Economically unsound
Posted: October 25, 2007 Filed under: building ventures, technology | Tags: advertising, capital, startup, tinker 1 Comment »The latest concern in all avenues is that we are in the midst of another Internet Bubble.
Online Ad Revenue remains concentrated in only a few hands, frustration builds – PaidContent.org
I am a big believer in proving revenues for any business.
If you can’t monetize – don’t do business.
The high value placed on many start-ups and minimal requirements for financial performance are raising expectations of other entrepreneurs. Sharon Wienbar, managing director of Scale Ventures Partners, an investment firm, cited the $100 million valuation that investors gave to the Internet genealogy site Geni.com, founded last year in Los Angeles by a veteran of PayPal.
“Now every entrepreneur thinks he should get that,” Ms. Wienbar said. “I have a feeling a lot of entrepreneurs are secretly meeting for beers on the Peninsula, saying, ‘Hey, look what I got.’”
Mr. O’Kelley, formerly of Right Media, said other entrepreneurs had begun to think that the financing game is best played by avoiding actual revenues — since that only limits the imagination of investors. “It’s a screwed-up incentive structure, just like you had in the first bubble,” he said.
~ Santosh
If only VCs would value businesses based on revenues vs. eyeballs. I agree that we’re back to Web 1.0 bubble times. The VC dislike for subscription driven models is proof of such thinking. It’s like telling the entrepreneur – “why did you build something that someone needs to pay for”?