During a quick-witted keynote at DattoCon19 last month, company founder and former CEO Austin McChord briefly hinted that his next venture capital investment would involve a startup called Monotony Inc. But was McChord, now at General Catalyst, serious?
ChannelE2E poked around and found an SEC filing for a technology company called Monotony.ai Inc. The business apparently has raised $2.65 million as of June 2018. Anecdotal evidence suggests the startup's CEO is Ben Bixby -- a Google Nest smart home veteran.
The background: Nest acquired Bixby's MyEnergy startup back in 2013. At the time, MyEnergy was an online service that allows users to gather all of their utility usage and bills in one place -- to compare with friends and family and more. Google, in turn, acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014.
Austin McChord: Monotony.ai Investor?
Fast forward to present day. McChord's very brief mention of Monotony Inc. during DattoCon included him standing in front a large city landscape filled with windmills, skyscrapers, and only a single lightbulb on in the entire city.
Here's the photo evidence, copyright ChannelE2E:
Hmmm... Renewable energy. AI. Smart cities. Was the graphic a clue about McChord's latest investment -- and Monotony.ai's business focus? Admittedly, we're still poking around for more clues.
In the meantime, you can read more about McChord's first venture capital investment -- Vade Secure -- right here.
Austin McChord: Life Before Venture Capital
Before jumping into the venture capital market, McChord was CEO of Datto -- a fast-growing, MSP-focused technology company that offers data protection, networking and business automation tools. He stepped down from the firm in late 2018, roughly one year after Vista Equity Partners acquired Datto. CEO Tim Weller now runs the business.
