Three-hundred years of photography innovation has left us with dramatically improved distribution of marginally improved content quality. Photo editing, intrinsic to the camera, pre or post image capture is currently the only way to mimic more closely the vision of what our eyes and brain detect. Every cameras applies it, every photograph needs it yet few technologies do it well. A great investment opportunity that would drive differentiation for pretty much any technology vendor. The future I see and the lessons I learned when driving this gigantic opportunity through a startup innovation process.

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Tags: Photography, LightZone, Light Crafts, Investment, Startup, Steve Jobs

To complete my affectionate series of "idiot" articles (idiot CEOs and idiot Limited Partners) I am adding idiot entrepreneurs to the list, to help them out a bit...

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Tags: Entrepreneurs, IPhone, Innovation, Valuation, Angels, Subprime, VC, Venture, CEO

I think it is quite hilarious to see so many Venture Capitalists tell entrepreneurs everyday how to build a successful business, given that they have no political leg to stand on to offer such advice...

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Tags: Macro-economics, Experience, Demi-cartel, VC, Entrepreneurs, Subprime, Marketplace

Every time I see the quarterly reports on Silicon Valley valuations I cringe. Not because the report is wrong, but because I know how entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists use the valuation medians to establish their starting, or worse their ending negotiation positions. And they are both so wrong...

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Tags: Security, Valuation, Innovation, VC, Markets, Entrepreneurs, Limited Partners, Oracle, KPCB

That's how one of the many CEOs that contact me recently described his colleagues who submit to Venture Capital ...

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Tags: NVCA, CEO, VC, Valuation, Limited Partners, Economy, Subprime, Macro-economics

I am fervent proponent of transparency in the Venture Capital business which before TheFunded did not exist. But apart from the publicity prank they pulled for April Fools Day, I am as much against any system that treats entrepreneurs unfairly as I am against a system that treats Venture Capitalists unfairly. The latter in my view is what TheFunded represents...

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Tags: VC, Marketplace, Fundraising, Startup

Today sub-prime investments occur primarily because of underfunding, but the opposite - overfunding - happened in the bubble days. Here are two real world examples of how both types of investments deflate...

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Tags: VC, Gaming, Enterprise, Nintendo, Outerbay Technologies, Startup, SoftKinetic, Fundraising

I often liken todays Venture Capital business to the sub-prime lending business where too many people without the skills to assess risk accurately, put the whole technology ecosystem at risk.

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Tags: VC, Innovation, Funds, Free-market, Risk, Subprime, Startup, Limited Partners

Most of Apple's competitors are now simply chasing the iPhone strategy or music strategy, as they've chased market leaders for so many years. But that will never work...

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Tags: HP, Dell, Nokia, Symantec, Cisco, Apple, Markets, Apple TV, Eco-systems, VC, IPhone

Just like working for Carnival Cruise looks glamorous but is not the way to explore the world, unsuspecting young entrepreneurs who fall for sub-prime investors will soon find out that building those technologies has all the glamour but few of the rewards associated with innovation...

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Tags: Subprime, VC, Innovation, FaceBook, Google, Twitter, Startup, Investment Banks, EBay, Revenues, Valuation, Disruption, LP, Funds

The enclosed chart includes the names of every investor (Venture Capitalists and Angels) an entrepreneur has spoken to face-to-face, conversed through e-mail and is scheduled to connect with...

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Tags: Fundraising, Disruption, Entrepreneurs, Subprime, Innovation, Investment, Digital Asset Management, Transparency, VC, Startup

Subprime VC is easily recognizable, here are some of my metrics. Run for the hills when an investor...

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Tags: VC, EBay, IPhone, Growth, Capitalism, Subprime, Startup

Very few startups should be materially impacted by the state of the economy, here is why:

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Tags: VC, Markets, Investment, Economy, Consumer, Subprime, Startup

We spend a lot of time with consumer technology companies and developed the following rules for success:

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Tags: Consumer, Disruption, Markets

The bottom line is that we recommend entrepreneurs not to squander their great ideas with the first investor that waves money in their face. Real disruption does not become extinct quickly and so you literally have years to find a great investor out of the 790 firms that exist in the United States.

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Tags: IPhone, VC, Investment, Commodity, Entrepreneurs, Subprime, Startup

The fundamental shift in thinking that needs to occur in Silicon Valley, is to develop technology with a fresh mind, looking from the outside in, and serve a larger, less specialized, constituent.

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Tags: Performance, Commodity, Consumer, Marketing, Markets, Marketplace, VC, Macro-economics, Psychographics, Apple, Distribution

Great products make up for an endless amount of sales and marketing deficiencies, but in most cases sales and marketing spend too much time making up for lost product opportunity and become an endless money drain...

