Most of the chatter about the Gowalla and Facebook deal was about the investors and whether the founders screwed over the investors or not (to make a long story short, Arrington thinks they did but Jason Calacanis (an actual investor) think they didn’t. the End). In my humble opinion, it doesn’t matter. It’s nothing more than Silicon Valley gossip. What really matters is this deal impact on the future of the location base services space (LBS) and consumer apps in general: The number 2 player in the LBS space got picked up for what’s considered in the valley to be pocket money? What does it mean for the 100s of LBS/consumer apps that are competing over the limited consumer attention? Continue reading “Gowalla/ Facebook deal: welcome to 2003, 1999 is over”
VC
The Well Known Secrets of the VC world (Part 2)
OK, it took a while since part 1. It is kind of busy here in Project-X and weekends are the only time left for some writing. Before it gets too far from my VC days, I wanted to write the promised (but perhaps not anticipated) part 2 of my post, and get it out of the way. The last post covered some basics: What’s a good VC, getting meetings and the strange habit of VCs not to pass on deals. Today we will focus on what’s important- what will a VC look into when meeting you. Continue reading “The Well Known Secrets of the VC world (Part 2)”
The Well Known Secrets of the VC world (Part 1)
The news are all grim about VCs recently. They can’t raise money, they don’t invest…While it is not the best time for VCs and startups (and for the rest of us), money is still invested. I spent the last 6 months as an EIR (Executive In Residence) with a venture capital firm, classically located on Sand Hill road. Destiny (and network) got me to spend my winter with Storm Ventures, one of the finest VCs I got to know. During this time I saw dozens of startups, attended many internal discussions and learned a lot. And, as my old grandmother used to say: “learning is solidified by writing”. So here are some of my learnings that many people know, but more don’t…
- What’s a good VC?: Continue reading “The Well Known Secrets of the VC world (Part 1)”
In bad times, lower the risk for your customers
Just like everyone else, I am spending cycles thinking of the economy. Unlike many others, I don’t think the crisis is one size fits all and winners will emerge alongside the losers.
There is a lot of advice for entrepreneurs and much talk in the VC community but the talk is all focused on lowering costs and not on ways to impact the revenue side, which is as important to survive this downturn. Customers will not stop spending. It never happened and it will never happen. Customers will be simply looking to lower their risk at times like this. Who wants to invest 10M in a new ERP system, when things are uncertain? Continue reading “In bad times, lower the risk for your customers”
Can the financial crisis help SaaS companies in the long term?
No doubt that the financial crisis will hurt everyone. With a frozen financial system the entire idea of US capitalism (borrow cash, put it to work, grow to be profitable, invest again…) is on hold. Eric Schonfeld concluded today that VCs and Startups will not be immune to the crisis and I can not agree with him more. The one thing to remember though, is that a financial Crisis, a war or other disasters impact some people/industries/countries more than others, so while no winners will emerge, some may lose less.
One of the sectors that may lose less is the little (but fast growing) SaaS (Software as a Service) industry. Here is why: Continue reading “Can the financial crisis help SaaS companies in the long term?”
Gadi Shamia 