5 ms·

Dell Takes Venture Arm Out of Stealth, Aims to Spend $100M Annually

134 points by artsandsci 9y ago

spullara 9y ago
I think they mean invest rather than spend?
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  After reading the article they do make investments but it seems like if you partner with Dell they would offer parts of the ecosystem or consulting experience. So spend would be not only investments but also technologies or expertise.
- criddell 9y ago
  I was going to suggest gamble.
- MR4D 9y ago
  SPEND in this case means essentially what their budget is for the group, while INVEST would be a smaller portion (essentially, the budgeted spend minus overhead). Merely asking and answering the question "Who should we invest in?" takes a considerable amount of money by itself.
  - aardvark291 9y ago
    That $100M clearly is dominated by the capital that is to be invested. The use of the verb "spend" is perhaps a slip indicating an opinion on the chance of positive ROI... "The company is spending about $100 million annually on the funding of startups, he said." "All told, Dell Technologies Capital has invested in more than 70 startups. It puts in around $3 million to $10 million initially and usually in the A or B rounds, Darling said. The company provides more money in later rounds." If your investment team that answers the question "Who should we invest in?" is consuming $100M itself... I need to change jobs.
- trjordan 9y ago
  It's the other side of the quasi-doublespeak that looks at raises and new divisions and side projects as "investments". They're going to spend $100M this year that they can't easily get back, so it's a fair way to put it. Everything the business does is finding investments to spend their money on.
la6470 9y ago
Dell = Dinosaur
Nanite 9y ago
The lingering question with corporate venture arms: How do they perform compared to "regular" vc's? as corporate managers will have relative limited upside and zero skin in the game.
- lend000 9y ago
  I believe Intel's VC arm has been very successful, and there's the added benefit that Intel gets a better preview into technologies it may want to acquire outright -- however, I'd like to see the numbers, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Capital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Capital
  - Nanite 9y ago
    Haven't look at their portfolio extensively, but their Basis acquisition, one of the earlier fitness tracker watches with optical heart rate sensor, comes to mind, which was just south of $100M, and was basically shuttered with their flagship product pulled of the market after serious issues. Like most corporate VC's Intel pursues synergy deals, For intel these are categorized as "more Moore" and "more than Moore" i.e. as long as it contains silicon it could expand their markets
  - colbyh 9y ago
    not sure why this is downvoted - Intel was ranked #1 in at least one major VC rankings list for like 3 years in a row (2012-2015ish). not sure how they have done recently but for a while they were def at the top.
- mathattack 9y ago
  Since VC is such a #s game it's hard to analyze by example. (Did they get the one outlier that pays for the fund?) I would still like to look at Cloudera as an interesting example. As an investment, they most certainly lost money on it. But if their investment helped Cloudera grow, they may have sold a ton of chips that Cloudera ran on. Big data requires chips. Being able to make money indirectly allows them to benefit from otherwise seemingly unprofitable deals. (And allows execs to hide from mistakes - even less skin in the game)
Entangled 9y ago
Start with an Apple-TV-like device that we can plug to our TVs and allow us to browse the web from our couches. Compete with Google and Apple in that arena and let us developers build tools for the world to enjoy the computer ten feet away, any mobile phone can be used as remote and keyboard but you are welcome to build one for less than $50, it's just an IR remote with a keyboard, not a mobile phone. From mainframes, to desktops, to the web, to mobile. The next revolution will be televised. Be prepared.
- findjashua 9y ago
  Could you elaborate on a use case that you'd like to see. I mostly use my TV only to watch videos, which Chromecast handles pretty well. But I'm curious to see what use case I'm missing out on.
  - Entangled 9y ago
    Sure, Youtube would be the first app no doubt about it, I'd like to see Casey Neistat on TV every night, but now imagine instagram, snapchat, twitter, facebook and all social apps on your TV. Phones will still be widely used on the go, but once people get home they get splatted on the couch and TV would become the main screen from where to enjoy all possible entertainment. I personally was thinking as a developer, I'd like to code on my TV, I'm sick of the desktop and the laptop, my eyes and back are suffering the most. I need a comfortable chair LazyBoy-style ten feet away from the screen with a wireless keyboard and trackpad which can be used as remote, that's it, nothing else. So for me it would be Xcode and Sublime on my TV, HN and Reddit, and the possibility to develop a million apps just like your iPhone/Android. One single box, the size of a soap bar, attached to your TV, and let developers make it the new platform. Desktops and laptops would be the first casualties (except for enterprises). That's my vision. Never underestimate the imagination of a million developers with new and shiny toys. TV is the next wave.
    - threeseed 9y ago
      YouTube: https://itunes.apple.com/bb/app/youtube-watch-upload-and-share-videos/id544007664 https://itunes.apple.com/bb/app/youtube-watch-upload-and-sha... Twitter: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271 Facebook: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/facebook/id284882215 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/facebook/id284882215 Email Instagram and Snapchat and if there is enough demand I am sure they will build an AppleTV app if they aren't already in the process. Now if you want to code on your TV then just buy an AppleTV and use AirPlay to project your Mac's screen to the TV. Your "vision" is literally just the AppleTV. Go build the future: https://www.apple.com/tv/ https://www.apple.com/tv/
themark 9y ago
I read title and thought that they were withdrawing funds from Stealth Technology. That would have been more interesting.
nakedgremlin 9y ago
So... similar to Hewlett Packard Pathfinder for Hewlett Packard Enterprise?

