Re: Shameless but hopefully relevant plug

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From: Adam L. Beberg (beberg@mithral.com)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2000 - 02:46:17 PDT


On Wed, 19 Apr 2000, Jeff Bone wrote:

> > [you're doing this to taunt me arent you greg]
>
> Oh, he may not, but I will... ;-) Wasn't this the topic of convo a
> couple of weels ago? Adam, you're right on the money. There is
> both a tech win and a business in what you've said. All it takes is
> somebody with the time and resources...

Been sick with the black plague far too long now, I'll take that taunt,
and raise you a poke and a prod.

Yes, I was ranting about just such things not long ago. It's amazingly
frustrating having the time and the technology ready to go, but not
having the resources to do anything with it. Undoubtedly causing the
above mentioned plague.

> > Of course you won't get free space for long, since the "free space" game
> > is a money loser and everyone knows it.
>
> Read "The Cluetrain Manifesto." Then ponder, deeply, the effects of
> "The Curve" on business models. Free space isn't a loser, it's just
> aggressive. Indeed, it may be the only survivable model in the
> storage space: remote, redundant, reliable, available, and free.
> You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, bro.

This I agree that redundant, reliable, and available storage is a
critical thing - I haven't used a floppy, or stored anything on a
non-connected 24/7 host in 5+years. But last I checked running a data
center with redundant, reliable, and available storage was not cheap, or
even close to cheap. Aggressive marketing bait, or just dumb? How many
companies doing this will be around in 6 months?

> > I can't wait for the bubble to burst
>
> Uh, hello, McFly? Have you looked at the market lately?

I said burst, not deflate and bounce back. Meaning any company with no
hope of earnings will have zero stock value and get delisted. You
remember the "old economy" rules based on "profits" and "reality".

> > so those of us with tech but no plan to lose millions a day can
> > get funding.
>
> I'll sell you that plan for a smallish sum. ;-) On the funding
> front: you think a bubble burst is going to make funding *more*
> available to tech-savvy but biz-light plays? D00d. Guess again.
> A lot of potential investment just evaporated in the last two weeks.
> It's sad but true. Pray for a rebound. None of us ever had it so
> good as earlier this year.

I think a bubble burst will make VC's and investors far more interested
in real money _making_ opportunities. Having spent lots of time with VCs
hearing "can we IPO within the next 3 weeks so the lockup expires before
the market falls" it's all too clear that VCs like everyone else are
just playing the momentum and the hype like everyone else. The VCs want
the slash-and-burn play, not the organic farming one where the business
is still alive 10 minutes after the lockup ends. The market and economy
will be far healthier when bad companies never have a chance to get
started. Since I'm aiming to build a business that lasts until the
singularity, my chances of getting money pre-burst are close to nil. And
I never said I was biz-light, I just cant lose money like a .com ;)

So I say, "Burst baby burst!" or rather, "Come down from your acid
trip".

- Adam L. Beberg
  The Cosm Project - http://cosm.mithral.com/
  beberg@mithral.com - http://www.iit.edu/~beberg/


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