A couple weeks ago, a stealthy startup called Prism SkyLabs was formed in San Francisco. Already it’s creating buzz among angel investors. It’s site is not much more than a place holder right now with this vague description:
We are pioneering ways to bring physical spaces online, creating new places for people and businesses to understand and engage each other.
A few more clues can be uncovered by looking at the two co-founders: CEO Steve Russell and president Ron Palmeri. Russell previously founded 3VR, a digital video security company where he is currently chairman. But Prism Skylabs is his new full-time gig.
Palmeri was Halsey Minor’s right-hand man at Minor Ventures, where he backed and incubated GrandCentral (now Google Voice), OpenDNS, and Scout Labs, a social CRM and brand-monitoring service sold to Lithium Technologies (which turned into a lawsuit)
So you’ve got a video surveillance expert and a Silicon Valley investor with a background in the consumer Web and social media analytics, and they want to “bring physical places online.” My bet is that they do that through video. Beyond that, we’ll have to keep digging. But it sounds like this startup is aiming squarely for the ever-expanding online-to-offline market.
We’ll keep our own video cameras trained on this one.
Disclosure: Michael Arrington has committed to invest in Prism Skylabs.