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Github Raises $100 Million

online.wsj.com

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Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#141

Post by hkmurakami »

nyellin wrote: post #122
courtewing wrote: post #76

I'm a little surprised by all of the anti-VC sentiment in this thread so far, especially from this community. I'm perhaps even more surprised by the "what do they need 100 million dollars" sentiment that is being floated around. Github is an impressive company that has, so far, blown away its competition in many aspects. The fact that they have been self-bootstrapped up until this point and that they are profitable t…

Oddly, the top two anti-VC comments are from Israeli HN users. I wonder what that says about us.

We could easily argue that you could be ahead of the curve ^^.

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#142

Post by mseebach »

kylebrown wrote: post #131
courtewing wrote: post #76

I'm a little surprised by all of the anti-VC sentiment in this thread so far, especially from this community. I'm perhaps even more surprised by the "what do they need 100 million dollars" sentiment that is being floated around. Github is an impressive company that has, so far, blown away its competition in many aspects. The fact that they have been self-bootstrapped up until this point and that they are profitable t…

> With 0 dollars, a couple of guys built something amazing. I can't wait to see what they can do with 100 million. Since substantial funding wasn't a contribution to their first success, nor apparently even their goal, there's no reason to expect that throwing money at them would lead to something even more amazing.

Sometimes some cash can help you execute faster on the plan you already have. As illustrated by the scene form "The Social Network" where Zuckerberg says he wants to expand to 100 schools, and Parker says "'I'll put you on two continents."

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#143

Post by kylebrown »

possibilistic wrote: post #137
kylebrown wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With 0 dollars, a couple of guys built something amazing. I can't wait to see what they can do with 100 million. Since substantial funding wasn't a contribution to their first success, nor apparently even their goal, there's no reason to expect that throwing money at them would lead to something even more amazing.

I do not follow this logic. They have enormously succeeded from the moment of Github's inception to this point. Does it not make sense to invest in them if they believe they can utilize new capital to expand their platform? In any case the money believes in them. And they are already vetted.

They've never been a capital-intensive business, so it doesn't make great sense to invest substantial sums. Its more likely to change the business to one focused on maximizing profit, rather than improve the product.

Try the analogy where a startup is like a band (I'm not the first to use this). After the band sells out, do you expect better music? As the cliche goes, their artistic integrity is compromised, the members start in-fighting, and the lead singer grows increasingly strung-out on fame and drugs.

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#144

Post by jbooth »

mseebach wrote: post #142
kylebrown wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With 0 dollars, a couple of guys built something amazing. I can't wait to see what they can do with 100 million. Since substantial funding wasn't a contribution to their first success, nor apparently even their goal, there's no reason to expect that throwing money at them would lead to something even more amazing.

Sometimes some cash can help you execute faster on the plan you already have. As illustrated by the scene form "The Social Network" where Zuckerberg says he wants to expand to 100 schools, and Parker says "'I'll put you on two continents."

So, with this $100M, they can really dominate the code hosting market?

There's a reasonable case to be made that they're either going to or already dominate the code hosting market anyways, depending on how big you define it. The only way $100M makes sense is if they're expanding into one or multiple other things.

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#145

Post by mintplant »

kylebrown wrote: post #131
courtewing wrote: post #76

I'm a little surprised by all of the anti-VC sentiment in this thread so far, especially from this community. I'm perhaps even more surprised by the "what do they need 100 million dollars" sentiment that is being floated around. Github is an impressive company that has, so far, blown away its competition in many aspects. The fact that they have been self-bootstrapped up until this point and that they are profitable t…

> With 0 dollars, a couple of guys built something amazing. I can't wait to see what they can do with 100 million. Since substantial funding wasn't a contribution to their first success, nor apparently even their goal, there's no reason to expect that throwing money at them would lead to something even more amazing.

I remember reading somewhere that they were looking for extra capital to expand support and such for their Enterprise offering.

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#146

Post by possibilistic »

kylebrown wrote: post #143
possibilistic wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not follow this logic. They have enormously succeeded from the moment of Github's inception to this point. Does it not make sense to invest in them if they believe they can utilize new capital to expand their platform? In any case the money believes in them. And they are already vetted.

They've never been a capital-intensive business, so it doesn't make great sense to invest substantial sums. Its more likely to change the business to one focused on maximizing profit, rather than improve the product. Try the analogy where a startup is like a band (I'm not the first to use this). After the band sells out, do you expect better music? As the cliche goes, their artistic integrity is compromised, the memb…

Good points, thanks. I hope this doesn't occur, but we'll see in due time.

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#147

Post by tatsuke95 »

DigitalSea wrote: post #114

So much negativity here regarding the capital announcement. Github got to where it is now from now investment and you want to know the reason why they accepted such a large amount of capital (it's rather simple), Github are wanting to infiltrate the corporate sector because that's where the money is. Lets be honest the $10 per month I pay for my Github account isn't making any difference, a corporation paying $1000 p…

>"a good sign Github is never going anywhere."

Right. Because we've never seen a company take a huge VC investment then disappear.

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#148

Post by taligent »

hollerith wrote: post #128
jammur wrote: post #61

I have to imagine that a chunk of that money is to provide liquidity to the founders, which they very much deserve. I don't really see how this is a bad thing. They were very much profitable, and were likely able to dictate the terms of the deal. Also, the money came from one of the most, if not THE most, reputable and respected VC firms.

>I have to imagine that a chunk of that money is to provide liquidity to the founders That helps explain why the founders sold the equity, but not why the VCs bought it.

Really ?

Company with a proven modal, proven team, proven management and a massive growth opportunity (company hosted Github).

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#149

Post by matt2000 »

ef4 wrote: post #52
cluda01 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of my non-programmer/startup friends know who or what a github is so I think that given the WSJ's audience, it's a fair statement.

Yes, "well-known" is context dependent. But I would argue the WSJ chose a poor context. The reader already knows whether or not he/she has heard of Github, so the real question is "are they well-known in their industry?" Pick any non-consumer-facing industry where the average person doesn't know the players, and everybody is "little known". That doesn't really tell you anything about their actual businesses or reputa…

I agree with you, the wording from the WSJ sounds like they want the investment size to seem ridiculous. How about "quickly growing and profitable software company github..."

Re: Github Raises $100 Million

#150

Post by mseebach »

jbooth wrote: post #144
mseebach wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes some cash can help you execute faster on the plan you already have. As illustrated by the scene form "The Social Network" where Zuckerberg says he wants to expand to 100 schools, and Parker says "'I'll put you on two continents."

So, with this $100M, they can really dominate the code hosting market? There's a reasonable case to be made that they're either going to or already dominate the code hosting market anyways, depending on how big you define it. The only way $100M makes sense is if they're expanding into one or multiple other things.

Well, a natural focal point is enterprise. I could imagine (this is pure speculation) that there are a number of fairly cumbersome features holding back some large enterprise customers, but which has been de-prioritized in favor of the cloud product where gains are more immediate and viral. In general, there are probably many teams holding back on GitHub because of some missing feature which didn't make sense to build while they were bootstrapped.

And then, yes, there's expanding into adjacent verticals. They're already there with wikis and issue tracking, so it's not a virgin territory strategy.

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