The goal of the fund is to seed up to 10 cutting edge ideas with both money and human capital to bring them from concept to alpha stage. New Platforms Fund investments will range from $1-3,000 each. Herman blackbook will take minor equity stakes in these ideas and concepts and help them grow.
"We are excited to launch Hb's New Platforms Fund to seed and celebrate innovation. The fund will focus on innovation that has low barriers for mainstream adoption as we find that all too often, innovation is too far ahead of the adoption curve," says Darren Herman, principal of Herman blackbook. "We know we cannot fund every idea through our door and our investment philosophy is not for everyone, but should that golden egg exist that falls beyond our investment scope, our Hb network of angel investors and venture capitalists will come in handy."
"I'm excited to see Darren put his energy and financial resources behind a focused group of innovative ideas," says former Right Media CTO and AppNexus founder/CEO Brian O'Kelley. "By focusing on early-stage opportunities to build upon innovative platforms, Herman will get immense leverage - I can't wait to see what his unique perspective on advertising will bring to the table for AppNexus"
"There is clearly a huge opportunity for developers to build applications that run on the emerging open platforms. The developer can benefit from the exponential growth of the "host" services, and the platform owner and its users benefit from having access to new services. It's a perfect symbiotic relationship. At Boxee we hope to bring some of that wild creativity into the living room. The TV screen sure needs some of that web mojo, and we're excited that Herman blackbook may help folks get us there," says Avner Ronen, CEO of Boxee.
To submit your idea for consideration, please go to http://hermanblackbook.wufoo.com/forms/new-platforms-fund/
About Us
Herman Blackbook (Hb) was founded by Darren Herman in late 2008 as an independent entity for consulting, advisory, and investments. Hb is setup to be as dynamic as the market, but the one underlying keystone is that it brings in-market world class experience to business challenges and opportunities. Hb can be found at http://www.hermanblackbook.com and is located in New York, NY.