Quirky concepts can bring some success

A baseball bat that's part wood and part aluminum is one unusual idea.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Venture capitalists have been treading carefully since their dot-com misadventures but still occasionally wander off the beaten path in search of runaway successes.
The quest sometimes turns quirky concepts into wannabe businesses. The past year was no different, even as venture capital investments fell to their lowest level since 1997.
There is, for example, the Massachusetts startup that got $47.5 million to fund its work developing a treatment for insomnia and jet lag. Or the Internet coordinator of political campaigns who got $300,000 of venture capitalist backing.
The two ventures were among 47 unearthed when PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association pored through industry statistics to identify 2003's oddest startups.
Other anomalies include a startup that makes energy-efficient traffic lights with hidden security cameras; an Internet service that touches up digital photos; and a startup making hybrid baseball bats with wooden barrels and aluminum handles.
Hybrid baseball hats
Even the bat maker's chief executive, Jack Cipoletti, thought the concept was wacky when Mountaineer Capital approached him to oversee the firm's $300,000 investment in West Virginia Bats LLC. But now he believes the company in Eleanor, W.Va., is about to uncork a new market.
The five-employee startup has already sold about 6,000 models of the "Original Metal Wood" bat, mostly to youth leagues. The bat, which wholesales for about $100, is supposed to last as long as 10 plain wooden bats, which sell for about $30.
West Virginia Bats hopes to start making money by late next year and has hopes of some day persuading Major League Baseball to let its players use its equipment during batting practice.
Still, Cipoletti realizes failure is a distinct possibility.
"Let's face it, a venture capital startup is a roll of the dice," he said.
Overall, the 47 odd ventures received a combined $492 million in venture capital during 2003, the research led by PricewaterhouseCoopers found. That's about 3 percent of the estimated $17 billion in VC money invested this past year. Most of it flowed into familiar high-tech strongholds from hardware to biotech.
Herd mentality
In venture capital investing, a herd mentality can sometimes cause trouble by creating too many startups chasing after the same customers. And that's one allure of the odd venture.
Julie Wainwright suffered through a glut at the height of the dot-com boom while she ran Pets.com, which became famous for its sock-puppet mascot.
But high brand recognition wasn't enough to help Pets.com rise above eight other online pet stores, contributing to the company's high-profile collapse three years ago.
Today, Wainwright is happy to be chief executive officer of Bellamax Inc., a San Francisco-based startup without any notable competition. The company touches up digital photography for businesses and consumers. The online service, which Bellamax also sells through other photo Web sites, will remove red eye from a digital snapshot for 49 cents per photo, rearrange the scenery for $2.99 or even change people's skin tones for $7.99.
With sales of digital cameras rising steadily, Bellamax was able to raise $6.3 million from several venture capitalists and to persuade Wainwright to take another stab at running an Internet business.
"The dot-com time was crazy, but this company is founded on sound business fundamentals," she said.