Steve Perlman says he has a good idea, but he's not telling many people what it is.
The few he has told, a group of investors that includes America Online and The Washington Post Co., committed $67 million last week to his new venture, Rearden Steel Technologies Inc.
What the company is working on, according to a prepared statement, is "developing hardware and software products for the consumer marketplace."
Beyond that vague description, Perlman has revealed little else.
In fact, so intent was he on keeping his plans secret that when he founded the company in January 2000 he called it Rearden Steel Technologies specifically to obscure its nature and escape notice. The plan was "to attract as little attention as we could," Perlman said, plus to have a little fun.
"We thought having an industrial-age name would be kind of fun for an information-age company," he said.
He said that the products the company is developing will "revolutionize home entertainment," and that the company has already filed for 38 patents. But details won't be announced until the company is ready to announce a finished product. Still, in raising $67 million, the company must have disclosed its closely guarded plans to someone.
"Obviously the investors know what we're doing," Perlman said. But they're not talking either.
"That's confidential," said Ralph Terkowitz, chief technology officer for The Washington Post Co.
"I can't add any more to what the company has said," said Kevin Fong, a managing partner at Mayfield.
"Pretty much nothing," said Danny Rimer, a partner with the Barksdale Group.
Those investors did say they are banking on Perlman's history as a successful technology entrepreneur in addition to the confidential product plans.
Perlman was a co-founder of WebTV Networks, a developer of television set-top boxes that allowed about 1 million consumers to access the Internet without a computer. That company was sold to Microsoft Corp. in 1997 for $425 million, of which Perlman netted $70 million.
"We know Steve Perlman well and consider him to be one of the most innovative thinkers in technology," Terkowitz said through a spokesman. The Washington Post was an investor in WebTV.
"Certainly he's a very, very important component," Rimer said.
That enthusiasm helped Rearden put together a round of funding that has recently been something of a novelty -- namely tens of millions of dollars in a first round of financing for a start-up with no revenue, no product and undisclosed plans. Perlman, of course, has a simple, if nebulous, explanation for his windfall.
"What we've created is quite extraordinary," he said.