MicroVentures is an investment marketplace easing the process by which startups interest and gain new investors. The Austin, Texas-based company recently joined forces with social media and game developer Zobee to make the first venture capitalist-themed Facebook game. The title makes a game out of picking the best startups, and the results are pretty illuminating.
“We want to turn the current buzz for startups into a fun online investing experience,” said Bill Clark, MicroVentures founder and CEO, in a statement. “The passage of the federal JOBS Act means there’s a brand new category of early stage investment opportunities coming online and this is an entertaining way to get exposure to the space.”
MicroVentures Investment Challenge is a series of bracket-based weekly competitions for notable Internet startups. Players start the game with $1 million to invest in the companies they wish. At the end of each week, the competitors with the highest total investments move on to the next round. At the end of the tournament, players have a chance to win $250 or even a MacBook Air.
In the first two weeks of the competition, several companies are already pulling ahead of each other. MicroVentures CEO Bill Clark shared some of the early results with GamesBeat:
- Social accommodations-booking service Airbnb has four times the number of investments as design site Fab
- Music streaming service Spotify is crushing social network Path with 10 times as many investments
- Twilio is in the lead over media streaming device manufacturer Boxee
The first round ends June 29. It will be interesting to see how the clear crowd-favorite companies will fair against each other as they progress in the competition. Complete investment domination probably won’t be so easy when Twitter inevitably goes up against Klout.