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VC firm creates the AppFactory, a fast-track program for entrepreneurs developing applications for Facebook Platform
MENLO PARK, CA – JULY 11, 2007 – Bay Partners, a Silicon Valley-based early stage venture capital firm with over $1B under management, today announced the AppFactory, a program for funding entrepreneurs writing applications for Facebook Platform. Bay Partners is targeting tens of investments of $25,000 to $250,000 using a flexible, fast-track approval process.
"We're excited by the entrepreneurial opportunities arising from Facebook's new open platform architecture," said Salil Deshpande, Partner at Bay Partners. "Facebook, in essence, has become the Social Operating System. Historically, the creation of an operating system, or a platform, has always led to a new economy which includes a marketplace of applications that are optimally designed for that platform and its user base. Bay wants to find the killer apps, whatever they may be, for this new social OS; and with the AppFactory, we will help entrepreneurs discover, build, and monetize them."
Bay's AppFactory program was created in response to the recently released Facebook platform, a development platform that enables companies and engineers to integrate applications into the Facebook website and offers them an opportunity to build businesses around those applications.
"Internet start-ups have traditionally had to not only build a service, but also to find a way to attract millions of users and to make it possible for them to interact in meaningful ways," said Angela Strange, Senior Associate Partner at Bay Partners. "Facebook Platform provides an alternative to the destination-site approach that may be more viable and attractive for certain types of applications. By building on top of Facebook Platform, distribution can be dramatically expedited by leveraging an active user base of 29 million and growing."
Since AppFactory investments are really bets on people and concepts, Bay will use an aggressive timeline and fast-track approach to awarding AppFactory funding. An entrepreneur's time is best spent developing the application and experimenting with variables that affect adoption, virality, and usage, while exploring reasonable theories about monetization. Bay Partners thus looks at the AppFactory as an accelerated relationship starter with tomorrow's innovators. In addition to the dollars, Bay commits technical and business resources, and a community of "Factory Entrepreneurs," all part of a program designed to ensure the business success of these application entrepreneurs.
"We are already starting to see developers use Amazon Web Services to build applications for the Facebook platform. This is happening because software developers know that their applications could become overnight successes and therefore may need to scale quickly and reliably. Amazon Web Services helps developers do this simply and affordably," said Steve Rabuchin, Director of Developer Relations, Amazon Web Services. "We hope to see even more developers build applications for Facebook using Amazon Web Services as a result of Bay Partners' new support system for entrepreneurs."
"We have an active development community of several thousand Ajax developers, who now regard Facebook as a viable platform upon which to build compelling apps," said Dion Almaer, founder of Ajaxian.com, recently acquired by TechTarget (Nasdaq: TTGT). "We're excited to collaborate with Bay Partners to further the AppFactory ecosystem."
"Not only is Facebook's business move brilliant, but from a technical standpoint, the API is deep, sophisticated and well-architected, yet also easy to use and adopt," said Salil Deshpande. "Due to Facebook's lead, other social networks, when they open up their APIs, may be forced to design their APIs to be at least compatible, if not identical to Facebook's -- thus aggressively investing in Facebook applications is completely sensible."
Bay's "AppFactory" program is being led by Salil Deshpande and Angela Strange. Entrepreneurs interested in applying for Factory grants should contact Deshpande or Strange at appfactory@baypartners.com.
More information about Bay Partners' AppFactory program can be found at:
http://baypartners.com/appfactory.
About Bay Partners
Bay Partners is a Silicon Valley-based early stage venture capital firm that has been building successful technology companies since 1976, and has funded more than 350 startups. Notable successes from Bay's portfolio include Brocade, Concord Communications, Exodus, Sonicwall, Placeware, Informatica, Weblogic, Digital Island and NetScaler. Bay is currently investing its eleventh venture fund and has over $1 billion under management. Bay invests in early stage companies either through the seed track ($250K-$750K) in bold out-of-the-box capital-efficient ideas or through the more typical early stage track ($1M-$7M) in early product development stage of a company. With the launch of the AppFactory, Bay also invests ($25K-$250K) in Facebook Applications.
Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.
Media Contact:
Caroline Traylor
512.241.2239
Caroline.Traylor@porternovelli.com
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