The News is NowPublic

Today, Brightspark is pleased to announce an investment in NowPublic (www.nowpublic.com).  My partners and I have been watching the rise of “Web 2.0” companies with cautious optimism.  While I certainly am excited to see the Internet being used as a true platform for user generated content creation and sharing, the challenge for any VC is to identify the real businesses from simple feature companies.  Which companies will truly leverage this platform to create unique value in its industry?  Can this value be defended with the development of strong intellectual property?  Given our investments in the mobile and VoIP space, I have been watching with great fascination how users have so quickly adopted technologies such as blogging, podcasting, and picture messaging.  The intriguing challenge is to understand how these technologies will affect industries outside of mainstream content sharing.  This visioning process brought us to NowPublic.  NowPublic is revolutionizing the news collection and reporting industry by empowering citizen journalists to engage the news conversation.  I am very excited about the progress this company has made in such little time by building a great relationship with its user base and by making smart technology decisions.  This company is truly focused on an innovative business model which will give it much staying power in this “Web 2.0” world.

Read more about this news at NowPublic