Seemingly in direct response to my earlier question, why don’t VC’s simply start their own companies, VentureBeat today features a story on Sean Parker a young VC at the Founders Fund who is also serving as CEO of a company he has recently co-founded with Mark Zuckerberg’s former Harvard roommate. The new company called Project Agape is being dubbed a ‘meta non-profit’ with a stated purpose of ‘working to empower people to further their political or social cause using the Internet.’ From what I gather it will essentially deal with online fundraising using social media tools and by significantly lowering the overhead typically associated with fundraising. It is well positioned to take advantage of significant market potential in online donations and seems not to be a pure profit play. Project Agape has recently acquired $2.35M in funding from the Founders Fund, but is remaining secretive. You can sign up for updates and news via the temporary website.
Perhaps this will result in a new trend for hybrid VC models’