The link to the Android Market does not go to the app page. With a name like 'Color', it's almost impossible finding it in the market.
Try "Paradigm shifting" as a search keyword.
Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
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Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#72Creepiest part- "it uses the camera to check for lighting conditions, and even uses the phone’s microphone to ‘listen’ to the ambient surroundings." The auto-social network based on proximity is awesome, though. I can't wait for this and the creep factor will be gone in five years anyway since we are all moving to a more open society.
Creepy indeed. I wonder if it has a backdoor to ECHELON.
Echelon is Facebook, Twitter, and Color. :)
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#73Any "there isn't a bubble" believers want to comment on this one...?
I've previously been in the camp that there isn't a bubble. This seems like its a valuation of 1 or 2 hundred million for a company that hasn't launched yet. It's very hard to see how this deal could make sense in a traditional way. Don't get me wrong I think this sounds like an excellent idea that could turn out to be an excellent company. It's just such a large amount of money to raise that it kind of raises the qu…
The thing that always gets me is that my local movie theatre is playing terrible unoriginal flicks shot for a budget higher than that.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#74If you're trying to evaluate based on how useful it is, how cool, potential income etc you're missing the point.
The goal is to flip this to the next sucker. A cool domain name, a celeb team, an app that's bound to attract media hype (look for "The Color.com Revolution" coming from Tehran University in 2012) - a year or two from now, provided the bubble doesn't burst, Sequoia can unload this on Google or Facebook and make a tidy profit.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#75The underlying technology sounds like it was inspired by The Dark Knight - sensors in cell phones streaming data back to a central server where it can all be processed together into a cohesive view of what's going on in the world.
The photo-sharing aspect just sounds like a hook to get consumers to actually put it on their phones. I'd imagine that the bigger play is trying understanding where people go, who they go there with, when they go, all of that. Facebook has the data to reconstruct that information after the fact, when people come home and upload their pictures, but this looks like an attempt to see it unfold in real time.
Advertisers are already getting used to having this kind of information on the web, with tracking cookies, twitter, and real-time ad auctions giving them immediate, constant feedback from and control over people's online experience. The company that figures out how to get a similar datastream out of and targeted advertisements into meatspace is going to make mad money; if these guys have a legitimate shot at doing it, $41M probably isn't so crazy.
On the other hand, just downloaded the app, and the first cut is kind of crap.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#76It's mobile, it's social, and it's local! They managed to hit all the buzzwords in one startup!
Heh. I believe the VC-approved word for this is 'solomo'.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#77All embrace big brother!
sharing pictures all around you, tagging your location, listening to the ambient sounds around it, centralized server.... anyone else see this as a serious privacy fail.... I'm still going try it out, but just saying.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've previously been in the camp that there isn't a bubble. This seems like its a valuation of 1 or 2 hundred million for a company that hasn't launched yet. It's very hard to see how this deal could make sense in a traditional way. Don't get me wrong I think this sounds like an excellent idea that could turn out to be an excellent company. It's just such a large amount of money to raise that it kind of raises the qu…
The thing that always gets me is that my local movie theatre is playing terrible unoriginal flicks shot for a budget higher than that.
I think movie flops are much more uncommon than failed companies though. Maybe this investment represents a very uncommon level of certainty in the company's success. It could also just be a bad investment, there is always a range.
It still isn't clear to me that if there was a sudden readjustment of these overvalued companies how many companies would really be effected and what it would mean for the sector as a whole. I don't think its defining the whole sector the way it did in 2000. It might mean bad things for VCs in general, but maybe this is the economy working VCs out of the system.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#79"But how exactly is Color going to make “wheelbarrows of cash”... the company is still very early on, but it eventually plans to offer businesses a self-serve platform for running deals and ads $41 Million for a photo sharing app and this is the best they came up with? You gotta be kidding me.
Here is some tinfoil for you...
Assuming they have a back-door API - this could be a freaking BOON for intelligence gathering arms that are seeking to know the surrounds of anti establishment types.
Further - wait until you apply spatial modeling capabilities (what was that MS tech demo called?) where you can start building 3d navigable models of spaces that all the data collected in that 100' radius allows.
Dont think the military is doing CRAZY things with optical intel:
"The system can also be used for general night vision; it can follow bats five miles away in darkness."
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/02/72632
the military now has autonomous robotic helicopters that can visually track bullets in flight.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/02/gigapixel-flyin/
Now they just need the general public to be a part of the larger sensor intel fabric.
Re: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've previously been in the camp that there isn't a bubble. This seems like its a valuation of 1 or 2 hundred million for a company that hasn't launched yet. It's very hard to see how this deal could make sense in a traditional way. Don't get me wrong I think this sounds like an excellent idea that could turn out to be an excellent company. It's just such a large amount of money to raise that it kind of raises the qu…
The thing that always gets me is that my local movie theatre is playing terrible unoriginal flicks shot for a budget higher than that.
At least they have a solid business plan (sell tickets, DVD/BluRay and PPV, TV rights, etc). Color doesn't even accept revenue.