Metaweb, another Danny Hillis nerdvana?

Danny Hillis

More on MetaWeb, the secretive San Francisco start-up we pointed to yesterday. It has raised $15 million from big-name venture capital firm Benchmark and others.

As we mentioned, the company is a spinout from Applied Minds, and was founded by Danny Hillis. Turns out, this guy Hillis is quite a character. Here is a snippet from John Battelle’s blog item from over a year ago, describing his visit to Hillis at an outwardly drab area in southern California’s Glendale:

In fact, the place felt a bit cramped and claustrophobic…That all changed once Danny came out to meet me. After chit chatting for a few minutes, he took me to a small room – no wider than my outstretched arms – at the far end of which stood one of those classic red English phone booths. We stepped inside – a bit cramped – and Danny lifted the receiver and dictated a passphrase of some sort. Presto – the rear wall of the booth opened, and we stepped into – nerdvana…

If you read the whole item, you’ll see why MetaWeb might be yet another playground here in Silicon Valley. Got to love this place. Pulling in the best from all over — still.

And here’s the release about the funding.