Sure, you can whip up a really cool website with new functionality. You can even get lots of traffic. Where venture capitalists seem to fall short is asking the question, "Where, specifically, are you going to derive you revenue from?"

The confident wantrepreneur smuggly responds, "Targeted advertisements, of course".

And there in lies the problem, when I'm socializing and trying to entertain myself, I'm not interested in buying t-shirts. It's amazing how these cutting edge businesses forget how narrow and self-absorbed consumers can be. Unless it's pertinent to my "social life" and free, I'm not clicking.

Bornean

Sure, you can whip up a really cool website with new functionality. You can even get lots of traffic. Where venture capitalists seem to fall short is asking the question, "Where, specifically, are you going to derive you revenue from?"

The confident wantrepreneur smuggly responds, "Targeted advertisements, of course".

And there in lies the problem. When I'm socializing or trying to entertain myself, I'm not interested in buying t-shirts. It's amazing how these cutting edge businesses forget how narrow and self-absorbed consumers can be. Unless it's pertinent to my "social life" and free, I'm not clicking.

Bornean

30-word version of this post: VCs are dumb. Dow Jones says VCs invested $1.58B in Q1, Thomson Reuters says $1.3B. Smart VCs are ditching social-media / ad networks. The Valley is full of dumb VCs.

zacharye