Silence is generally a good thing when it comes to reporting - along the ‘no news is good news’ vein. And that’s been very much been the case in the last 6 months for KittenCapital, as I’ve continued to help nurture my various businesses.
Nurturing has also meant shutting some businesses that have reached the end of their life value, accelerating others and investing in new ideas.
I’ve put together a summary of my portfolio activity for H1 2019 below. Dead-heading is a good thing in business (more on that here).
> Closed / exiting
Rubber Republic: EXIT
Rubber Republic was the first ever business (initially called Rubberductions) that I founded back in 2001 making viral videos - so I have a great fondness and emotional attachment to it. A lot changes in 18 years, and I’m sad to say that I’ve decided to sell my shareholding and exit the business. I wish it - and Matt my co-founder and CEO - well for its future, as it progresses and changes. The proceeds of the Rubber Republic exit will be re-invested in other / new KittenCapital ventures.
Hackers.Media: CLOSED
Hackers.Media was one of the most recent companies I set up, aimed at providing data and consultancy services to global ad tech businesses off the back of my exit from Sharethrough. Hackers.Media had some stellar successes, the being ongoing strategic consultancy work with Polymorph Labs’ CEO leading to their sale to Walmart in April.
#KittenCamp: CLOSED
KittenCamp was an amazingly successful meet-up celebrating trending memes and the underbelly of the internet. Set up in a basement bar in Soho in 2009, it turned into a global sensation (of sorting) with #KittenCamp events held around the world - including New York, Austin, Sydney and San Francisco. As memes went mainstream and thrived, it was time to kill #KittenCamp.
That said, the ethos of #KittenCamp very much continues at the heart of KittenCapital . . .
> Thriving
Delib: THRIVING
Delib, specialising in digital democracy software, continues its growth establishing itself as a global leader in digital democracy software - based around a SaaS business model - with c.60% of UK central government departments and 15% of UK local government. The biggest growth area remains Australia / NZ where Delib is still very much a challenger product against more established local brands. Lots still to do, but nice / fun to have a business the other side of the world (especially with the weak pound) ;-)
As part of my work at Delib I’ve started building out various elements of content, including a Podcast series . . .
AMCO: THRIVING
AMCO Security, started by my father, specialises in monitored security systems. The security industry is being rapidly disrupted by cloud-based technologies like Ring (Amazon) and Nest (Google), so navigating AMCO through through these technology shifts is an interesting and exciting challenge - and definitely not easy. Testing / trialling / building / killing / building-again is very much an ongoing process. The latest product launch is LiveViz - a smart monitored alarm camera . . .
SmartSecurity: THRIVING
SmartSecurity is to AMCO what GiffGaff is to O2 i.e. a ‘pay-as-you-go’ security service. SmartSecurity’s a spin-off service from AMCO, filling the gap in the market for pay-you-go & self-fix security services - vs the traditional contract-based security companies. We’ve created x3 different SmartSecurity services, each filling a different user-need:
SmartSecurity.Store: where users can buy peripheries (like batteries etc.) to fix their alarm themselves. View .store here >>
SmartSecurity.Guide: a series of how to guides (both text and video format) helping users fix their own alarms. View .Guide here >>
SmartSecurity.Support: an engineer support service where users can book engineers via an online booking form. View .Support here >>
> NEW / emerging
ComCaddy: NEW
This idea started as ‘terms-and-conditions-as-a-service’ and has morphed into providing ‘legal-compliance-as-a-service’ for small web businesses - for example fixing the problem for online shop owners of knowing whether their website complies to Europe’s GDPR legislation or Australia’s consumer rights laws.
PeckhamConkerClub: EMERGING
Not much to say about this apart from I help organise a conker competition and have started ageing conkers in my cellar - along with my wine collection. Is the world ready for a premium conker brand? Probably not . . .