VC firm focuses on on-demand businesses

Emergence Capital Partners is focused only on on-demand services. It appears to be a narrow niche, but it actually isn't. I'm nearly sure that Emergence knows the prospects of on-demand services are huge. Their value prop is usually solid. Their applicability cuts across industries and functional areas. And they're gradually going to be sweeping more and more across the conventional software world. I think Emergence basically found a good positioning opportunity to stand out uniquely, without having to trade off on the overall market of investment opportunities they can address. And they're also pretty 'get-it' about the scalability and cost efficiency that on-demand service models enable.

No wonder what set the ball rolling for Emergence was a windfall 10X gain from an investment in salesforce.com. Nice to think that everyone's favorite on-demand middle-schooler is actually already starting to generate a legacy...

As the founders of Emergence say, "...the singular focus of their investments is modeled on Salesforce.com, which they argue has changed everything. "Salesforce.com has come in with a sales approach and fundamentally disrupted the $200 billion software market. Virtually every area of the software industry can be targeted with that fundamentally different approach."

Touche.

I'm going to be tracking the Emergence portfolio. Their other investments include -

- Adapt Technologies: automated online advertising
- Goodmail Systems: e-mail certification services
- SuccessFactors Inc: on-demand HRM
- HireRight Inc: on-demand background screening service for companies

Watch them; there just may be some gems in there!