Jason Ball's TechBytes

Dropbox- how file sync should be

My beta invite for Dropbox (funded by Y Combinator) arrived this weekend - and my initial impression is very positive. I've migrated my home mac use to a client/server (MacBook Pro/iMac) set up- with my iMac doing most of the heavy lifting.

I've tried multiple back up services and even tried to use iDisk as a "dropbox", but it never worked like it should. I'm now sharing my "Current" folder between the two macs seamlessly- and can even get access via the web if needed. Essentially, Dropbox is what iDisk should be - seamless cross-platform file sharing, complemented by web access:

Apple should acquire these guys ASAP and switch out iDisk for Dropbox...and getting access to these files via my iPhone would make a nice addition to MobileMe too.

Wii Sports Resort: MotionPlus

Normally, I don't post anything portfolio related, but one of our companies, InvenSense, is launching some very cool technology inside the upcoming Wii Sports Resort. The best part is the Jet Ski demo at 2:24.... 

 

European VC takes a nose dive

Don't say you weren't warned: It's back.... VC Doom and Gloom.

According to Venture Source and the NYT, European Venture has hit it's lowest point since 2000. Investment dollars declined by 35% to $1.3 billion and companies receiving investment were down by 42% to 167.

The upshot is that early stage investing isn't dead:

“Venture capitalists are being very selective about the companies they back but they’re by no means abandoning the European market. In the first six months of the year, 44% of venture deals in Europe were seed or first rounds—we haven’t seen this level of early-stage interest since the first half of 2001."

Which is great, b/c these companies can grow up during the downturn and hopefully come out swinging when times are better. For portfolio companies that are long in the tooth though...Fred is rumored to be lurking in his Vadar mask.

First-time Entrepreneurs?

Library House's newsletter yesterday (free registration req'd) highlighted an article by David Storey in the FT- making the case that there is no correlation between an experienced entrepreneur/management team and a company's success.

Storey summarises this belief [that failure is accepted in the US, and that it is a source of learning] to dismantle it, arguing that knowledge gained from a failed business makes little difference to future business success, due to the unpredictability of starting a business. ‘The best analogy is with a lottery,’ Storey writes, ‘it is not possible to learn to win a lottery.’

Storey points to research in the UK and Germany which indicates that experienced founders are no more or less likely to succeed in starting a new business than novices. It goes against one of the basic tenants of venture capital investing – focusing on the experience of the management team

At first, I thought that was the stupidest thing I had read in a very long time.

However, after giving it some more thought, I actually agree:

I'm not too worried about entrepreneurs being young or old; experienced or novice. I *am* worried about very large markets where an investment can be the leader (or at least one of the top 3). I'm also worried about great products and real, unmet needs...

An entrepreneur's experience? I've never lost any sleep over that one.

Can i haz VC?

A great post over on Under the Radar on VC slang:

VC vocab for those of you who are about to venture into, well, venture...and for those of you who could use the refresher:

Star: A portfolio company that generates 5-10x ROI upon exit

Walking Dead/Zombie: A portfolio company that can only generate an ROI, equal to the amount of money invested into it.

Dog: A portfolio company that has no chance of returning any money to its investors.

Kennel Capital: A portfolio of dogs

Dogcatcher: A VC whose portfolio is kennel capital

ArchAngel: A serial Angel investor who has, to date, invested in a number of starts. (See Jeff Clavier)

Blowfish: An early-stage (often pre-revenue) stratup entrepreneur who claims that his company makes better chips than Intel, better software than Microsoft and who knows more about customers and their needs than Dell.

Conservative Estimate: Overly optimistic financial forecasts that inexperienced first-time entrepreneurs generate using Excel.

And our personal favorite.....

Putting Lipstick on a Pig: When an entrepreneur tries to create a positive spin on a negative event (ex. Our management team leaving us at this time affords us an opportunity to retool our entire business focus and go-to-market plans). It can also be used to describe a bad product that is re-launched with new dressed-up front-end or the process in which a VC will over spin a portfolio company's stort to facilitate a high exit.

And just in case you missed Max's excellent post on VC wear (that still has me laughing), you can browse some more originals like the one to the left over at Venture Capital Wear.

Now you can talk like a VC and dress like a VC. (YMMV.)

iSurprise with Kleiner's iFund

Wow, who would have thought Steve's "One more thing" would be a $100 million fund dedicated to iPhone apps. (It's not everyday that I can blog about Apple AND Venture Capital in the same post...)

The only part that threw me was it's Kleiner Perkins and not Sequoia. Unless my history is wrong, Sequoia backed Apple, not KPCB- so why aren't they running the iFund? Accel are running the Facebook Fund. If you back the original, surely you back the ecosystem too?

That aside, I'm really excited that Kleiner are putting some muscle behind development for the platform.

London Venture Capital Events

A comment was posted earlier in the week asking what events are relevant for new arrivals in London looking to get involved in the venture/start-up comunity. I was looking for the same in 2004 and posted a short list in 2005. Here's a revised short list of VC-related events in and around London, no particular order:

Regular events:
Internet People (no link)
Open Coffee
City Zone
Chinwag
Mashup events
Mobile Monday
Geek Dinner
Second Chance Tuesday

Conferences:
FOWA
Symbian Smartphone show
Paid Content UK events
Library House events

Mike Butcher over at TechCrunch UK tends to post lists of upcoming events on a regular basis. Latest list here.

Any events I've left off, feel free to add them in the comments section.

Qualcomm Ventures Europe

I joined the Qualcomm Ventures Europe team earlier this month. Qualcomm, Inc (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced their European fund last May, in addition to Qualcomm Ventures in the US, China and India.

I'll be focusing on European startups (both early and later stage) in the following sectors: mobile application/platform software developers, handset components, network infrastructure and core technologies (semiconductor, battery, plastic electronics, etc.).

As a consequence, you'll see a shift towards these sectors in the blogging content. As always, if you're working in an area I'm actively investing into or blogging about, don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Microsoft invests in Facebook at $15 billion

The Wall Street Journal has a good overview and recap of the negotiation process.

Facebook is reported to have circa $150 million in revenue currently (and are launching their own advertising platform shortly). As a point of reference, Facebook's revenue is worth 7.1x more on a price/sales basis than Google.

Looking back at the last round of venture funding, Accel participated in the $25 million round at a whopping $500 million pre-money. This was before the site was adding 200,000 users per day. Not a bad paper return given the price they bought in at... Now, how long until Facebook a) implodes or b) goes public?

Tumblr Funding

Union Square Ventures announced blogged their investment in Tumblr yesterday.

I set up a Tumblr account in early summer and it's been silently collecting all my posts from TechBytes, my posts from Twitter, delicious links and Flickr public photos. It does give a good "global" snapshot of my online activity- which is a good thing.

I've been grappling with posting something on Twitter and posting on TechBytes- but Tumblr captures both. Blogs are about conversations- microblogs are about communicating and community. I have to admit, Tumblr gets pretty close to blog nirvana- but;

I haven't figured out if you can configure private messages and posts (for friends) alongside public info. Also if they can roll cocomment style comment tracking into the mix, they're really off to the races...