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Most professional investors are sheep. The number and scale of opportunities in technology is growing incredibly and they're not all doubling down. It's been a
by staunch 12y ago
Most professional investors are sheep. The number and scale of opportunities in technology is growing incredibly and they're not all doubling down.
It's been almost 10 years and no one has launched a credible competitor to YC. That's proof of how incredibly weak the industry is.
Where investors are afraid, consumers aren't the least bit deterred. They don't talk of bubbles. They want cool new stuff that makes their live better and they're paying for it. The internet has reached critical mass, everyone is online and has a credit card. Which is why, in the near future, new technology will mostly come from companies that were funded by crowdfunding, not professional investors.
- rgbrenner 12y agocrowdfunding? really? Both crowdfunding and VCs fund a tiny portion of the total small businesses started. Did you see those charts? The scale is in hundreds. In the US alone there are millions of small businesses started each year. Sure, most of those aren't trying to change the world (haven't seen statistics on that)... but even if it's 0.5% and you exclude all the solo founders, it would still far out number crowdfunding and VCs by a large margin.
- jsprogrammer 12y agoHow are the millions funded?
- yen223 12y agoLoans, savings, investments from friends and relatives, etc.
- staunch 12y agoThere are more Italian restaurants funded every year than there are technology startups as a whole. But if you take "startup" to mean "technology startup" you're talking about the same thing I am. And almost all of these startups were funded by VCs early on. Crowdfunding will replace VCs as it becomes possible for people to get equity in exchange for funding. Your average person is more than clever enough to invest $500 in Dropbox the day it launches as a video on Digg. Only a broken system stops them from being able to profit the way already rich investors do today. In the same way that Uber didn't replace taxis, crowdfunding will not replace VCs, it will surpass them. The crowd has far more money and are themselves the ultimate judge of what's good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_funded_crowdfunding_projects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_funded_crowdfun... http://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2014/03/26/equity-crowdfunding-site-targets-the-gigantic-untapped-consumer-market/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2014/03/26/equity-cr...