Hardware Veterans Retire... Death of Web Investment Prognosticated
So Sevin Rosen says that the market for venture is so bad that they don't think they can make "venture" returns, so they're not going to raise another fund.
And now everyone's flipping out about the changes in the VC market and whether or not there's overinvestment or lack of opportunities. Chill out. Seriously.
Sure, there are a lot of problems people can point to in the venture market, but these guys aren't even playing in the same world as the VCs that get talked about in the blogosphere for their high profile internet service investments. They're a bunch of hardware guys whose very long and successful careers, like the infrastructure opportunities they chased, are winding down. They've made a lot of money, and rather than try and figure out how to build the next Google, Skype, YouTube, they're letting another generation tackle a new generation of completely different opportunities.
This is the experience and focus areas of the firm's partners:
industry veteran of over 30 years.... semiconductor, telecommunications, and nanotechnology
in the early 1980s... was CEO of two high-technology companies...semiconductor and software industries
nearly 20 years as an executive at wireless carrier and service provider companies
joining Sevin Rosen Funds in 1983...
worked with three venture-backed companies in industries such as enterprise software, flat panel display and semiconductors
focuses in areas of imaging, computing, photonics, RF communications, and Semiconductors
director of Capstone Turbine Corporation, a public microturbine manufacturer
taken a lead role in nurturing... a pioneer in the optical transmission market
worked with companies in the integrated circuit and solid-state industries...spent 30 years at Texas Instruments
20 years in the semiconductor and networking industry
Chips, networks, displays... we've got these things now, thanks to guys like the partners at Sevin Rosen, but that's not where the new opportunities are. The opportunities aren't in the hardware that move the bits faster and faster... they're in the services that make the bits useful... that capture the bits, organize them... pair them with other bits for exponential value creation.
To even put companies like YouTube and Facebook in the same article as Sevin Rosin's decision is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You might as well say that all the medical device investors should retire, too, because investing in purely web based businesses is about as different than investing in chips as you can get. That's like asking these guys to do genomics.
Venture is not venture is not venture. It matters a lot what industry you're in. It matters what stage you play in. It matters what geography you invest in. I've written before that I don't even think that what is commonly lumped together and called venture capital shouldn't even be called a single asset class, but the media, and often limited partners as well, misunderstand these kinds of investments. Sevin Rosen's departure from the scene shouldn't be taken as anything more than the nail in the coffin on hardware investment, and maybe perhaps a remark on the Texas market... not an "industry" signal.
Gambler pays off
Kenny Rogers made the "best lineup ever assembled" look like a bunch of little leaguers who had never seen a curveball.
And now, the fate of the pinstripey team lies in the hands of... Jared Wright.
Baaahahahhahaha.
Chumps.
links for 2006-10-07
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Wooo... avatars #1.. err... um... wait...
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waaaaaaaaaa! waaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Cry me a river, Brad. Seriously.
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I don't think I buy this...
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Had Jamba with Mike McDerment when he was in NYC... good guy... I like what they're doing.
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This plays into Instant Information's strategy... interesting stuff.
Why doesn't Apple buy last.fm?
Personally, I don't know if Apple is ever going to relinquish their stranglehold on portable music. Their penchant for cool design and easy of use is difficult to match. However, if history tells us anything, hardware has always been a bad bet for maintaining margins and competitive advantages. The further up the stack you go, the higher the margins and more difficult it is to unseat you.
And in today's world, data is at the top of the stack, not software like iTunes. iTunes may have made it really easy to get people set up on the iPod, but its not what keeps them there. The critical mass of artists in the music store keeps them coming, but it seems to me that its only going to get easier to buy music from more sources in the future, not harder. There's nothing really that sticky about it, actually. No data, no network. I've been switching players a lot, actually.
So I thought to myself, why doesn't Apple buy last.fm and really ramp up the social network features? Scrobble everyone and provide social music functionality right there in iTunes. It would b like when AOL announced that they were building a social network on top of AIM. They already had all my friends and I didn't even have to do anything.
Imagine a MySpace competiter that already knows what music you listen to and on day one tells you who has similar tastes, on top of recommending who you should listen to. Plus, because iTunes is actually selling a ton of music, the company has the leaverage to actually get bands to start setting up camp on their last.fm artist pages. iTunes and the iPod spit out a ton of data that their software doesn't use effectively at all, and last.fm has a really neat application to make the most of that data. What if Apple made all of those little last.fm widgets their own little try and buy mini iTunes stores? I think they could get last.fm at a reasonable price relative to the kind of value they could add to it by integrating it with their hardware and software. Seems to me like a natural fit.
The Oddcast Blog: Hello world.
As if you couldn't have predicted this when I joined... Oddcast is now blogging! Check out CEO Adi Sideman's first post. I'll be adding posts from time to time as well.
The Dilbert Blog: Attacking Allies
I wonder what would happen, for example, if the United States simply declared North Korea to be an ally, and made a big fuss about it, but didn’t change much else. We could pass a law saying we’ll defend North Korea against foreign attack – knowing that no country wants to attack them anyway. We could keep our military force in the DMZ and redefine it as preventing South Korea from attacking North Korea just as much as the reverse. That would be baloney, of course, but delicious and pleasing baloney.
