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Monthly Archive for October 2009

Spectrum Bridge Creates First White Space Wireless Broadband Network

October 28, 2009

Claudville.
The beginning of the end of the rural digital divide.

This is what kept running through my mind as I sat in room 2103 of the Rayburn office building next to the US Capital. I sat spellbound listening to the school children in Claudville, Virginia, sandwiched between FCC commissioners, members of the press, representatives of Dell and Microsoft, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of the House Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee, and, of course, folks from Spectrum Bridge and the TDF Foundation.

It seemed this was the beginning of the end of the great digital divide for the un-served and under-served populations of this country. An affordable, reliable wireless broadband alternative to dial-up for the rest of America.

Spectrum Bridge successfully created the first white space wireless broadband network and connected the Appalachian community of Claudville, VA to the rest of the internet. Utilizing the spectrum abandoned by the digital TV transition, they were able to deliver a reliable broadband wireless connection of around 8 MB per second while transmitting the signal over 1.5 mile between antennas.

This was financially possible thanks to a generous grant from a foundation set up by our very good friends and co-investors at TD Fund. Additionally, Microsoft and Dell provided the computer hardware to run the network and provided six laptops to the school. Finally, the years of a slow, painful dial-up connection were finally over for the residents of Claudville.

While that may in itself have been interesting, it was the way the network was constructed that is truly revolutionary. Spectrum Bridge, utilizing their White Space database and proprietary spectrum management systems, constructed the wireless network over the white space spectrum, which has never been done before. They were able to give a licensed spectrum experience to the students and residents of Claudville, over the spectrum previously used by analog TV transmission.

This new technology from Spectrum Bridge will finally allow rural areas previously under- or un-served with high speed broadband connectivity to be connected at an affordable cost. As I listened to the school children excitedly discuss how this was going to help them in school as well as in life and how the administrator of the school was going to now be able to reach all the students in the outlying areas with distance learning programs, I could not be more proud of what Spectrum Bridge had accomplished.

What others are saying:
Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM

Chris Jacob at Gizmodo

Erica Naone at MIT Technology Review

Congressman Rick Boucher

Lynette Luna at FierceWireless

Simple Spectrum Bridge schematic

BusinessWeek on 20×200 http://…

October 27, 2009

BusinessWeek on 20×200 http://ow.ly/wKu1

Big visions & big talent RT @a…

October 21, 2009

Big visions & big talent RT @akumar: stumped how to describe meme behind @trueventures invs. biz mod reinventions? (see 20×200 investment)

20×200 deal announced in NYTim…

October 21, 2009

20×200 deal announced in NYTimes http://bit.ly/LGRfG. Welcome to the True family Jen & team!

The Democratization of Art

October 21, 2009

(Limited Editions x Low Prices) + The Internet = 20×200

It is time to say hello to the democratization of Art.

Shortly after the 2000 tech melt-down, Jen Bekman left San Francisco behind and moved to New York to start an art gallery. She may have left the West Coast, but she could not leave the Silicon Valley state of mind. And then Jen had an idea in September, 2007: (Limited Editions x Low Prices) + The Internet = Art for Everyone.

And what an idea it is – in just two years since bootstrapping a now cash flow positive 20×200, the site has won the hearts of art lovers, selling over 50,000 prints to date, to a customer list that includes artists, celebrities, and respected collectors from around the world. 20×200’s approach is to sell limited-edition prints and photography at prices low enough to attract first-time collectors, starting at $20 for a print from a run of 200. If you want to start collecting, 20×200 is an awesome place to start. Prints are beautifully produced, packaged, and priced inexpensively. If you are an artist looking to take advantage of the reach of the Internet, 20×200 is the place to reach a deeply engaged, large community of new and experienced art collectors.

Beginning of this year, a friend told me about 20×200 and offered to make an introduction. I declined, it is the “Art space” after all, and we all know that Art and venture capital has historically been challenging . . . but I kept hearing about 20×200 from people I respect (Sarah Lacy, Bryan Mason, Anil Dash, David Mahoney) and from Artists who partner with 20×200 to make their works of art available on the Internet (Mike Monteiro, Geoffrey Ellis, Lisa Congdon). When we finally met this past summer, I was immediately wowed by the potential of Jen’s vision to leverage the Internet to lower the velvet rope to the Art world and make collecting accessible to everyone. Shortly thereafter, Jon, Om, and I went to New York, and we met with Jen at Taralucci e Vino near Union Square. When we left that coffee shop, we had the feeling that we had just met the perfect person to disrupt the staid art world.

Today, we are extremely happy to announce our lead investment in 20×200. Of the few industries that have resisted taking part in new media, few are more glamorous than Art. Long the product of mysterious galleries and opaque pricing schemes, art has historically been accessible only to a privileged few. In starting a company, as in life, timing is everything, and it is often said that being too early is the same as being wrong, so we have stayed out of the Art market until now. We think the timing is finally right for a company like 20×200 to make Art available to everyone, and 20×200 is today’s catalyst in ushering the Art market into the digital age.

We are also excited about our co-investors, as we believe one of the first signs of great companies is the type of entrepreneurs and angel investors they are able to get in their corner. Jen has brought together an experienced group including: Caterina Fake (CEO Hunch, co-Founder Flickr), Chris Dixon (Founder Hunch & SiteAdvisor), Zach Klein (Boxee & lots of impressive stuff), James Joaquin (CEO Xmarks & former CEO of Ofoto), Scott Heiferman (CEO/Founder Meetup), David Mahoney (SFMOMA Board of Trustees member & super angel investor), Nion McEvoy (CEO of Chronicle Books & SFMOMA Board of Trustees member), and Brendan McGovern (CFO Meetup).

True strives to work with passionate and talented visionaries, and Jen is the latest great example of the type of people we admire and respect. She is tenacious and her deep domain expertise gives 20×200 a unique perspective that we believe translates into an unfair advantage. We are honored that 20×200 chose True Ventures as an investor, given that this team had no shortage of options when it came to raising their Series A funding.

It is a big idea. One built of a lot of little pieces.

Congrats Amit and team: Palara…

October 21, 2009

Congrats Amit and team: Palaran deal announced http://bit.ly/22yMkQ

Wired reviews the Fitbit http:…

October 19, 2009

Wired reviews the Fitbit http://ow.ly/v8zc

Great to have another entrepre…

October 18, 2009

Great to have another entrepreneur @msuster doing early stage. http://bit.ly/2d4FvR LA needs more of this

RT @jenbee: Photo: A is for AW…

October 16, 2009

RT @jenbee: Photo: A is for AWESOME. Yessiree. Paul Thurlby | Illustrator http://tumblr.com/xi93k52zp

http://ow.ly/uJ9g Vodpod momen…

October 16, 2009

http://ow.ly/uJ9g Vodpod momentum continues

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