Michael Jones sold Userplane, which provides text, voice and video chat software to websites to AOL almost exactly two years ago for around $40 million (the exact price was never disclosed). Now, almost exactly two years later, he’s left AOL full time to pursue his next startup: Tsavo.
The team has set up offices in Santa Monica and has taken a first round of financing from American Capital, a publicly held fund with $20 billion under investment that usually only invests in public companies.
The reason American Capital may be a good fit is that Tsavo intends to quickly acquire a bunch of content and advertising startups that fit with its over all strategy which Jones vaguely describes as “relevancy.” The goal is to tailor content to individuals based on their online actions (not gestures). Beyond that, he’s staying quiet. But the deal with American Capital gives them the money they need to make those acquisitions quickly. From their website:
What is Tsavo?
Tsavo Media is focused on delivering highly relevant experiences to the digital touch points in consumer’s lives. Initially we are applying our technology focus to content and how media is experienced daily by consumers.In the future we will grow our portfolio using our relevancy technology to enhance other segments beyond media.
The model somewhat resembles Demand Media, which also develops technology in house and has acquired a number of content and ecommerce startups.
We’ll likely hear about a couple of Tsavo acquisitions in the coming weeks, with initial product rollout later this year. Jones, along with cofounders Nate Thelen and Gabe Harriman, remain paid advisors to AOL.
They took their millions and got out!
http://blabtech.blogspot.com
What are typical Advisor salaries in cases like these?
Like always …
Congrats to Mike and team…they are the real deal.
Go Ducks!
i like these guys get your money then build something else then sell that for a few millions then repeat over and over
Can anyone explain what exactly they?
Nice! Congrats Mike
It’s “Gabe Harriman” not “Gave”.
Congrats to Mike and the TEAM!
lets start a company by just raising money, then buying other companies, mashing them together, and selling the entire thing at a higher price then we paid. we wont create any of our own technology.
real innovation
May be this job bring in. Nice. Congrats to Mike, but keep of competition and go ahead.
that’s a DOPE logo
You mean “Dopie” logo don’t you? You must because it looks like Walt Disney threw up on it.
Way to go Mike and team! That’s my “boy”!
Congrats to Mike Jones. He a super smart guy. I wish him the best of the luck with his new startup.
Thanks everyone for the great comments! I hope to work with you all with this new venture!
lovin it…congrats mike!
Can’t wait to see what this team produces. Mike is one of the brightest people I’ve come across in the Web 2.0 space.
Congrats to Mike Jones and userplane. A great company and glad to see he’s doing something new now.
Awesome. Congrats Mike!
Some of the smartest AND most genuine people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. There’s only one thing I’m surprised about knowing Mike: that the new name doesn’t contain an exclamation point
Good luck guys.
So, is American Capital going to combine this with Moxy Media (fka Geosign)?
Oh, and Mike: the phrase “usually only invests in public companies” wrt American Capital should read “usually only invests in private companies.” Call Virginia in Palo Alto and ask her.
Cool Mike. I assume the name came from the Tsavo Sunbird???
I hope Geosigns has found a better way to drive traffic than simply arbitrage. The content sites they have could use a facelift as they are simply not very useful information wise minus the big fat, well placed Yahoo ads =P
Interesting…would be neat to see where this leads to. GL!
Is this another indication of the fact that people are jumping off the sinking ship ?
Should learn from Yahoo; instead of acquiring start-ups should retain the BRAINS.
http://mydating...e.blogspot.com/
congrats to Mike….this is going to be very fun to watch….expect big things
Great job Michael ….. Content is King, Queen, Prince, and Princess … it should be handled with respect … glad to know you and the team are onboard ….