Marketing Pilgrim

It looks like Google’s found an interesting way to get the world to work for them, without having to figure out where they’d site and who’d they report to. A new initiative called Google Gadget Ventures has launched to provide “grants” and “seed investments” to developers of gadget-related services.

Google’s Marissa Mayer announced the new project at this week’s Searchnomics conference and we received the following details by email, shortly after:

Google Gadget Ventures will offer third-party gadget development and gadget-related businesses two types of funding:

• Grants of $5,000 to developers who’ve built gadgets in our directory that already receive at least 250,000 weekly page views. To apply, qualified Gadget developers will be asked to submit a one-page proposal.
• Seed investments of $100,000 to previous Google Gadget Ventures grant recipients who’d like to build a business around the Google Gadgets platform. Qualified developers will be asked to submit a business plan.

There are lots of FAQs on the new initiative. One thing to consider, if you take the grant, Google gets nothing in return. If you take the seed investment, Google takes some equity in your company.

Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!

Share this post