Survival in the Digital Concrete Junglee.
Saturday here while I figure out what to do with my day (probably physically pound the week out of my body I'm guessing) and ping out to Duncan Riley, like I say to anyone leaving any job "Congratulations" ; I'm sure the other side will end up great. Being master of your own destiny is something which (I learnt the wrong way last time) shouldn't be conceeded so kick ass dude.
So I'm breathing today between the week that was, woh !!, given I'm splitting time at the moment between "corporate/capital" (what advisors/directors do I want to work with and take business forward) and "business development/revenue + traffic" (what clients do I want to work with, grow and get paid by) Fred Wilson has some as usual dead-on points re what a 2.0 Survivor will look like (and probably any high growth early stage funded business)
I'm a Survivor.
* Lower burn rates
* Business models, revenues, and customers
* Good venture syndicates with real VC firms (as opposed to strategic investors, amateurs, new funds, etc)
* Realistic valuations (as opposed to valuations that could not be sustained when the market broke)
* Committed entrepreneurs who were in it for more than just money
* Long time horizons for everyone involved (entrepreneurs, investors, employees)
* Reasonable exit expectations
* Less capital raised and less preferences on top of the founders
NB - I didnt realise Fred/Union Square were investors in the smart etsy play, so when I read this list I view it with this type of InvesteeCo in mind.
What is interesting with higher valuations and more VC, other than outliers and exceptions that prove the rule like GooTube, there is still no evidence of a volume of $200m-$1B acquisitions. Sure google buy irows, and Yahoo MyBlogLog + Bix over night, but if any of these companies had had tens of millions of dollars of investment, an acquisition wouldn't have even covered the principal :) So Lucky they didn't. Hence Fred's Rulez.
So I'm breathing today between the week that was, woh !!, given I'm splitting time at the moment between "corporate/capital" (what advisors/directors do I want to work with and take business forward) and "business development/revenue + traffic" (what clients do I want to work with, grow and get paid by) Fred Wilson has some as usual dead-on points re what a 2.0 Survivor will look like (and probably any high growth early stage funded business)
I'm a Survivor.
* Lower burn rates
* Business models, revenues, and customers
* Good venture syndicates with real VC firms (as opposed to strategic investors, amateurs, new funds, etc)
* Realistic valuations (as opposed to valuations that could not be sustained when the market broke)
* Committed entrepreneurs who were in it for more than just money
* Long time horizons for everyone involved (entrepreneurs, investors, employees)
* Reasonable exit expectations
* Less capital raised and less preferences on top of the founders
NB - I didnt realise Fred/Union Square were investors in the smart etsy play, so when I read this list I view it with this type of InvesteeCo in mind.
What is interesting with higher valuations and more VC, other than outliers and exceptions that prove the rule like GooTube, there is still no evidence of a volume of $200m-$1B acquisitions. Sure google buy irows, and Yahoo MyBlogLog + Bix over night, but if any of these companies had had tens of millions of dollars of investment, an acquisition wouldn't have even covered the principal :) So Lucky they didn't. Hence Fred's Rulez.
posted by redbarren at 12:30 PM
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