Paul Graham Gets Vague when Boston needs analysis

http://buzzboston.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/paul-graham-gets-vague-when-boston-needs-analysis/

by dshah • 19 years ago

16 23 19 years ago

buzzboston.wordpress.com

gibsonf1• 19 years ago

It sounds like he is asking PG to do his own homework for him.

theremora• 19 years ago

Or maybe I know my limits and minute level of influence compared to PG,

jamescoops• 19 years ago

great link bait

natrius2• 19 years ago

"I would like to caveat this section myself and ask the readers a question of even Paul himself should he notice this article, does the more aggressive investor demand a larger percentage of the business for the same amount of investment dollars offered by a less aggressive investor?"

In Silicon Valley, you'll get more offers from investors for funding since the investors are more aggressive, and as a result, you're more likely to get a fair market price for equity in your company. More importantly, the quality of the investors in Silicon Valley is likely higher since they have more experience with them and have more connections that could help your company in the future.

I don't think there's any way to compare investors in Silicon Valley with those in other areas without the Silicon Valley investors coming out on top.

anamax• 19 years ago

I think that "aggressive" is being misinterpreted. SV VCs have a greater tolerance for risk, at least technology risk.

It seems quite reasonable that riskier investments should have greater potential reward. (Otherwise, why take on the additional risk?)

natrius2• 19 years ago

That's what I mean by "aggressive" as well. Since they're more likely to make risky investments, you'll get more offers from VCs.

kansando6• 19 years ago

I think PG and this group are too focused on Web 2.0 companies. So all his talk of superiority of the valley ecosystem is probably right in the consumer-web space. Boston stills kicks ass for enterprise software and biotech.Unfortunately you can't build those with college dropouts.

rms• 19 years ago

Sure you can

kansando6• 19 years ago

Do you have examples to back your assertion?

edw5192• 19 years ago

Once again, I would caution anyone who draws a line in the sand between Web 2.0 and the enterprise. It won't be too long before that line is blurred forever.

(Aside: Ask Bill Gates what can be built by a college dropout.)

kansando6• 19 years ago

All Enterprise companies need sales forces. In a post SOX environment, you can't just get adoption by setting up a viral chain. Then there is the large subset of enterprise world which is infrastructure and that will never look like Web 2.0.

As for Bill Gates, that is an old example. If you look at even the last 15 years, the most successful enterprise companies (VMWare, Siebel, SalesForce, ...) were founded by seasoned, college-educated founders.

davidw2• 19 years ago

What hacker wants to touch "enterprise" software with a 10 foot pole?

Beyond that, "enterprise" and "startup" - at least to my mind - don't have a large intersection. If I want something enterprisey, I want it from a big, established IBM type company who will be there 10 years from now, and still be interested in my business.

kansando6• 19 years ago

And you think the people who started VMWare, ITA software, Akamai & Ab Initio were dumb, stupid, second-rate hackers? Obviously by your definition these were never a startup because people would have bought stuff from IBM anyway.

Like a lot of other people in this group you are confusing web startups with startups.

Here is a list of Boston area Enterprise startups that went public this year: Airvana, Starent Networks, Bladelogic, Netezza, AcmePacket . They could not have done so without real customers and real revenue (not traffic, not unique visitors).

nostrademons• 19 years ago

More people need to read Clayton Christensen's books. Today's commodity consumer webapp is tomorrow's robust enterprise software. Just ask Wang, Apollo, DEC, Stratus, or any of the other enterprise software companies that were based around Boston 20 years ago.

Paul Graham Gets Vague when Boston needs analysis

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