Under The Radar: Why Web 2.0 Matters
For those of you who are interested in getting a quick overview of some of the cool Web 2.0 companies being created these days, you may want to go check out the upcoming Under The Radar event. In a single day you'll get a chance to see a gaggle of consumer web companies while networking with some great folks. I have always enjoyed being a panelist at these events, particularly when working with moderator Rafe Needleman from CNET. Rafe does a great job and is back again for this Under The Radar event entitled "Why Web 2.0 Matters." Other panelists include the likes of TechCrunch's Mike Arrington, Conferenza's Stowe Boyd, Infectious Greed's Paul Kedrosky, O'Reilly's Radar's Rael Dornfest, Software Only's Jeff Clavier and a handful of VC pundits. So far the company list includes, among others:
I'm on the advisory board of IBDNetwork that puts on these Under The Radar events, and as a result, I'm able to give out a $100 discount to folks who sign up through my blog. Here's the link if you're interested. It should be a great event.
Categories
Conferences , Consumer Internet & Media1 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Under The Radar: Why Web 2.0 Matters.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://ventureblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/257
Under the Radar is a website tracking new early stage technologies and organizing conferences to bring founders, users and venture capital together. They are created by IBDN, a network sponsored by SAP, IBM, Microsoft and others. They announced the &#... Read More
David, what's the process to apply as a presenter company?
Thanks.
David, what's the process to apply as a presenter company?
Thanks.
Sorry for the doublespeak.
I went through that entire list of companies, visited their web sites, and tried some of their services, and frankly, not a single one of them passes the old Larry Ellison test: "Gee, that's a nice *feature*, but it's not a viable business."
Have you or any other business-minded VCs actually vetted their business plans and believe that *any* of them are really headed on the path to being the next Microsoft or Google (high revenues and high profitability), or are they all modeled on the old "hype and flip" model of VC liquidity?
-- Jack Krupansky
Jack,
While you MAY be right in some of the cases above (I really have no way of confirming), and perhaps some of the companies really are feature sets, and don't have a real business model established (or hopes of ones) -- and I'm not saying that anyone on the list doesn't have one, I just don't know. But please consider the possilbity that some of the companies listed (in our case, BubbleShare), may actually have a real business model, and in some cases, real significant customers, that may not have been announced pubically yet. =)
Regards,
Albert Lai
BubbleShare
Albert: Agreed... that you *may* have a credible business model, but until you go public with enough detail to validate that it's credible, I'm afraid that it *doesn't* have automatic credibility.
All I can do is read your web site and hypothesize what aspects of a business model you *might* have. Subscription? Advertising? Strategic partner? Flip? Etc.
I'm certainly not asking you or any other entrepreneur to give away the store as far as specific business strategy, but simply to come clean, including with your *users*, "Here's how we make money". After all, as a user I don't want to get locked into a "free" model and then be confronted with a sudden switch to an onerous subscription model.
In today's venture world, I think people assume three things: 1) you probably haven't given sufficient thought to a truely viable business model, 2) you'll fall back on advertising for revenue, and 3) you'll *probably* flip before the lack of sufficient large-scale revenue becomes a life and death issue for the business.
If you wish to hide behind the "stealth" shield, all I can say is that your business credibility will likely suffer.
Still, I'd love to see you "out" at least the rough framework of your business model so that any and all can see what your viability really is.
When I look at BubbleShare, what I see is a "feature", not a full-blown business. That suggests "flip", but why not simply make clear to us what the truth is?
My big interest is in understanding the depth and magnitude of the contributions of the venture capital sector to the our national economy. Without a sense of business models, I can only imagine the contributions. That's not good PR for the VC sector.
-- Jack Krupansky
We would like to introduce you to our Megite: What's happening right now service. It is the newspaper for anyone interested in what's happening right now by intelligently uncovering the most relevant items from auto discovered news sites and weblogs.
If you have an OPML file and don't mind to send to us, we can create a personalized Megite for you too.
You can check our web site at http://www.megite.com .
David, any chance of getting the Go BIG Network on the panel?
I know we don't have a cool, catchy verb-like, vowel-ending, flippant name, but hey - we're actually profitable!
Seriously, if we can get on, I'd like to participate. You've got my contact info.