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I knew a serial entrepreneur (three paydirt IPOs and still going) whose formula for building basic infrastructure was this: 1. Find some capital to fund it 2.
by inopinatus 10y ago
I knew a serial entrepreneur (three paydirt IPOs and still going) whose formula for building basic infrastructure was this:
1. Find some capital to fund it
2. Build it
3. Attempt to sell services across it
4. The prices will be set to recoup investment + return. These prices will be too high for the market.
5. Go bust
6. Get bought for a song
7. New owner sells services at market-friendly rates.
It merely remains to find VCs to sucker into step (1). More than one internet backbone got built this way.
I leave unanswered the question of whether Twitter can be treated as infrastructure, and in particular do not mean to suggest their investors are this naive.
- herge 10y agoI think the intercontinental rail system in the US was built the same way too.
- arethuza 10y agoAnd the UK-France Channel Tunnel - which didn't go bankrupt but did have a significant financial "restructuring" along the way.
- bogomipz 10y ago>"More than one internet backbone got built this way" Can you elaborate? Which ones?
- xiaoma 10y agoWhat does a "paydirt" IPO mean?
- sethhochberg 10y agoSlang term for "profit" (a reference to digging in the dirt and finding oil or ores)
- xiaoma 10y agothanks!
- SkyMarshal 10y ago"Go bust + Get bought for a song" != "paydirt IPO" Something fishy in your story here.
- JumpCrisscross 10y agoTwitter's IPO made lots for its managers. They ran a circus. Now it's going bust.
- gozur88 10y ago>It merely remains to find VCs to sucker into step (1). More than one internet backbone got built this way. This is pretty common in private capital-heavy ventures. From the early railroads in the UK, to canals in the US, to the Chunnel. It's the second owner that makes money.
- TYPE_FASTER 10y agoAnd fiber bandwidth...and Motorola Iridium...etc.