4 ms·

> the internet, DNS, email, and the web were largely built by VC-backed companies Really ?

by dotcoma 3mo ago

jacobgold 3mo ago
There were famously government and university programs that played important early roles too. But it was largely people working for companies that actually built these systems. What organizations do you think created the switches, routers, servers, software, fiber optic backbones? Who created the new protocols? It was companies like AT&T/Bell Labs, Cisco, 3Com, Sun, UUNET, Netscape, AOL, the major telecoms, and a thousand other companies we don't remember. Something like 1% inspiration from academia and government, and 99% perspiration by people working inside companies.
- Munksgaard 3mo ago
  How many of those organizations you named were VC-backed?
  - jacobgold 3mo ago
    Cisco, backed early by Sequoia. 3Com, raised $1.1M from three venture capitalists in 1981. Sun, a Kleiner Perkins portfolio company. UUNET, raised from Accel, Menlo, and NEA in 1993. Netscape, backed by Kleiner Perkins. AOL, backed by Kleiner Perkins.
JdeBP 3mo ago
I am sure that DARPA, BBN, USC Information Sciences Institute, and many others will be overjoyed to learn that they've been erased from history by the new narrative that Venture Capitalists Built Everything. (-:
- jacobgold 3mo ago
  BBN was a private company...
  - jorams 3mo ago
    A private company doing DARPA-funded research.
    - jacobgold 3mo ago
      Initially, yes, and then they became an important commercial internet service and backbone provider. They were quickly joined by a huge wave of other private companies, almost all VC-backed.
rafterydj 3mo ago
Yeah that raised my eyebrow as well. "Popularized" maybe, but "largely built" I think is a mis-characterization.
- jacobgold 3mo ago
  "Commercialized" is probably the word you want, and I'd agree with. It turns out that commercialization is most of the work of creating a globally decentralized system. Which doesn't mean the non-commercial work wasn't critical.

> the internet, DNS, email, and the web were largely built by VC-backed companies Really ?

by dotcoma 3mo ago

> the internet, DNS, email, and the web were largely built by VC-backed companies Really ?

There were famously government and university programs that played important early roles too. But it was largely people working for companies that actually built these systems. What organizations do you think created the switches, routers, servers, software, fiber optic backbones? Who created the new protocols? It was companies like AT&T/Bell Labs, Cisco, 3Com, Sun, UUNET, Netscape, AOL, the major telecoms, and a thousand other companies we don't remember. Something like 1% inspiration from academia and government, and 99% perspiration by people working inside companies.

Munksgaard 3mo ago
How many of those organizations you named were VC-backed?
- jacobgold 3mo ago
  Cisco, backed early by Sequoia. 3Com, raised $1.1M from three venture capitalists in 1981. Sun, a Kleiner Perkins portfolio company. UUNET, raised from Accel, Menlo, and NEA in 1993. Netscape, backed by Kleiner Perkins. AOL, backed by Kleiner Perkins.

JdeBP 3mo ago

I am sure that DARPA, BBN, USC Information Sciences Institute, and many others will be overjoyed to learn that they've been erased from history by the new narrative that Venture Capitalists Built Everything. (-:

jacobgold 3mo ago
BBN was a private company...
- jorams 3mo ago
  A private company doing DARPA-funded research.
  - jacobgold 3mo ago
    Initially, yes, and then they became an important commercial internet service and backbone provider. They were quickly joined by a huge wave of other private companies, almost all VC-backed.

rafterydj 3mo ago

Yeah that raised my eyebrow as well. "Popularized" maybe, but "largely built" I think is a mis-characterization.

jacobgold 3mo ago
"Commercialized" is probably the word you want, and I'd agree with. It turns out that commercialization is most of the work of creating a globally decentralized system. Which doesn't mean the non-commercial work wasn't critical.