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Tags: Performance, Consumer, Disruption, Free-market, Growth, Marketing, Markets, Quality, Resilience, Software, VC, Macro-economics

Be prepared to talk to more Venture Capitalists and saddle up for an extensive roadshow. The cost of doing business to entrepreneurs and investors has increased dramatically...

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Tags: Investment, Innovation, VC, Funds, HamiltonLane, Accel Partners, Limited Partners, Carlyle, CalPERS, Accel, AAAIM, SFERS

The democratization of the internet requires that we make technology more accessible and easier to understand and implement. Only then will it reach real mass adoption...

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Tags: Apple, IPhone, Experience, Microsoft, Adobe, Photography, Internet, Democracy, Communication, Innovation, Rapidweaver

Since we raised a fair amount of money ourselves in the last 10 years we've been focused on startups, I wanted to give some advice that may be helpful to any first time entrepreneur...

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Tags: Investment, VC, Angels, Markets, Eco-systems, PPM, Stanford, Business Model, Startup, Innovation

In the food industry there is a clear distinction between a chef and a cook. A chef invents new dishes from scratch through experimentation, deep knowledge and experience.

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Tags: Food, China, Daniel Boulud, Ratatouille, VC, Funds, Investment

Many times the question comes up, what exactly is Web 2.0? Although we are not great supporters of buzzwords that have little real meaning, we are - just this time - tempted to put our big-thinking in the mix.

We believe it describes a set of technologies to support the immense popularity and growth characteristics of free-markets.

Free markets have been in existence at least since 1637, when dutch growers imported Tulips from Turkey and engaged in heavy bidding wars with buyers at the onset of the flower markets. [In the interest of "full-disclosure"; I grew up in Holland].

The Dutch auction (also referred to as "The Essence of Fairness" with respect to IPO markets) was created when ample supply was met with equally impressive demand, and a unique trading mechanism was developed. Apart from the details of the trading options (which eBay has adopted), we want to focus here on the dynamics of the market that are so different from the technology industry in its current incarnation.

The technology industry (still in an immature state) has built success around companies that identify and carve out a one-to-many relationship with customers. Successful companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco etc. staved off early competition and now act as the single asset owner of the technology they sell to many customers, fearing little organic competition. We call them what they are; demi-cartels. A great position to be in and very profitable, but the technology market is about to get a shakeup, not dissimilar to what happened in the flower markets.

The creation and composition of technology assets, whether those assets are applications, databases, code or new media content, is emerging from the hands of specialists into the realm of a much broader set of providers.

Suddenly, the technology industry faces competition it has never seen before. And it is responding by changing its tactics [technology taxonomy in motion], it has to. Oracle loses a big customer because it refuses to put up with fat margins, exorbitant pricing and 20% support fees and makes the switch to a little vendor called MySQL. New online capabilities enable Craigslist, where posting classified ads is free of charge, to hasten the demise of traditional newspaper classified advertising. MySpace takes the need for people to express themselves out of the hands of the specialists.

New many-to-many market models arise and dramatically impact the old rules of the game. New content establishes micro-celebrities that drive the popularity of a free-market technology platform. The Pareto principle is dead (well, not really - its amplitude will change).

So, Web 2.0 is a platform strategy (rather than a proprietary stack) that enables many-to-many relationships between buyers and sellers of electronic assets. When transparency and integrity are key objectives in the creation of these marketplaces, Web2.0, with whatever technologies that represents, actually has a chance of becoming a buzzword we can speak fondly about.

Tags: Free-market, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, IPO, MySQL, Craigslist, Pareto, MySpace, Margin

On a regular basis entrepreneurs approach me with jaw-dropping technology, wonderful to look at from an innovation perspective but many times hard to envision as a standalone sustainable profit center. So what technology makes a successful company?

Technology is becoming a commodity. Think about it from a macro-economic perspective. Information technology is the instrumentation, not the differentiation of customer businesses. World's largest retailer, Walmart does not rely on technology to be successful, technology was barely available when Walmart started. Walmart built an effective business model and, in-house continuous to shape technology to support the business model. No packaged apps, or technology silos here.

Technology companies do become successful when their technology drives, usually with incremental improvements, the evolution in a marketplace. Google is successful because it optimized the online advertising business model and increased its effectiveness. It's all about market principles, not technology (BTW: which average user can tell the difference between Google and Yahoo! search). eBay is successful because it empowers free-market principles and supports true meritocracy in the sale of goods.

Bottom line:
1) Investigate defunct, constricted or outdated markets and build technology that improves the effectiveness of those markets.
2) Find capital from investors that understand the market and appreciate technology, not the other way around.

Market principles are seldom wrong, the instrumentation often is.

Tags: Entrepreneurs, Walmart, Google, Innovation, Evolution, Yahoo, Commodity, Capitalism, EBay