Get Thad Langford going, and he’ll talk at length about the importance of entrepreneurs who have made successful exits investing in other startups. With his involvement in Leap2, Langford is walking the walk to back that talk.
Langford, who is currently the executive in residence at OpenAir Equity Partners, was at the helm of Zave Networks when it was acquired by Google in September. Since that acquisition, Langford has thrown himself headlong into working with other Kansas City startups — Leap2 among them.
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Kansas City, Kan.-based Leap2 in late November launched its Leap2 Navigator, which offers a new take on mobile search. The app provides web browsing, keyword navigation and category search all in one interface and aims to improve the precision of search by showing the top websites results as live sites rather than a list of text links.
Earlier this month, Leap2 announced it had closed a $280,000 seed round that included investment from Langford. Langford, who also serves as an advisor to the startup, shared his thoughts on the investment when he appeared on Silicon Prairie News’ PrairieCast on Feb. 14. “I think it’s a really exciting, great opportunity,” Langford said of Leap2, which was founded by Mike Farmer. “(There are) a lot of big players in this space, so it’s high risk, high reward. But it’s definitely something I think is ripe for the picking.”
For Langford, the decision to invest in Leap2 came down to a few main factors:
- Langford believes the current state of mobile search “begs for a better user experience.” And with that unmet need comes “huge opportunity.” “Having that big market out there and that big problem to solve, I’m a big believer in that,” Langford said. “Whenever there’s a big problem to solve … it’s ripe for opportunity for somebody to go make that happen.”
- Projected trends for mobile search advertising served a sizable carrot in Langford’s decision to invest. “The mobile search advertising space is enormous,” he said citing projections of $1.3 billion revenues from mobile search advertising in 2012. “Certainly that’s a key factor in why I was getting involved. And with my background and wireless experience, it definitely matched a lot of the contacts and connections and knowledge I have in the space.”
- Farmer, who Langford called “the mad man behind the scenes,” made a believer out of Langford. “He’s just one of those crazy, brilliant guys that you want to be involved with,” Langford said, “and we work very well together trying to move this business forward.”
