StartupBoy

As some of you may know, I've been pretty busy since I raised a seed-stage investment fund called The Hit Forge, and have been investing in early-stage companies building social media on the web. For a few months there, it looked like that was going to mean Facebook Applications. Now, with the launch of the Open Social Platform, we are entering a new phase where many large sites are starting to open up. With Google / Orkut, Hi5, LinkedIn, Friendster, Ning, and others getting into the game, it's clear that there's a new generation of startups to be built.

As such, I'd like to announce that I am looking for and interested in investing in companies that are building applications for Open Social and for Facebook. I know that others have talked about it and announced their intentions, but most likely, I've been the most aggressive actual investor to date. At this point, I've invested in more than ten companies which are building Facebook applications as their main line of business, and represent an installed base of over 25 Million users.

I'm actively looking to invest at least $10 Million, in blocks of $50K - $500K at a time, into promising applications which live on the emerging Open Social and Facebook platforms.

Here's what I can offer:

• Capital as a service, not as an owner
• Seed investments of $50K-$500K, buying small minority stakes
• Help with viral marketing, application tuning, and distribution
• Shared resource base, including space and servers
• Simple and friendly terms that let you control your company; small exits / sales are ok
• Business / scaling help and access to a marquee list of investors and advisors
• Help with future fundraising and exits (see my other blog at Venture Hacks)

What I'm looking for:

• Small and lean developer-heavy teams
• Example applications that you've built
• Willingness to learn viral marketing / tuning / code-based marketing
• The ambition to build something larger
• Willingness to risk it all on the new platforms - it doesn't need to live outside of Open Social or Facebook

Thanks to Facebook for pioneering the space and to Google for pushing it to be more open. It's a great time to be a web developer.