The name for Blackbird Ventures comes from one of the most famous lines in American cinema, “The Maltese Falcon,” which was made in 1941 and starred Humphrey Bogart as the iconoclastic, irascible, charming, brilliant, unflappable private detective Sam Spade.

The plot revolves around trying to find this Maltese Falcon, which is supposedly encrusted in precious jewels. There are twists and double crosses and a tiny bit of romance and in the final scene, when it is revealed that the falcon they have recovered is nothing but a fake– nothing more than a cheap piece of iron, the dim-witted policeman turns to Sam Spade and says, “Sam, just what is that dingus?”

And Sam laconically replies, “IT’S THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF.”

Then he walks down the steps cradling the black bird as the elevator door closes on the love interest who hoped that Sam would take the fall for her and who is clearly going to hang by her pretty neck.