Via TechCrunch:
Someone just shot the monkey. Patent Monkey, a Web-based patent database, is closing up shop and selling its assets to domain-name holding company Internet Real Estate Group (IREG) and Monster Venture Partners (MVP). (Disclosure: Patent Monkey is a CrunchGear affiliate). The Patent Monkey search and index capabilities will serve as the back-end technology for Patents.com, which IRG recently acquired for an undisclosed sum speculated to be over $1 million. Patent Monkey co-founder Paul Ratcliffe will make the transition to Patents.com as CEO, while co-founder Cory Sorice has moved on to Black & Decker as Director of Business Development. Patent Monkey now joins the deadpool.
And..
Monster Venture Partners founder Rob Monster will serve as chairman for the newly structured entity. Through Monster’s involvement, the new Patents.com will be translated into 15 languages using Worldlingo, a company in which Monster sits on the board.
While Patents.com will launch serving only U.S. patents, it has ambitions to soon index documents from the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO). Stephen Pinkos, a former Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will serve as Patents.com’s Executive Vice President. It also probably won’t hurt that Monster’s Worldlingo currently holds the translation contract for the EPO (a task that it claims to complete with 95% accuracy). Patents.com will be worth watching to see how a domainer firm can do transitioning from a holding company to an operating company.
I like what Rob Monster and IREG folks are doing here. Instead of building things themselves, they go and buy companies, bring teams, and like Lego, put pieces together.
The current formula seems to be something like this: Domain firm (Internet Real Estate) + VC/Technologist (Rob Monster) + technology (Patent Monkey) + winning team.
This isn’t a “domainer firm” but a “domainer mindset”. What is Barry Diller if not a domainer? Ask.com, Hotels.com, RealEstate.com. What is Bill Gross if not a domainer? Compete.com, Tickets.com, Autos.com, Loan.com, VacationHomes.com
Just as when you go to the supermarket you tend to pick up items which are placed well or packaged right, great domains offer the same benefits. They help you in search engine optimization, they make you look bigger then what you really are. From an investment perspective, great domains also offer you an attractive selling point to investors: If the business falls flat on its face we still have a great domain in our hands.
The “domainer mindset” takes all this and more into perspective. It considers liabilities, benefits, execution, attraction, odds, and most importantly, scalability. I predict as more domainers get wealthier and smarter we will see so much more of that. As they say, the sky is the limit.
Completely agree. What will distinguish the winners in the space will be their abilities to:
a) pick the right product/service for a name;
b) avoid the temptation to overvalue the name in the funding transaction;
and c) execute, execute, execute
It’s often said that when building a new business ideas are 2 to 10% of the equation and the remainder is execution. What do you think: does picking a name in advance of a product fit into either of those camps, or do we tweak the model to accommodate the value of the name as a significant contributor to success?
—-ANSWER—-
While naming is important I’m with you here, it is execution that makes the real difference.
Sahar