Gadgetory

when most people think about Android in its origins they think of andy rubin who is largely credited as being the father of what is now the world's most widely used mobile operating system but Ruben didn't do it all on his own he had a lot of help from many brilliant people including his co-founder rich minor minor helped develop and expand Android into the powerhouse we now today these days minors a general partner at Google Ventures the search giant's investment on his job is to find the latest trends and up-and-coming companies in the mobile technology world for google ventures to invest in if minor likes what he sees he could be a life changer with Google's coffers on hand he can be a Rainmaker of sorts definitely tight securities they didn't quite do a cotton swab but we got registered anyway so we're in I swing a little bit more though while I do this maybe it'll be more fun I just don't know why a carrier is gonna want this you like this all right we found one customer for the nokia phone all right damn big screen reasonably responsive I'm just tickled to see Nokia with Android and soon to be Microsoft with Android how good is that when we're looking to invest in startups I mean the key thing is you're investing in teams and people you know you're also hopefully they're working on something that's interesting and that you think you can help out with or at least in my case I like to think you know either myself or Google Ventures can help out with what they're trying to build but it always starts with the people and then the vision and what they're trying to build and then ultimately what's the market are you going to you know their way to monetize it but that's a tertiary issue Google Ventures became a venture capital firm that takes Google's massive storehouse of cash and invest it in startups across a variety of industries since 2009 it's invested in over 225 companies including well-known names such as uber and nest it differentiates itself from other VC firms by offering a support network and close access to Google engineers and services for the companies invest in it's almost like boot camp for new startups but with a Google esque Flair while some companies like nest go on to be acquired by and integrated into google that's not the goal of the ventures team in fact some of its investments have even been purchased by Google's competitors such as stamped and Astrid both of which ended up in the arms of Yahoo with a strong background in mobile technology and a doctor in computer science minor is involved in a lot of the investments in mobile companies made by google ventures that's why you can find them at massive trade shows like Mobile World Congress looking for the next big thing they say Biggers better right curves screen but I don't think I want to show up that one around we've certainly made decisions to invest in the company when we've joined those companies here on the show floor and seeing the kind of interest that they've had in the attraction that they've had oh boy I'm actually you can edit later oh yeah Mobile World Congress and other shows offer a density of information and new products and make it easier to spot trends than through other means over 70,000 people attended the show this year and hundreds of companies were showing off their wares and ideas even big players such as samsung and nokia used to show to launch important new devices in their lineups seeing what's new and actually getting to get a real world feel of it is one of minors many goals there from which he can infer trends for future technologies well clearly the quality of the phones I think coming from a lot of the Asian manufacturers and Chinese manufacturers are matching the quality that you see from some of the more established brands so now it'll be interesting to see how they take these quality phones and get their brands well established I think HTC is a good example of a company that you know again seven years ago no one knew what HTC was for consumer brands they were rebranding most of their products to carrier brands and then you know Peter Chou just decided he wanted to build a consumer brand around HTC but minor isn't just there to play with gadgets he's there to find interesting startups that Google can invest in that involves a lot of off-site meetings dinners coffee meetups and other informal activities that dominate a venture capitalist schedule at a big show like mwc the conversation can easily be monopolized by the big players the new samsung smart watches or Nokia's peculiar play into Android finding the small guys that might not actually have a booth or presence on the show floor requires more work but minor says it can be done even if you're a startup and you're not showing on the show floor if you're in mobile you're typically healeth to show meeting with people so it requires a little bit of forensic work but you can you can find the startups we actually met the first time at the Google booth and mobile roll Congress here oh yeah three years ago right and this is an investment i haven't done probably should have maybe but you know time will tell finding a diamond in the rough is miners end goal and giving google ventures track record he's been pretty good at doing it thus far if that next diamond is going to be found in the backhauls of Mobile World Congress or the coffee shop in Boston's Austin Brighton neighborhood minor will be there to find it when i was on android coming to the show was you know we have read a lot work to do as you know a we were building the OS prior to coming here and then once we're here it's really about getting partnerships done and so we were 7 by 24 lockups and rooms with every carrier hand side OEM of getting deals done so that we could get distribution that was in the early days prior to 2009 coming as if you see it's a little bit more you know it's a lot of work but it's a very different nature it's more hunting gathering you know finding really bright people that we can help out as google ventures which is what we do if we obviously give them money but can we try and give them a lot of other resources and help me build great big companies this isn't the first time rich miner has jumped into the VC world having first founded a firm for orange spending a day with minor it seems to be the place where he shines where as an entrepreneur only has one big moment a venture capitalist can live that moment over and over again he's an arbiter of the future and this time around he's got Google's checkbook you