I guess this makes open city WiFi networks much more compelling. In most urban areas, how often are people not within range of a WiFi network?
VC Pitches in a Year or Two
31–40 of 102 posts
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#32I think the pertinent question now is whether the FCC rewrites its rules to classify ISPs as common carriers. It seems to me, given the local monopoly or duopoly that the vast majority of ISPs enjoy, that this is an obvious move. But I have heard it barely discussed, which is distressing.
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#33This is already reality in some countries. Like India for instance. 1st Indian entrepreneur: I plan to launch a search engine that understands Indian languages and contexts better than Google. VC: Well since Google has already paid telcos like Airtel ( http://www.airtel.in/free-zone/ ) so their searches and even some results don't use up any of the data plan, we are passing. 2nd Indian entrepreneur: I have an idea fo…
Enterpreneur: I plan to launch an encyclopedia that people can edit, and it's better than Wikipedia
VC: Well, since Wikimedia Foundation has already convinces telcos to provide their data for free (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships), we are passing.
Now wait a goddamn minute. This doesn't make any sense. The alternative is even worse: no free access to Wikipedia. Is this what you're arguing for?
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#34I get the point you are trying to make, but it wasn't presented in a way that non-tech folk will appreciate. My parents' reaction to your scenarios would be something akin to: "Really? For the monthly rate I'm already paying, I now get Netflix and Hulu included for free? NICE!"
If your parents were reading a VC blog, they'd get it.
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#35Not the point of the article, but is anyone else annoyed by these "entrepreneur-sounding" ideas? I'm so sick of low-tech, solve-first-world-problem ideas and conflating that with entrepreneurship. If I were the VC, I'd tell them to get the fuck out, and it'd have nothing to do with Telcos.
You missed the point. The author was choosing startup ideas that compete with entrenched entities that are also potentially data-intensive. I don't think the ideas themselves were supposed to be judged, just that they fit a loose model of ideas that would be almost impossible to fund/execute without net neutrality.
True, but I strongly believe zxcvvcxz started his/her comment with "Not the point of the article, "...
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#36This is already reality in some countries. Like India for instance. 1st Indian entrepreneur: I plan to launch a search engine that understands Indian languages and contexts better than Google. VC: Well since Google has already paid telcos like Airtel ( http://www.airtel.in/free-zone/ ) so their searches and even some results don't use up any of the data plan, we are passing. 2nd Indian entrepreneur: I have an idea fo…
Enterpreneur: I plan to launch an encyclopedia that people can edit, and it's better than Wikipedia VC: Well, since Wikimedia Foundation has already convinces telcos to provide their data for free ( http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships ), we are passing. Now wait a goddamn minute. This doesn't make any sense. The alternative is even worse: no free access to Wikipedia. Is this what you're arguing fo…
The difference is Wikimedia doesn't pay for this benefit, the telcos are doing it because they support Wikimedia's mission. Any company with a similar mission and better execution has a chance of talking the telcos into a similar deal.
The argument is that the paid types of mobile partnerships add another cost onto the already high barrier to entry into the market. This supports monopolistic practices by these companies, and reduces competition in the industry. That's the problem with removing Net Neutrality.
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#37This is already reality in some countries. Like India for instance. 1st Indian entrepreneur: I plan to launch a search engine that understands Indian languages and contexts better than Google. VC: Well since Google has already paid telcos like Airtel ( http://www.airtel.in/free-zone/ ) so their searches and even some results don't use up any of the data plan, we are passing. 2nd Indian entrepreneur: I have an idea fo…
Enterpreneur: I plan to launch an encyclopedia that people can edit, and it's better than Wikipedia VC: Well, since Wikimedia Foundation has already convinces telcos to provide their data for free ( http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships ), we are passing. Now wait a goddamn minute. This doesn't make any sense. The alternative is even worse: no free access to Wikipedia. Is this what you're arguing fo…
Is this trolling? Or a serious question where you just don't understand the difference between collaboration with non-profits to provide a public good and for-profit companies selling their customers to the highest bidder?
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#38The author is missing the point that the ruling was about the specific language of the FCC regulations. See: http://gigaom.com/2014/01/14/breaking-court-strikes-down-fcc... "That said, even though the Commission has general authority to regulate in this arena, it may not impose requirements that contravene express statutory mandates. Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner tha…
I am "the author" and I do understand that but the point of my post was to simplify the issue for the vast majority of folks who don't get the net neutrality issue
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#39Not the point of the article, but is anyone else annoyed by these "entrepreneur-sounding" ideas? I'm so sick of low-tech, solve-first-world-problem ideas and conflating that with entrepreneurship. If I were the VC, I'd tell them to get the fuck out, and it'd have nothing to do with Telcos.
I get why he dashed out some throwaway ideas to make the point. But yes, those business ideas seem so maddeningly trivial that I can't forward this on to non-industry people. I'm a giant fan of net neutrality and hate oligopolistic telcos deeply, but my first reaction to this was, "Well, anything that stops a gamified social Snapchat from seeing the light of day can't be all bad."
Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two
#40Not the point of the article, but is anyone else annoyed by these "entrepreneur-sounding" ideas? I'm so sick of low-tech, solve-first-world-problem ideas and conflating that with entrepreneurship. If I were the VC, I'd tell them to get the fuck out, and it'd have nothing to do with Telcos.
That's probably the biggest difference between you and VCs in the biz today. These ideas actually sound so legitimately like they could be funded today, and make mad bank while at it too. And that's all "normal" VCs care about, so there you have it.
I wouldn't even qualify this by saying "normal." VCs are hyper-capitalists. Other people give them money with the mandate to turn a profit...period. That's the whole job. Most of us "normal" tech folk get migraines looking at the silly crap that gets funded, but a VC's job really isn't about anything else, and couldn't be ethically, unless the people who pay into the fund wanted it that way.
The investors who do the stuff that I suppose one would call meaningful tend to be investing their own money or their friends' money, or it's a slice of a regular fund used in a way similar to corporate donations. Plenty of VCs do care about tech and meaningful endeavors, but that has to be secondary, unless they are playing with their own money.
There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what the business of investment is, when it comes to venture capital, for some reason. I've spent enough time around the activity and the people that I can see what it is and the logic of it. I don't really like it, but then I don't like a lot of things in our culture.