Angel investor seeks geek chic innovations

The program, dubbed ‘Geeksville’, targets projects in Australia and offers successful applicants angel funding, mentoring and business resources.

According to Ian Naylor, Chief Technology Officer of Geekdom, the program aims to ‘bridge the gap’ between budding and business-ready stages of an idea.

“Typically VCs will not fund an idea from inception,” Naylor explained. “Effectively, they are stage two investors once the business has been bootstrapped for a period and a modicum of success has been achieved.”

“The core area of our business is developing with investment in mind,” he said. “Using our venture capital connections, we have a good idea of what has a chance to be picked up.”

Geeksville was formed early this year, when Geekdom executives realised that its core Web site development business structure could support external as well as internal innovations.

The incubation program has now been running for six months and is slated to publically launch its first batch of start-up companies soon.

A six month time to market is among a loose set of selection criteria for Geeksville hopefuls. Other criteria include: innovative ideas for the online market; and a project’s manageability.

While the incubator program has a distinct focus on Australian innovations, it encourages applicants to focus on both local and international markets to create scalable opportunities.

Along with salary, resources, mentoring and business structure, successful applicants also receive access to other resources within Geekdom’s parent organisation, the Photon Group.

The Photon Group encompasses more than 50 other companies, including strategic communications company Love, Naked Communications, and European public relations consultancy Hotwire.

“As an incubator we see our value not just in providing money, but structure and resources,” Naylor told iTnews, “so really the less you [applicants] have, other than the idea, the more value we can add.”

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