O'Reilly invests in 'alpha geeks'

<p>Sebastopol tech publisher O'Reilly Media has raised a $51 million venture fund to invest in technology startups.</p><p>O'Reilly Media, which made a name for itself by focusing the spotlight on cutting-edge trends through its publications and conferences, will now attempt to further advance emerging technologies while cashing in on its knowledge.</p><p>O'Reilly Media will work with the fund, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, to identify business opportunities evolving from technology.</p><p>"O'Reilly has a long history of spotting trends by watching the alpha geeks," Tim O'Reilly, founder and chief executive of O'Reilly Media, said in a statement. "With OATV, we can now invest more directly in the opportunities we uncover."</p><p>Alpha geeks are enthusiasts who tinker with hardware, software and other technologies, often pushing the limits of what is possible.</p><p>"By watching what they are doing we get a good sense of where technology is going," said Bryce Roberts, managing director of the fund. "We have all the resources of O'Reilly Media behind us."</p><p>Roberts operates the fund in San Francisco with fellow Managing Director Mark Jacobson.</p><p>Roberts previously worked for another venture fund, Wasatch Venture Fund. Jacobson joined O'Reilly Media in 1995 and worked as executive vice president for new ventures and business development, managing the company's investment portfolio.</p><p>The O'Reilly AlphaTech fund will target emerging technologies in fields like Web 2.0 services, do-it-yourself and personal fabrication movements, mobility and telephony applications and renewable power. The company either holds conferences in these areas or has publications devoted to the topics, and in many cases both.</p><p>O'Reilly Media is credited with coining the term "Web 2.0," which describes Web sites like Wikipedia and MySpace that cater to user interaction.</p><p>The company has made investments intermittently over the years, but the venture fund formalizes and focuses those efforts, Roberts said.</p><p>"The impetus of the fund was to take those investments to the next level," he said. "This is a fresh start. New funds."</p><p>The venture fund, which was founded in 2005 by O'Reilly, Jacobson and Roberts, finished raising its funds last week. About $35million was raised from people influential in the technology community, and the other $16million came from institutional investors, Roberts said.</p><p>The fund has announced investments in three California companies: Chumby Industries, Instructables and Wesabe.</p><p>Chumby, based in San Diego, manufactures an alarm clock-looking gadget that connects to the Internet via WiFi or computer and can run programs downloaded from the Internet, varying from personalized slide shows to a stock ticker.</p><p>Instructables, based in Alameda, is a Web site dedicated to do-it-yourself projects.</p><p>Wesabe, based in Berkeley, is a community-oriented Web site focused on helping people get their finances in order.</p><p>It takes between three and five years to get a good feel for what the return on the investments will be, Roberts said.</p>