Betaworks

What is Betaworks?

Betaworks is a startup studio that builds and invests in next generation internet companies. Founded in 2008, betaworks is a company of builders. A tightly linked network of ideas, people, capital, products and data brought together in imaginative ways to build out a more connected world. At first glance we seem to do many things. But first and foremost, we're builders, seeking to create a more sustainable innovation model. The more we build, the more we learn, the more we get ideas for peripheral things, all related, connected -- in a loosely coupled network of products and companies. betaworks is structured as a company-- a single company that owns larger pieces of the things it has built and smaller pieces of the things it has invested in. It operates as a network: a tightly linked network of ideas, people, capital, and data united to build out a more inspired and useful connected world. betaworks makes seed-stage investments in this ecosystem. To us, seed investing means "first money in." Our typical investment size is $150,000-200,000. We always invest as part of a syndicate of angels and early stage VCs. Our requirements from an investment perspective are simple, though narrow. Investments must be early stage, heavily tech focused, and have a working (public or private) prototype. We are a powerpoint-free zone. We build and work closely with companies that we view as core to our vision, examples include: [Summize/Twitter Search](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/summize/), [bitly](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bitly-2), [TweetDeck](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/tweetdeck), [Chartbeat](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/chartbeat). And more recently, [Digg](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/digg/), [Dots](http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/dots-the-most-beautiful-mobile-game-ive-ever-seen/), [Giphy](http://www.Giphy.com) and [Instapaper](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/Instapaper), which betaworks acquired in April of 2013. We attract the kind of people who could start their own company, but they don't necessarily want to run a company. They'd rather be the co-founder of eight things than tied down for years as the sole founder of one. They'd rather build.