"We're looking for entrepreneurs that are taking on these very ambitious projects and that have passion about what they're doing and are really trying to do something very big," says Spark Capital general partner Bijan Sabet in Part 2 of The Deal's Behind the Money video interview. Spark recently launched a new seed-stage program to nurture entrepreneurs in New York and Boston, where Spark is based.
"It's not like we're sitting around at Spark, saying, 'We'd love to find a company that's building a widget for Facebook'. We're looking for something really different."
As an example of a startup with a big idea, Sabet points to Spark portfolio company Boxee, which develops media center software and which raised $4 million in December from Spark and its frequent New York co-investor, Union Square Ventures.
Sabet, who is 40, points out that entrepreneurs in their 20s and early 30s have a competitive advantage: They have never known a world without the Internet.
