Venture Capital = Viral Marketing?

David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist and author, encourages those eager to engage in viral marketing to “think like a venture capitalist” in his e-book The New Rules of Viral Marketing.  Scott tells the story of many venture capital firms that make multiple investments and knowingly understand that there is a very minute chance that only one investment will reach the big time and big bucks. While I do not want to get into an argument over this, I’d like to introduce the venture capital firm where I work.

OpenView is an expansion stage venture capital fund. We provide growth capital to software, Internet, and new media companies. We operate under a new model, different from typical venture capital companies. In addition to providing growth capital to our companies, we work to provide additional value-add services. Over the years we have developed OpenView Labs, a team of consultants, to work hand in hand with our portfolio companies on all aspects of their businesses – legal, finance, sales, marketing, IT, HR, development, management – you name it.

That is where I come in. I have been on the OpenView Labs team for just over one year now and I help all of our portfolio companies reach their goals along with the rest of the Labs team. Our focus is to get our portfolio companies to focus on what is truly important – what really matters. We work hard and have a great time doing it. It is true that venture capital, like viral marketing, is a very tough business. But we are in the business of building great companies, and we do so by helping our portfolio companies dial in on the key initiatives.