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Mark Cuban, the wealthy Texan who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999, has reached out to Silicon Valley and invested in Brondell, a manufacturer of Japanese-style toilets that wash your derriere with all kinds of delicate sprays (see video here).
We saw the item in a larger story about angel funding, and how to land it, by Michael Copeland of Business 2.0. If you're searching for funding, it has some good basic tips.
Why did Cuban do the deal after many other angels had passed? According to Brondell co-founder Scott Pinizzotto, Cuban looks for companies that target the masses. "There are 220 million residential toilets in the United States," Pinizzotto explains. "That's our installed base, and that's what got Cuban excited." In December, Cuban invested an undisclosed amount in the company, opening up the pearly gates for other angels: Brondell has now attracted $1.3 million in seed-stage funding.
Here's the Mercury News piece last year about the company. Back then, Silicon Valley angel investors were already discovering San Francisco-based Brondell. One, networking guru Auren Hoffman, wrote on his blog: ''I have been using the Brondell Swash 600 for a few weeks now and I'm having a hard time leaving the bathroom.''