Looking for Investment? Try Talking to a Tech Journalist

Zappos CEO and maybe your next investor, Tony Hsieh (photo: BusinessWeek)

It's every (social) entrepreneur's dream to find a wealthy investor to enable them to pursue their mission free from worries about payroll and other costs. Because of that, newly wealthy folks often find themselves the target of a plethora of cousins, old college friends, and other former contacts who come out of the wood work looking for a little piece of the action. With the recent sale of Zappos to Amazon.com, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has taken a slightly unusually strategy towards investment: he's putting it in the hands of tech journalist Sarah Lacey.

Lacey, author of "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rise of Web 2.0 and the Rebirth of Silicon Valley," writes on Tech Crunch yesterday that, since she had been the journalist to first report on the take-home pay that Hsieh received in the deal, he had found a somewhat more creative way than most to deal with the onslaught of new admirers. He's taken to giving them journalist Lacey's email address and letting them know that she would be managing his investments from now on.

The funny thing is, it's not a joke. At least not entirely. According to the email Hsieh is sending, he's going to ask Lacey to sift through all the various opportunities that come in before August 31 and then make a recommendation to him about where the greatest value might lay.

Based on Zappos reputation as a company that deeply cares about people and Lacey's recent interest in bottom of the pyramid and developing world entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs might have a pretty excellent chance at catching their attention.

Of course, it could all be a big joke. No matter what, it's another sign of Hsieh's great instinct for creative marketing. But maybe it's something more. I'm certainly thinking about sending over a pitch..