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VC Pitches in a Year or Two

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Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#71

Post by dilap »

fredwilson wrote: post #41
zxcvvcxz wrote: post #16

Not 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.

Yeah. I could have tried harder to come up with less frivolous ideas but I wrote this in about five minutes and I just went with the first ideas that were mobile bandwidth reliant I could come up with

Actually, the music playlist idea sounded pretty sweet to me!

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#72

Post by wdewind »

dragonwriter wrote: post #59
wdewind wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't read the decision, just secondary sources, so I am probably incorrect. The reply above yours linked to: http://recode.net/2014/01/15/whats-net-neutrality-what-happe... Which seems to do a good job explaining it. Specifically this bit: > It’s those rules [the Open Internet rules] that Verizon is saying the FCC had no legal authority to enact. The reason that Verizon was successful was because of the basic in…

> My original comment was incorrect: I meant they can either not regulate or classify ISPs as common carriers and then regulate. That's true of the non-blocking and non-discrimination rules in the Open Internet Order , which were ruled to be equivalent to common carrier rules and thereby foreclosed so long as the FCC designated ISPs as "information services" (which cannot be treated as common carriers under the Telec…

Gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. So wont the FCC just recategorize ISPs as Common Carriers or...?

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#73

Post by gz5 »

thejosh wrote: post #19

Australia has been doing this for years for mobile data plans. Even though data plans aren't as expensive as they use to be, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, eBay, LinkedIn & MySpace are all "free" on the Optus network.

interesting. do you know if they are paying Optus? does Optus have competition in major Australia markets?

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#74

Post by 001sky »

prostoalex wrote: post #69
josefresco wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

He's right in the sense that all ideas were copying something out of big companies' playbook and were a hard sell to consumers who were sensitive to mobile data pricing. What if the idea was around instant video conferencing with on-demand doctor or a lawyer? Would interested parties still be concerned about the (additional) cost of a data plan?

Would interested parties still be concerned about the (additional) cost

Yes. This is the whole point. The telcos' will extract rents from any profitable biz model. The more profitable, the larger the extracted rents will be. The net result is that, if people feel that the value they are creating will be expropriated by a third party on poor terms, those services will never make it beyond the cocktail napkin stage. And if...the founders are still optimistic and willing to let this happen...the VCs are not likely to play along...knowing what will predictably happen. As long as either of those two factors is in play, the economy ultimately will suffer in the sense that those services will "never happen" if people take that approach. Or, at least that's the argument if I understand correctly.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#75

Post by napoleond »

So basically it will become even harder for startups to disrupt the established players. Until a disruptive telco comes along and everyone switches to them, while also learning an important lesson about net neutrality. Maybe the whole thing will even cause society to re-think the way we allocate access to the internet and cellular networks.

(A man can dream!)

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#76

Post by hackaflocka »

Bandwidth isn't free. The universal all-you-can-eat model is very unfair to the bandwidth supplier.

Either customers will need to be charged by meter.

Or producers will need to pay by meter.

It's only capitalism.

By the way, why can't the VC say, "we love your idea, and we'll front the money you need to pay the telcos."?

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#77

Post by rhizome »

hackaflocka wrote: post #76

Bandwidth isn't free. The universal all-you-can-eat model is very unfair to the bandwidth supplier. Either customers will need to be charged by meter. Or producers will need to pay by meter. It's only capitalism. By the way, why can't the VC say, "we love your idea, and we'll front the money you need to pay the telcos."?

What if the telcos won't allow anybody else to pay?

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#78

Post by rhizome »

SethMurphy wrote: post #2

While I agree with his premise, there are already industries that used to be startup focused where there is a gatekeeper. E-commerce has Amazon, advertising has Google (and possibly Facebook), which already destroy new startups before they really get started through this same VC mindset. It seems to me that the balance of power is just moving up the line a bit to industries where VC's have little to no power to influ…

In what way(s) is Amazon a "gatekeeper" to e-commerce?

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#79

Post by badman_ting »

Yes, current giants are going to continue consolidating and buying up businesses and amassing power. In America we used to have ways of dealing with monopolies but that is now passé -- we don't like the government "punishing" successful businesses (in the same way that taxes "punish" the rich). A lot of times I feel like something very bad will have to happen for things to change. Until then, hey.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#80

Post by ecdavis »

gz5 wrote: post #73
thejosh wrote: post #19

Australia has been doing this for years for mobile data plans. Even though data plans aren't as expensive as they use to be, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, eBay, LinkedIn & MySpace are all "free" on the Optus network.

interesting. do you know if they are paying Optus? does Optus have competition in major Australia markets?

Optus is one of several major mobile telcos in Australia. Telstra also offers free Facebook, IIRC.

I'm not sure whether FB is paying Optus/Telstra, but I would think so.

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