Sonos and VC endorsements
January 10th, 2008 by Benjamin KuoAnyone who scans the many blogs of the “venture capital bloggers” is pretty used to glaring endorsements by venture capitalists of their portfolio companies. But sometimes, you see endorsements by venture capitalists of companies they are NOT invested in, which is usually a sign of bigger and better things.
I’ve noticed couple of recent VC endorsements of Sonos, the Santa Barbara maker of digital music hardware. Surprisingly, those have not been by investors (at least that I am aware of) in the firm, but just VCs who seem to like the company’s hardare. Sonos has a system which streams wireless music throughout your house.
Some examples:
- Seth Levine (Foundry Group/Mobius) - Sonos - how have I lived without you?!
- Fred Wilson (Flatiron/Union Square Ventures) - Bringing The Web Into Our Living Room, Sonos Rocks
(Sonos has received backing from BV Capital, and has been pretty mum about their firm’s other investors…)
January 11th, 2008 at 9:55 am
hi benjamin. i am indeed not an investor in sonos. you’re 100% right to point out that a vc endorsement for a company that they’re not invested in is much more meaningful. in my case, i don’t generally endorse random products on my blog, but my sonos experience was so compelling, i felt no choice but to sing their praises. i wish i had installed it years ago (having struggled with how to distribute music in my non-wired house)…. cheers! seth