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Also, why is it seemingly always a bunch of crap that gets funded by VCs? Is there no one who will take a step back and fund tech that levels us all up for the

by itmag 15y ago

Also, why is it seemingly always a bunch of crap that gets funded by VCs? Is there no one who will take a step back and fund tech that levels us all up for the long haul? Investors: enough with social shopping, Facebook for cats, and crowdsourced geo-optimized micro-lattes already. Fund something that truly creates WEALTH. Prime example: http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Global_Village_Construction_Set http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Global_Village_Constructio...

billpatrianakos 15y ago
It seems like they're disconnected from reality nits like there' this Silocon Valley bubble that the VCs are living in. I'm up on all the trendy tech news too but I'm out in Chicago so maybe I'm able to see things differently from the outside. Haven't they figured out that unless your some huge corporation like Google you can't break into the social space. It's already been dominated by the big 3 (Facebook, Twitter, G+). Social is becoming cliche and its actually turning people off now. That's not to say the startup party is over, it's just that now that we have entertainment and novelty all squared away they can focus on other things. Dropbox for instance is a company that's not exactly serving a humanitarian purpose but they're doing awesome things that are going to change the way we work with our devices. Spotify I think is also worthy of the money because it has given us something a lot of us have dreamed of: access to pretty much any music, on demand, for free. Like on demand radio. Again, it's not helping people in profound humanitarian ways but they're doing awesome things (opinions on artists pay and all that have nothing to do with what I'm talking about here so please don't go off on that tangent). But instead of finding these truly unique and innovative companies they throw money at exactly what you said, Facebook for cats and other lame wannabe sites with founders who think they're next in line to dethrone Zuckerberg because it's cool to be a billionaire. I think there are still people who get it and they're smart about where they put their money but far too many are getting into this like some gold rush. They invest based on "oh tech startups are trendy and they'll make me rich no matter who they are" kind of thinking. Honestly, I'd totally forgo funding for something I can do on a shoestring budget (and I am) and I'm the end come out with a better product that I'm in control of completely. That's real success. Funding has its place but it's being abused nowadays.

by itmag 15y ago

billpatrianakos 15y ago

It seems like they're disconnected from reality nits like there' this Silocon Valley bubble that the VCs are living in. I'm up on all the trendy tech news too but I'm out in Chicago so maybe I'm able to see things differently from the outside. Haven't they figured out that unless your some huge corporation like Google you can't break into the social space. It's already been dominated by the big 3 (Facebook, Twitter, G+). Social is becoming cliche and its actually turning people off now. That's not to say the startup party is over, it's just that now that we have entertainment and novelty all squared away they can focus on other things. Dropbox for instance is a company that's not exactly serving a humanitarian purpose but they're doing awesome things that are going to change the way we work with our devices. Spotify I think is also worthy of the money because it has given us something a lot of us have dreamed of: access to pretty much any music, on demand, for free. Like on demand radio. Again, it's not helping people in profound humanitarian ways but they're doing awesome things (opinions on artists pay and all that have nothing to do with what I'm talking about here so please don't go off on that tangent). But instead of finding these truly unique and innovative companies they throw money at exactly what you said, Facebook for cats and other lame wannabe sites with founders who think they're next in line to dethrone Zuckerberg because it's cool to be a billionaire. I think there are still people who get it and they're smart about where they put their money but far too many are getting into this like some gold rush. They invest based on "oh tech startups are trendy and they'll make me rich no matter who they are" kind of thinking. Honestly, I'd totally forgo funding for something I can do on a shoestring budget (and I am) and I'm the end come out with a better product that I'm in control of completely. That's real success. Funding has its place but it's being abused nowadays.