134 points by artsandsci 9y ago

spullara 9y ago

I think they mean invest rather than spend?

zitterbewegung 9y ago
After reading the article they do make investments but it seems like if you partner with Dell they would offer parts of the ecosystem or consulting experience. So spend would be not only investments but also technologies or expertise.
criddell 9y ago
I was going to suggest gamble.
MR4D 9y ago
SPEND in this case means essentially what their budget is for the group, while INVEST would be a smaller portion (essentially, the budgeted spend minus overhead). Merely asking and answering the question "Who should we invest in?" takes a considerable amount of money by itself.
- aardvark291 9y ago
  That $100M clearly is dominated by the capital that is to be invested. The use of the verb "spend" is perhaps a slip indicating an opinion on the chance of positive ROI... "The company is spending about $100 million annually on the funding of startups, he said." "All told, Dell Technologies Capital has invested in more than 70 startups. It puts in around $3 million to $10 million initially and usually in the A or B rounds, Darling said. The company provides more money in later rounds." If your investment team that answers the question "Who should we invest in?" is consuming $100M itself... I need to change jobs.
trjordan 9y ago
It's the other side of the quasi-doublespeak that looks at raises and new divisions and side projects as "investments". They're going to spend $100M this year that they can't easily get back, so it's a fair way to put it. Everything the business does is finding investments to spend their money on.

la6470 9y ago

Dell = Dinosaur

Nanite 9y ago

The lingering question with corporate venture arms: How do they perform compared to "regular" vc's? as corporate managers will have relative limited upside and zero skin in the game.

lend000 9y ago
I believe Intel's VC arm has been very successful, and there's the added benefit that Intel gets a better preview into technologies it may want to acquire outright -- however, I'd like to see the numbers, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Capital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Capital
- Nanite 9y ago
  Haven't look at their portfolio extensively, but their Basis acquisition, one of the earlier fitness tracker watches with optical heart rate sensor, comes to mind, which was just south of $100M, and was basically shuttered with their flagship product pulled of the market after serious issues. Like most corporate VC's Intel pursues synergy deals, For intel these are categorized as "more Moore" and "more than Moore" i.e. as long as it contains silicon it could expand their markets
- colbyh 9y ago
  not sure why this is downvoted - Intel was ranked #1 in at least one major VC rankings list for like 3 years in a row (2012-2015ish). not sure how they have done recently but for a while they were def at the top.
mathattack 9y ago
Since VC is such a #s game it's hard to analyze by example. (Did they get the one outlier that pays for the fund?) I would still like to look at Cloudera as an interesting example. As an investment, they most certainly lost money on it. But if their investment helped Cloudera grow, they may have sold a ton of chips that Cloudera ran on. Big data requires chips. Being able to make money indirectly allows them to benefit from otherwise seemingly unprofitable deals. (And allows execs to hide from mistakes - even less skin in the game)

Entangled 9y ago

Start with an Apple-TV-like device that we can plug to our TVs and allow us to browse the web from our couches. Compete with Google and Apple in that arena and let us developers build tools for the world to enjoy the computer ten feet away, any mobile phone can be used as remote and keyboard but you are welcome to build one for less than $50, it's just an IR remote with a keyboard, not a mobile phone. From mainframes, to desktops, to the web, to mobile. The next revolution will be televised. Be prepared.

findjashua 9y ago
Could you elaborate on a use case that you'd like to see. I mostly use my TV only to watch videos, which Chromecast handles pretty well. But I'm curious to see what use case I'm missing out on.
- Entangled 9y ago
  Sure, Youtube would be the first app no doubt about it, I'd like to see Casey Neistat on TV every night, but now imagine instagram, snapchat, twitter, facebook and all social apps on your TV. Phones will still be widely used on the go, but once people get home they get splatted on the couch and TV would become the main screen from where to enjoy all possible entertainment. I personally was thinking as a developer, I'd like to code on my TV, I'm sick of the desktop and the laptop, my eyes and back are suffering the most. I need a comfortable chair LazyBoy-style ten feet away from the screen with a wireless keyboard and trackpad which can be used as remote, that's it, nothing else. So for me it would be Xcode and Sublime on my TV, HN and Reddit, and the possibility to develop a million apps just like your iPhone/Android. One single box, the size of a soap bar, attached to your TV, and let developers make it the new platform. Desktops and laptops would be the first casualties (except for enterprises). That's my vision. Never underestimate the imagination of a million developers with new and shiny toys. TV is the next wave.
  - threeseed 9y ago
    YouTube: https://itunes.apple.com/bb/app/youtube-watch-upload-and-share-videos/id544007664 https://itunes.apple.com/bb/app/youtube-watch-upload-and-sha... Twitter: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271 Facebook: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/facebook/id284882215 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/facebook/id284882215 Email Instagram and Snapchat and if there is enough demand I am sure they will build an AppleTV app if they aren't already in the process. Now if you want to code on your TV then just buy an AppleTV and use AirPlay to project your Mac's screen to the TV. Your "vision" is literally just the AppleTV. Go build the future: https://www.apple.com/tv/ https://www.apple.com/tv/

themark 9y ago

I read title and thought that they were withdrawing funds from Stealth Technology. That would have been more interesting.

nakedgremlin 9y ago

So... similar to Hewlett Packard Pathfinder for Hewlett Packard Enterprise?