Two Down, Nine to Go
Remember when Tom Glavine went 9-14, 4.52 for the Mets?
Neither do I.
Last night was vintage Glavine... boring as hell to watch, and half the time, you're scratching your head about how big the strike zone gets.
And wow, this Dodger lineup is anemic. Outside of Kent, no one scares you at all.
And once again, Grady Little, thank you for starting Kuo. We didn't kill him, but 85 pitches halfway through the fifth didn't cut it.
I'd like to think they're going to sweep now, but its hard for me to imagine Trachsel showing up to play. He better, because we might see Oliver Perez in Game 4.
links for 2006-10-06
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There's one seriously missing variable here... WORD OF MOUTH. I buy the sneakers I see on MNF, and take them to the gym. 4 more people buy.
Running the Bases: Sweat the Small Stuff
Baseball is hitting, pitching, and defense, right? Oh yeah... and you have to run the bases well, too.
Lonnie Smith could have told you that.
Thank God that the Dodgers don't seem to remember the '91 World Series. I stayed up in my room way past my bedtime to watch that game... with the TV brightness down and the volume low, so it wouldn't look like the TV was on to a passerby looking at the bottom of the door.
Instead, the Dodgers had two guys get nailed at the plate on the same play and that might have cost them their whole postseason, right then and there. They should have won the chance they had against emergency starter John Maine, who did a nice, albeit short, job. Instead, they're going against a HOFer down 1-0 in a short series.
I know that Kuo dominated them in his one start against the Mets, but seriously... this is the Game Two starter? The guy's got 5 career starts. Five. And Greg Maddux is Game Three? Well, no one ever accussed Grady Little of knowing how to manage a pitching staff.
This is Bill Simmons' diary of the game.
Listening Live to the Mets
The Mets are streaming right now on WFAN.
After an injury to El Duque, John Maine is getting the call.
Six innings, three runs... that's all I'm asking for. Maine-Mota/Bradford-Heilman- Wagner.
Cross your fingers and please, step carefully around the dugout, boys.
UPDATE: WTF!! I guess the game is blacked out or something. Is it on ESPN radio? Looks like I have to pay on MLB for radio.. this is stupid. I can't get my free radio station over the web.
UPDATE 2: MLB just got my $10 so I could get the game streamed over the web, which doesn't seem to work anyway... at least the audio comes in.
October Destiny
My avatar has the low down on what I think is going to happen in the first round of the playoffs. I'd love to see this all end up in another Subway Payback...erm... Series.
Postseason Predictions
My avatar's
Postseason Predictions
My avatar's
One more time...
Sure... why not. We can play along. I can't wait until Rocky 7 where he starts selling the Rocky Balboa Grill.
Mets - Dodgers Schedule
Orel Hershiser is retired, right?
Good, then I'm not worried about the Mets playing LA.
Wednesday, the Met's will play the Dodgers in the late afternoon at Shea. Of course, the Yankees get all the primetime games. All I know is, Kenny Rogers owes me a win for walking the Braves past us in '99.
By the way, now that I'm looking at box scores for the '99 NLCS, how in the hell did Masato Yoshii start in the playoffs over Orel Hershiser? Yoshii turned it a cruddy start in game one against the D-Backs... Orel was a money pitcher... sure he was fading into the sunset, but he had a pretty similar year and his experience should have counted for more. I'm glad we're righting that by throwing El Duque in Game 1.
So El Duque goes against Derek Lowe in Game One on Wednesday at 4PM EST. Then, Thursday night, here's a matchup for you... Greg Maddux vs. Tom Glavine.
Then, they're off Friday and play Saturday. The Game Three starter hasn't been announced, but either way, I go with John Maine.
Well, this is it... Let's go Mets!
Commercialize? No. Participate? Yes.
If you are doing anything in interactive marketing, you should be reading Rohit's blog. His position at Ogilvy gives him a lot of insight into how the role of PR and marketing is changing as digital media changes.
The other day, the terms he used for the role of brands in social media really struck me.
Participate
Commericalize
At the end of the day, brands all want the same thing... influence, attention, sales... whatever. This is capitalism and we are all aware that all the free stuff on the web comes at some kind of price.
But how we encounter those brands can vary dramatically.
"Participating in a conversation" is a very human thing... and for a brand to do it, they need to act more human. This includes sharing, mutual respect, openness... all sorts of things we come to expect by the actual people around us. If brands can't do this, it is unlikely we are going to sacrifice any attention that we normally give to our friends in social media.
Every brand manager out there should take out a piece of paper and write down three ways that their brand "participates in a conversation". If they can't think of any, they should talk to people like Rohit, because they're probably commercializing.
links for 2006-09-30
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Great example of using user gen content in advertising in a way that elevates, not intrudes, on users.
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So, do you use Evite for this? Which theme?
Playing with Live Writer
I like this insert a map feature, and its sort of disturbing that I can insert a bird's eye view of the street I grew up on. So Bill Gates has been watching me by satellite this whole time, huh?
