Tim O'Reilly's VC mission decloaksTim O'Reilly has finally come
"out of the VC closet," as one reader notes, with the
announcement of O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures. The owner of Web
2.0 plans for his VC arm to invest in "hackers" and "disruptors"
and "bionic software" and "photon torpedoes" (note: only one of
those is a lie). Current investments include a wifi widget toy,
a wiki-style instructional platform, and software to enforce
better spending habits. Investors in the O'Reilly venture itself
include Omidyar Network and Explore Holdings (the latter, a.k.a.
Jeff Bezos). But really, "Alphatech"? Sure, the world is hurting
for names, but there's got to be something more original and
less bland.  [Photo: Dresden Future Forum]