 When most people think about Android and its origins, they think of Andy Rubin, who is largely credited as being the father of what is now the world's most widely used mobile operating system. But Rubin didn't do it all on his own. He had a lot of help from many brilliant people, including his co-founder Rich Miner. Miner helped develop and expand Android into the powerhouse we know today. These days, Miner is a general partner at Google Ventures, the search giant's investment arm. His job is to find the latest trends and up-and-coming companies in the mobile technology world for Google Ventures to invest in. If Miner likes what he sees, he can be a life changer. With Google's coffers on hand, he can be a rainmaker of sorts. Definitely tight security. They didn't quite do a cotton swab, but we got registered anyway, so we're in. Should I swing a little bit more though while I do this? Maybe it'll be more fun. I just don't know why a carrier is going to want this. Hi! You like this? Alright. We found one customer for the Nokia phone. Yeah, big screen, reasonably responsive. I'm just tickled to see Nokia with Android. And soon to be Microsoft with Android. How good is that? When we're looking to invest in startups, I mean, the key thing is you're investing in teams and people. You know, you also, hopefully they're working on something that's interesting and that you think you can help out with, or at least in my case, I like to think either myself or Google Ventures can help out with what they're trying to build. But it always starts with the people and then the vision of what they're trying to build, and then ultimately what's the market, how are you going to, you know, is there a way to monetize it? But that's a tertiary issue. Google Ventures became a venture capital firm that takes Google's massive storehouse of cash and invests it in startups across a variety of industries. Since 2009, it's invested in over 225 companies, including well-known names such as Uber and Nest. It differentiates itself from other VC firms by offering a support network and close access to Google engineers and services for the companies it invests in. It's almost like bootcamp for new startups, but with a Google-esque flair. While some companies like Nest go on to be acquired by and integrated into Google, that's not the goal of the Ventures team. In fact, some of its investments have even been purchased by Google's competitors, such as Stamped and Astrid, both of which ended up in the arms of Yahoo. With a strong background in mobile technology and a doctorate in computer science, Miner is involved in a lot of the investments in mobile companies made by Google Ventures. That's why you can find them at massive trade shows like Mobile World Congress looking for the next big thing. They say bigger is better, right? Curve screen. But I don't think I want to schlep that one around. We've certainly made decisions to invest in a company when we've joined those companies here on the show floor and seen the type of interest that they've had and the attraction that they've had. Oh boy, I'm actually going to do this. You can edit later on. That's brilliant. Yeah. Mobile World Congress and other shows offer a density of information and new products that make it easier to spot trends than through other means. Over 70,000 people attended the show this year, and hundreds of companies were showing off their wares and ideas. Even big players such as Samsung and Nokia used the show to launch important new devices in their lineups. Seeing what's new and actually getting to get a real-world feel of it is one of Miner's many goals there, from which he can infer trends for future technologies. Well, clearly the quality of the phones, I think, coming from a lot of the Asian manufacturers and Chinese manufacturers, are matching the quality that you see from some of the more established brands. So now it'll be interesting to see how they take these quality phones and get their brands well established. I think HTC is a good example of a company that, again, seven years ago, no one knew what HTC was from a consumer brand. They were rebranding most of their products to carrier brands. And then Peter Chow just decided he wanted to build a consumer brand around HTC. But Miner isn't just there to play with gadgets. He's there to find interesting startups that Google can invest in. That involves a lot of off-site meetings, dinners, coffee meetups, and other informal activities that dominate a venture capitalist's schedule. At a big show like MWC, the conversation can easily be monopolized by the big players, the new Samsung smartwatches or Nokia's peculiar play into Android. Finding the small guys that might not actually have a booth or presence on the show floor requires more work, but Miner says it can be done. Even if you're a startup and you're not showing on the show floor, if you're in mobile, you're typically here at the show meeting with people. So it requires a little bit of forensic work, but you can find the startups. We actually met the first time at the Google booth at MWC here three years ago. And this is an investment I haven't done, probably should have maybe, but time will tell. Finding the diamond in the rough is Miner's end goal, and given Google Ventures track record, he's been pretty good at doing it thus far. If that next diamond is going to be found in the back halls of Mobile World Congress or the coffee shop in Boston's Austin-Brighton neighborhood, Miner will be there to find it. When I was on Android coming to the show, we had a lot of work to do. Because, A, we were building the OS prior to coming here, and then once we're here, it's really about getting partnerships done. And so we were 7x24, locked up in rooms with every carrier, handset, OEM, getting deals done so that we could get distribution. That was in the early days prior to 2009. Coming to the VC, it's a little bit more, you know, it's a lot of work, but it's a very different nature. It's more hunting, gathering, finding really bright people that we can help out as Google Ventures, which is what we do. We obviously give them money, but then we try to give them a lot of other resources and help them build great big companies. This isn't the first time Rich Miner has jumped into the VC world, having first founded a firm for Orange. Spending a day with Miner, it seems to be the place where he shines. Whereas an entrepreneur only has one big moment, a venture capitalist can live that moment over and over again. He's an arbiter of the future, and this time around, he's got Google's checkbook.