I’ve spoken to four different investors over the last two weeks trying to get at least a small piece of an angel financing round being quietly pitched by Delicous founder Joshua Schachter. He’s raising just $1 – $2 million, we’ve heard, at a valuation that may be as high as $15 million.
Schachter sold Delicious, one of the definitive startups that re-energized the consumer Internet sector in 2004-2005, to Yahoo in 2005. He left Yahoo in 2008, and joined Google in 2009. He left Google earlier this year.
Entrepreneurs like Schachter are highly valued by investors. The success rate of repeat entrepreneurs higher than first timers. And one potential investor put it succinctly – “Even if the company fails, someone will buy it just to get Schachter. There’s no way we lose our money.”
So what’s the name of the new startup? That seems to still be up in the air. I contacted Schachter to get confirmation of the funding raise and to ask what the new startup will do. He won’t comment on the funding. But he did say he was tossing around a few ideas for the startup. His response:
I’m either going to launch an open source operating system for unmanned aerial vehicles, or build a first person shooter to teach non-violent solutions based on buddhist principles. Or a pet food review site. Which one do you like best?
We’re going to take that as a “no comment,” too. Although I think the U.S. government would just love to use an open source OS for its UAVs. I’d go with that one, Joshua.