Posts about vc

Meanwhile, at Google+

I’m going to try something: linking here to things I’m writing on Google+, because the conversation there tends to be lively and quick and because I want to keep a record of some of those interesting conversations here before they scroll down into oblivion. So…

* The Associated Press gets into the CIA’s social-media analysis operation, which only makes me think that we in journalism should have just such operations ourselves.

* Adding my experience with Reid Hoffman to the deserved attention he got today in The New York Times: Reid as an open human API.

* Dell Hell charted against Dell’s share price. It wasn’t my fault. I swear.

VC 2.0

Question for my book and for a conversation I’m going to have about it this week: How do you think venture capital could operate in more of a Googley/web 2.0/networked way? VCs like Fred Wilson have already made the industry far more open than it used to be with their blogs, which have also extended their networks. So what’s next? What are new ways you’d like to see to invest in and start companies? (As always, thanks!)

When innovators sell out

Great response by Umair Haque to Fred Wilson’s discussion about fixing the venture investment ecosystem.

Let’s revisit the spectre haunting venture capital. Why aren’t there more Googles?

The answer’s very simple. Because every company that had the potential to be economically revolutionary over the last five years sold out long before it ever had the chance to revolutionize anything economically.

Think about that for a second. Every single one: Myspace, Skype, Last.fm, del.icio.us, Right Media, the works. All sold out to behemoths who are destroying, with Kafkaesque precision, every ounce of radical innovation within them.

Let’s replay the Google story. Google, despite serious interest from Microsoft and Yahoo – what must have seemed like lucrative interest at the time – didn’t sell out. Google might simply have been nothing but Yahoo’s or MSN’s search box.

Why isn’t it? Because Google had a deeply felt sense of purpose: a conviction to change the world for the better. Because it did, it held on and revolutionized the advertising value chain – and, in turn, capital markets gave Google an exuberant welcome.

See the point? If all Larry, Sergey, and Google’s investors had wanted to do was to sell out fast to the highest bidder, they could have done so at any time. But they didn’t: they chose to revolutionize something that sucked – and so a tsunami of new value was unlocked. That’s how Google was made.

Now, I agree with Fred. Equity capital markets are myopic, beancounterly, and soulless. But it’s not venture’s job to fix those problems. The real problem is internal: structural inertia and risk-aversion. . . .

The dynamics of old boy’s clubs are almost deterministically predictable: they fight tooth and nail against risk, against the radical, against any kind of change to the status quo. They’re great at “monetization” – cutting deals – but the last thing old boy’s clubs are good at, unfortunately, is sticking up, come hell or high water, for innovation. From music, to publishing, to food, to autos, the outcome of locked-down boardrooms has been innovation stifled and suffocated. . . .

Couldn’t happen to nicer guys

I’m delighted for the Feedburner team that they’ve been acquired by Google for a reported $100 million. It’s hard to think of a more upstanding company in the blog and RSS world than Feedburner. They have unparalleled customer service; they have always been forthright and transparent; they are incredibly responsive; and they’re just nice guys. They also have vision. When Feedburner started, I’ll admit that I didn’t understand why I needed them. But I finally got it and I have had nothing but pleasant encounters with their management and their service. Congratulations. (Investor Fred Wilson’s take here.)

ER-FI

Rafat Ali reports that Staci Kramer is on wi-fi at the hospital. She never stops! (Here’s hoping that all goes smoothly for Staci there and that she gives herself a break and stays off line.)

Speaking of Rafat, he’s pissed about David’ Carr’s spun piece about Denton, Inc. and the PaidContent mixer. I, too, made bubble gags after the event but I agree that the bubbling has nothing to do with blogs (or with PaidContent). What I noted was the guys with startups pitching anybody who would or wouldn’t listen. That’s what was deja vu for me.