Hawaii Linux Institute wrote:
Jim Thompson wrote:
Just some ideas, a bit more "bomb throwing" @ 4am.
As someone who is looking at his career/life from a rearview mirror, I
probably should keep my mouth shut. But we used to represent an
out-of-state VC, and it was equally frustrating for us to try to find
good candidates here.
There are no "out of state VCs", they don't want to live that far from
their investment(s).
One suggestion I may make is to loiter at MIC at least once a while.
Digital Islands, WordPlace, and a bunch of other tech companies all
started there. Actually I used to chat with founders of DI and WP
when both were essentially on-man ops. I understand that MIC is
getting very crowded now. & it's good to know.
yes, this kind of communication and cultural exchange is vital (and from
what I can tell after 16 months on island, mostly lacking.)
As you are aware, different VCs have different operational
philosophies. This particular VC that we were associated with was
mostly interested in acquiring companies with a good "market access".
Hawaii itself is a very small market, but there is something else that
makes Hawaii potentially a very big market. I don't want to go into
it, but I believe you know what I am talking about.
VCs don't acquire companies, well, not until they're in a "death spiral"
(typified by taking cash with too many ugly conditions). The type of
firm you describe is typical known as a "private equity investment
firm". KK&R is a prime example.
Another hot topic in the VC circle that I am familiar with is the
"China-connection". It's very difficult to imagine that some country
(if you combine China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) could amsss a cash
reserve in excess of $1 trillion USD in such a short period of time.
This number is too big to make any sense to most of us. But to many
VCs, it does. & one of the keys of getting some VCs interested is
probably to develop a product/technology that will sell in China. If
anyone can combine China and Japan in the same conversation, it's even
better. (US companies oursource software development to India, &
Japanese companies to China, more particularly to the city of Dalian.
This is something to keep in mind.)
You appear to want to only pursue the "big markets" by making "products"
that they want to "buy". I think you're stuck in the 90s, man. :-)
Now the question, what will sell in China, especially wrt to open
source software? A few years back, when I mentioned Linux or Red Hat
or Mandrake or whatever in China, no one knew what I was talking
about. Nowadays, everyone wants to show/sell me the Linux-based
technology that have developed (& I am suddenly reduced to a
technoignoramus--don't laugh, they apply the same label to anyone from
the US who mentions Linux).
Thus, how to define a "sellable" technology is something that needs to
be diligently discussed. One of the reasons that I am interested in
Solaris/OpenSolaris is that not too many people are aware of it, yet.
Will that get me somewhere? I don't know. But I feel prouder talking
about OpenSolaris than Linux, that's for sure. Wayne
The perfect market theory says that you're not going to gain much here.
If OpenSolaris is better than Linux (and I'm not saying it isn't) and if
a "better mousetrap" wins in the market, then, since there is no barrier
to entry for people adopting OpenSolaris, then you might have a window
of as much as six months.
