Re: UKNM: Wimps?

[Jamie Unwin]

Stefan, I'm not saying I don't wish UK banks and Veture Capitalists would invest more in the web industry, just that I'm not suprised they aren't.


>> Most of these site aren't NEW and have succeded because they were the FIRST in a fast evolving medium....

>

>err. hence "innovations", I believe. The whole point is that banks and

>VCs in the US are willing to invest early in risky ventures. 


But these sites did have something 'live and working' that a bank or Venture Capitalist could see had potential

Yahoo wasn't an unknown site before it got capital to expand.


>> Expedia (Microsoft) - Huge amount of cash, and I'm sure smaller operations tried online hotel 

>> booking systems but failed because they didn't have the clout to sucessed.

>

>Preview travel are doing very nicely thankyou. 


Maybe, but if you already have several large companies in the market place it is going to be harder to break through, also Microsoft don't have to make a profit from Expedia, it can be passed off as advertising or markerting.


Not that this is an ideal situation, and hopefully someone can come up with something better than the Microsofts of this world can, but you can't deny that Microsoft have more clout to pull something like this off on a global scale ?


>> Finally software development, within such a fast moving industry is very risky, and would therefore need an investor who would be >wiling to invest in technology which may be out of date by the time it is realised and >therefore unmarketable ?

>go fucking tell that to Kleiner-Perkins. Tell it to marimba, netscape,

>intuit, dimensionX, Real, macromedia, adobe, Avid, Headspace, inktomi.


And how many investors have invested in web companies that have gone bust, and had their fingers burnt.


True, there are some very lucky investors out there but I bet there is a lot more who wish they had invested there money in something more solid, like an odds on favorite in the 2.45 at Kempton ?


I'm not saying that venture capital in the UK isn't poor, and couldn't be a lot better (Goverment incentives, ie. tax breaks, for investing in new IT companies would be a good start). But just pointing out that the web is a risky medium, ok thats what Venture Capitalists deal in, but that I don't find it surprising  that they aren't queing up to invest.



jamie

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Jamie Unwin :

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 :  http://www.guardian.co.uk

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