Great story by Joe Kraus, founder of Exite of his encouter with Vinod Kosla, and what makes a great VC
While we were still in the garage (literally), we met with at least 15 different venture capital firms. The meetings we're all the same. We showed them our search technology, showed them "concept-based" search, and showed them targeted advertising. To a firm, the first question they asked was a very reasonable one: 'great stuff guys, but what's your business plan? how are you going to make money?' Of course, being 22 years old and fresh out of college we replied, 'we thought you could help us out with that.' Apparently, that's the wrong answer. Who knew?...
by the way, Vinod is the only dude who made money on Excite(@home).
former shareholders certainly wish he stayed home that day instead of snooping around in dirty garages...
Posted by: julien codorniou | September 22, 2004 at 11:19 PM
Julien,
I think it's important to sepaprate "the guts to fund, and how a VC can support an early stage venture" to what happen several years after (and the exit implosion...).
My point here is that Vinod is a good example on how a gret-operation-backgrunded-with-clues-and-opinion-on-technology-and-product-issues-not-fresh-investment-banker-just-out-of-biz-school can make a difference in an early stage business.
I have also been involved in other KP venture (like Zapplet...) which did not turn into any success, but that does not change the fact that Vinod is also for me one of the good example of a VC-With-Opinions (which is who from a CEO perspective i want in my business)
Excite's demise was not a failure to find a business model. It's more properly attributed to its merger with the ill-fated @Home, whose regulatory problems and AT&T lordship brought the ship down.
cf also http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/2004/09/main_dish_8.html for more comment on your perspective...
Posted by: Marc Goldberg | September 23, 2004 at 07:07 AM
Without a viable plan... how you would you know when you've reached your destination? Makes sense to have a plan... then work your plan.
Posted by: Make Money | October 06, 2007 at 01:31 AM