Monday, March 17, 2008

Media is the message for Village VC Bo Peabody

When it comes to interactive media in New England, few people are as connected as Bo Peabody, one of the two managing general partners -- along with Matt Harris -- of Western Massachusetts-based VC firm Village Ventures. It was 1992 when Peabody founded Tripod Inc., one of the very first online communities now called social networks. He sold Tripod to Lycos Inc. in 1998 and became Lycos' vice president of network strategy. He then went on to start Village Ventures in 2000 with Harris, investing in early-stage companies. Peabody spoke to Mass High Tech special sections editor Rodney Brown about the state of interactive media in New England.

How does our regional strength in the back end of interactive media position New England as a rapidly growing interactive media sector as a whole?

I think the skill sets required to grow companies in the back end versus the front end are very different. My sort of simplified answer is that I don't think it really helps New England in the front-end business to have been strong in the back-end business. I think that what we've found is that New York is a much stronger place to invest in front-end businesses and Boston and New England, in general, is a better place to invest in back-end businesses. I think the answer is that a lot of the front-end stuff is about design and editorials and ad sales, and that stuff happens in New York. It's just that is where the agencies are and that is where the media has been forever, and so you have to live within that parameter.

Has New England already missed the boat in this space? What's the driving force behind front-end interactive media developing so strongly elsewhere and not necessarily here?

I don't think anybody missed any boat. We're looking right now at a fantastic front-end interactive company that is located in Burlington, Vt. We (already) have one in our portfolio that is located in Burlington, Vt. Interestingly, both of the companies that are located in Burlington, Vt. are increasingly struggling with the fact that they need to have operations in New York ... because it's the right thing for the business. So I don't think New England missed the boat; I just think it's probably better. Look, I started at a front-end interactive media business in Williamstown, and sold it to one in Boston. And for one, brief shining moment in 2000, Lycos was the biggest front-end interactive media company in the world. I don't think anyone has missed the boat. I just think there is a fundamental gravitational pull to New York for front-end businesses because of the history of media and advertising being in New York.

What parts of New England would you say show the greatest promise as a home of the next big interactive media play?

I think Boston is always going to be the easiest place grow an interactive media company. These businesses are likely to be founded in a number of different places. I think Burlington, Vt., has a really great little scene going on. Providence, R.I., has some interesting stuff going on there. I would say, outside of Boston, those two places are the most interesting places to look for interactive media companies. Manchester, N.H., is more about software and sort of central Massachusetts and down in Connecticut is more about life sciences and health-care IT. The companies that we see fly across our plate are mostly from Burlington or Providence and my guess is that, in the end, those companies will be able to grow quite bit in those two towns, but will ultimately need to locate in Boston or New York.

What is the next great play in social networking, and where do you see social networking going within interactive media?

I have no idea. I started one of the first social media companies back in 1992. I've been doing this stuff for 15 years and I still couldn't tell you. One of the beauties of social media is that you really don't know what the next big thing is going to be. It's really, really hard to tell. I think in general, what I've heard just from people talking about it, is interesting stuff around the creation, organization and dissemination of news. Sort of combining some of the better aspects of social media with some of the better aspects of sort of editorial media, if you will. The social media space is a very difficult space to invest in, and, you know, we find it interesting. I obviously either do or should have an expertise in it, but having expertise in social media is a slippery slope.