Saying No to the Next Google

It is every venture investor’s biggest fear: Saying no to the next Google. Leaving aside how distasteful I find that metaphor, insofar as it means being congenitally unable to say Yes to big risks with potentially big returns when the business is nascent, I have seen two companies in the last three weeks that stand a better chance than most of being that sort of disruptive (ooooh, that word) company — and both are having the usual mud-wrestling contests with investors.
Plus ca change, plus ca meme.

Related posts:

  1. Software Patents and VCs
  2. How DFJ Missed Google (and Yahoo)
  3. Google Desktop Search: Internet O/S
  4. “What’s to Prevent Google From Doing That?”
  5. “How Venture Capital Thwarts Innovation”

Comments

  1. Mark says:

    “…and neither one can raise money.”
    Begs the question…Why?

  2. Jeff Clavier says:

    “Plus ca change, plus c’est pareil” ou “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” :-) .
    On the why ? It took a Sequoia or a LP to do Google, in a market that perceived that search was a done deal. And there are firms which take big risks on nascent markets, the issue is to know which ones, and how to get in front of them.