Mighty Media Group, Inc. and/or its predecessor First Broadcasting Company, Inc. began investing in broadcast stations in the early 1990s and expanded to seed and early stage investments in Silicon Valley technology start-ups in the mid-1990s. The company’s Founder, Chairman and CEO contributed his decades of experience as Founder, Chairman & CEO of Good Guys! (GGUY/NASDAQ at the time), as well as experience as board member and active stockholder in various private companies and non-profits. This seasoned and real world operating input from an invested stakeholder often proved invaluable to these fledgling companies at critical periods in their development. In 2003 the company expanded its broadcast investments by partnering with private equity investor Alta Communications. 

Launch.

An initial all cash investment purchased San Francisco radio stations KYA FM and KSFO. The company oversaw a successful turnaround strategy which resulted in quick and very profitable sales of the stations (KYA FM in 1995 to what is now Entercom, and KSFO in 1997 to what is now Cumulus).

Tech Investments.

Profits from these early station sales funded a string of seed and first round investments in Silicon Valley technology start-ups from the mid 1990s until the early 2000s. In many of these investments the company assumed a board seat and actively participated in each new company’s initial product launches and formative decisions. Mighty Media Group often led these early rounds as a co-lead investor with Sand Hill Road venture capital firms such as NEA. The company also co-invested in other new tech companies with other prominent venture capital firms including Allegis Capital, a George Soros fund, and Credit Suisse.

Hits and Misses.

Several of the ten technology company investments were brilliant ideas albeit a bit too early and folded, including ClickToSend which predated DropBox in cloud storage and retrieval by more than ten years. More importantly, three of the original ten technology company investments were successfully merged with publicly-traded industry leaders: 

WarpSpeed Communications.

Mighty Media Group was co-lead investor in the seed round funding in1997, participated in a bridge loan and was an active board member from the company inception to just prior to its sale. WarpSpeed Communications developed software that allowed T1 internet service to be delivered to businesses on a per-minute basis, thus avoiding high fees for fixed equipment and long-term contracts. Enron Corp. acquired WarpSpeed Communications in 2000.  

InfoGear Technology Corp.

The company was a co-lead investor in the first funding round in1995, provided bridge financing, and was an active board member for several years from the beginning stages of InfoGear. InfoGear designed and built the original iPhone, integrating telephone and web-based services. Although not wireless, the InfoGear iPhone included a touch-screen with fully integrated messaging and a web browser in an executive desk size telephone. The product design was based on a thin-client/server architecture and was delivered to the market as a consumer device with recurring information services on a subscription service. Approximately 100,000 iPhones were built and sold prior to the Company's purchase by Cisco Systems for $300M+ in 2000. 

Digital On Demand aka Red Dot Net.

Mighty Media Group was co-lead investor in the seed round and first round funding in 1997, and was an active board member from the inception of the company until its acquisition. Digital On Demand developed the first retail kiosks that had the ability to manufacture commercial CDs and DVDs on demand at retail sites using the RedDotNet digital audio network. The company successfully negotiated music rights from all the major music labels, and the concept successfully debuted in a test run at Disneyland. This closed hub and spoke digital music delivery system preceeded the introduction of iTunes by many years. The company subsequently operated RedDotNet digital music sampling terminals at most of the Barnes and Noble stores. In 2002 the company was sold to Alliance Entertainment, a publicly-traded company backed by The Yukaipa Companies.

Private Equity.

In 2003 Mighty Media Group / First Ventures Capital Partners Inc. expanded their radio station development business by selling a minority ownership position to Alta Communications, a private equity investment firm based in Boston that specializes in equity investments in media and telecommunications companies. Aided by knowledgeable board input from Alta, the company was able to greatly expand its operations and at one point became the largest radio station development company in the country. When the radio landscape, FCC regulations and the availability of bank financing for station buyers shifted over time, the company suspended most new projects and sold all of its remaining shares to Alta in early 2008.