VCs: Who needs 'em?

I've never been particularly enthusiastic about VCs. However, I saw
William Draper speak the other day and I have a new appreciation for
them - or at least I think Draper is an interesting character. By his
own admission he's a relic, having been a VC in the Valley since the
60s. He has endless stories (I wish I could have a beer with him one
day just to hear some more), including being head of the US Export-
Import Bank, leading the UN Development Program, meeting with Deng
Xiaoping at a crucial time, investing in Skype after chasing
Zennstrom around Europe, just to name a few.

The thing he said that stuck me most was a story he told about a beer-
bellied, chain-smoking colleague. His fondness for smoking and
apparent disregard for tidiness led to ash burns polka dotting most
of his work shirts.

In any case, one day this guy told William to stop looking at the
pendulating gold watch and take into account all the important things
around it. In other words, if you focus only on the money, you'll
fail. A wise lesson from a man who has seen a lot.

Social Networking on Mobile Devices

On Oct. 13th I went to a panel discussion co-hosted by SDForum,
AnzaTECH, SiliconFrench and SiliconVikings covering the topic Social
Networking 2.0: Going Mobile.

The main takeaways for me were:

- The panel impressed on 50 people there that everyone in the room
including themselves was too old to really get.

- It can happen on the web with Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, but
the US isn't ready for it to happen on mobile phones. Verizon,
Cingular, etc just aren't in a place to let it happen.

The panelists should know what they're talking about:

Jonathan Abrams, Founder, Friendster
Craig Callé, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, COMMON.net
Kevin Efrusy, Partner, Accel Partners
Anu Nigam, Founder, Party Sync
Mike Rowehl, Founder Bitsplitter (Moderator)

I would disagree that everyone in the room is too old to get it,
since it hasn't happened yet. I think there are a lot of people who
would use social networking apps on their phones. It's a great way to
say instantly connected with family, colleagues, friends. The over 25
set picked up IM pretty quickly.

There is no question that the mobile service providers are strangling
innovation. Nothing new there. I went to buy a phone the other day at
phone. The limited choices reminded me of being in communist Eastern
Europe some time ago. One need, one choice. The dialogue goes
something like: "You want those features, here's your phone."
"There's only one phone that does it?" "Right now there is one, but
in the coming months, blah, blah, blah."

One interesting point they reiterated was the idea that apps have
traditionally been developed for the enterprise and then pushed down
to consumers. Think Word, PPT, email, etc. That is changing. Now apps
are being created for consumers, by consumers and really taking off.
And the word's (at least my world) is a better place for it.