There is a very excited startup out there called Baydin that is about to close its first angel round of financing. One of the investors, at least, is Dave McClure’s 500 Startups.
How did they get McClure to invest? By giving him a ride from a meeting to his mechanic.
Then, my girlfriend noticed Dave’s tweet that said he was looking for a ride to his mechanic. Anyone who picked him up could pitch him on the way. Figuring dignity is for the unfunded, I threw on yesterday’s clothes, hopped on 101, and headed over to Buck’s to give Dave McClure a lift.
The pickup happened, although CEO Alexander Moore seemed a little annoyed that McClure was on the phone for the first part of the ride. But by the end of the “meeting” Dave was hooked and committed to invest $50,000 or $100,000.
I spoke to McClure today about this. He says he’s done this two other times – once in Seattle and once in Boston – but this was the first time he’s made an investment.
“You did this without any due diligence or research into the company,” I asked. His answer - “Yes, but I had a referral from someone.”
“Do you feel like you have an obligation to invest when you get a ride from someone?” I asked Dave. “Psychologically speaking, that’s probably accurate,” he said.
Ok. My last words to Dave included a pointer to UberCab, which we wrote about last night. It might be a less expensive way for him to get around town in the future. Meanwhile, if you’re a startup and you need cash fast, just start following Dave around wherever he goes, and hope that he needs a ride.
Baydin makes email management tools that help customers spend less time wrestling with email and more time doing meaningful work. Products by Baydin Boomerang for Gmail provides the same ability to receive a message when it is actually needed, as well as adding the ability to send an email at a scheduled time. Boomerang is also available for Outlook. The Email Game is the fastest, most fun way to manage your email. http://emailga.me Boomerang Calendar is a smart calendar assistant, built into Gmail...
500 Startups is an early-stage seed fund and incubator program located in Mountain View, CA. They invest primarily in consumer & SMB internet startups, and related web infrastructure services. Their initial investment size is typically $25K-$250K. Selected areas of interest include financial services & e-commerce, search/social/mobile platforms, personal & business productivity, education & language, family & healthcare and web infrastructure.
Dave McClure is a venture capitalist & the founding general partner at 500 Startups, an internet seed fund and startup accelerator program in Mountain View, CA. Dave has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over twenty years, and has worked with companies such as PayPal, Mint, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twilio, Simply Hired, O’Reilly Media, Intel, & Microsoft. He also likes to play ultimate frisbee when his knees don’t hurt. Dave has been an investor in over 100...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
San Francisco
