Google Forms $100 Million Venture Fund

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_google_fund

by jkrols • 17 years ago

16 14 17 years ago

jkrols• 17 years ago

From the article :

The fund will focus primarily on companies seeking seed funding and early stage funding, and Google Ventures will have the ability to make investments ranging from tens of thousands to "several tens of millions" of dollars, Maris said.

The seed part in the "tens of thousands" sounds a lot like YC.

trapper• 17 years ago

It would make sense for google to make sure that companies it buys are doing it the google way. I think they have learned from jotspot and jaiku that it is probably better to get in earlier rather than rewrite the entire system to fit on their infrastructure.

vaksel• 17 years ago

I think a lot of people will be scared to pitch to Google in the seed stage.

Google has pretty much established itself as "anything goes" company. So no matter what you pitch, you'd worry about them stealing your idea.

And why should Google back someone like you with no connections/traction etc, if they have plenty of resources to implement your idea on their own.

deepster• 17 years ago

I certainly would be hesitant to just email them a business plan...While Google itself might not "steal ideas"; What's to prevent an engineer at Google from culling through great ideas and starting up his/her own company?

moe2• 17 years ago

These concerns are overblown. Reminder: Ideas are worthless. Implementation matters. Business plans are dime a dozen.

Furthermore google knows that such an event would kill their credibility as a VC instantly and hurt the Google brand as a whole due to the motto violation.

I can't think of an idea or business-plan that could possibly be worth that risk, therefor I assume google will take proper care of confidentiality.

wheels2• 17 years ago

A lot of people would be dumb to pitch to Google in the idea phase. If you're a first time founder without a convincing, working (and probably already with users) prototype or some really, really convincing connections your email is going to go straight into the circular file.

The "steal my idea" thing is one of those notions that makes sense until you're out there for a little while. I worried about it too until I realized, wait, nobody cares. A lot of good ideas seem to only look good in retrospect.

Google, "We're building better search." "Uh, huh. Yeah. You do that. Graphs you say? Dweebs."

Microsoft, "We're building a commodity operating system." "Without a computer? Why?"

Facebook, "We're starting a social network for college students." "Uhm, like MySpace?"

wheels2• 17 years ago

VCs are competing with YC the same way that bachelors programs are competing with PhD programs.

Edit: Title originally mentioned Google competing with YC.

shibido• 17 years ago

Seconded.

YC provide the capital they do to cover only the most necessary expenses. For many people there are other ways to raise that amount of cash if you really needed to. (Probably not glamorous ways, but you could likely get there).

It's not exactly apples and oranges, but to focus on the cash kind of misses the point of what YC is about, and what it really offers.

I'd like to believe that Google entering the space is a good thing, and I do, but I believe the focus in the article on the $100m is kind of irrelevant.

How much of that is Google really going to invest at seed stage? And with what ventures?

I'd be eager to find out.

dpnewman• 17 years ago

I had both feelings of initial excitement and concern. My concept might be 'perfect' for a Google property, but that becomes a double-edged sword. Sure, GVentures will not want to get a rep for stealing ideas from submissions, but it's not about intent. It's always been the main reason I wouldn't be concerned so much about NDAs with VCs is that they're really not in the position to implement at the drop of a dime, or effectively weave key parts into an existing project. Google on the other hand... Hmmm.

Dilpil• 17 years ago

Google is slowly morphing from technology company to tech focused private equity firm.

elv• 17 years ago

where the fuck is the "dont be evil" thing? i dont think financial results as the first focus is ethical

Google Forms $100 Million Venture Fund

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