FYI: Last time someone made a $100MM fund to boost development it didn't turn out all that great | Hacker News Reader

FYI: Last time someone made a $100MM fund to boost development it didn't turn out all that great

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29 pointsalaskamiller26 comments

I think this new fund is basically a stunt to get a lot of headlines in the business press. It's not a coincidence that KP is announcing this at the same press conference where Apple announces a bunch of business-friendly iPhone features.

The seventies-era Steve Jobs would have just put up a bloody banner that said DELENDA EST RIM, but I'm sure the older and wiser Jobs decided that an influential VC in a suit, wielding a suitcase stuffed with hundred-dollar bills, would make a better impression on the typical IT manager.

Did they name a single company that would actually get any of this money? I haven't seen any mention of one. And AFAIK the existence of a big pile of yet-uninvested VC money is not news.

Do we actually know it didn't turn out great?

Beyond the fact that Java is the de facto language to work in, I'd wager that KP made an excellent return.

It got ok returns, but only because they tossed the original plan to fund companies using Java, and just invested in the same kinds of companies KP would have anyway.

There are lots of great Java companies at the moment (JetBrains, JBoss, Atlassian, ...). However investing in a particular company just because it uses certain technology or doesn't makes no sense to me.

I think that's because you're an engineer and not a business person ;-)

how do you define ok returns? 3x/5x/7x?

Active Software got 11 million from the KPCB java fund. They were later bought by webMethods in a deal valued at 1.3 billion. However I don't know if KPCB was able to liquidate their shares before the bubble burst. If they were then their returns were probably "ok".

There is probably little basis to draw any conclusions from one data point. Besides, this focuses on the wrong thing - what they aren't realizing is that apple doesn't need 100MM to boost development. Apple just provided a way for any smart person with an idea to place his/her product in front of every iphone user.

Bring on the naysayers. I see huge opportunity (VC funded or otherwise).

Put it this way: Would you rather be the proud owner of an iTunes-marquee-featured Top 50 (by sales, with 70% going into your bank account) iPhone application or a top 50 Facebook app (where your revenues are eaten by bandwidth and server hosting costs)?

And the barriers to entry are lower for Facebook apps. Comparatively fewer people know Objective C and the Cocoa frameworks.

I always thought it ironic some of the biggest investment successes of the KPCB Java-fund were companies that actually had little or nothing at all to do with Java which nonetheless rewarded the investors handsomely when they were subsequently bought or went public (albeit before the bubble burst).

Edit: KPMG -> KPCB. Thanks to myoung8 for pointing that out.

It's KPCB. KPMG is an accounting firm.

Wait, did they lose all the money they put into the fund? They tried something, it didn't exactly work the first time around, and are probably making some changes to try again. (2nd? 3rd?). Why is this a bad thing?

Why is this a bad thing?

Because it's dumb to dole out money based primarily on a programming language.

That depends entirely on what your motives are...

They probably just used Java as a buzzword to pull in more institutional investors who read about the language and were ready to put up money based on it.

A firm like KP wouldn't have had any trouble raising money. I think they genuinely believed the hype about Java, and they were hoping that if they became the official Java fund (I think they were anointed by Sun) they'd get first crack at all the related deal flow. And that is probably what's motivating them here too.

I guess perspective is everything. I was an EE undergrad during the first bubble era, with little programming experience. I remember everybody talking about Java during the time, magazine articles, etc. Looking back, I can see how they thought that way; not being an active programmer can cause one to develop bad taste.

If it didn´t work out why are they doing it again?

publicity and association with apple

are you actually claiming that apple and sun have anything in common?

One rumor going around is that Sun will merge with Apple ... The logic behind this rumor is that Apple is now effectively a Unix company, that Apple and Sun could target the desktop and server markets, respectively -- http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2003/pulpit_20030213_0007...

What's the last time that any of Cringely's predictions actually happened?

His annual predictions for 2007 achieved 61.5% ( http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080104_0037... ).

Apple is too good to merge with Sun who is too good for Apple.

So you really think that round table could support those two CEOs?

I think it is more likely for Apple to scoop up AMD. In 2 years Steve Jobs will need a reason for all Apple users to buy new machines and the AMD Fusion processor which will have graphics on the CPU die would be a great reason to launch a new OS and a completely in compatible set of solutions in the name of progress and innovation.

looks like somebody is suffering from cognitive dissonance;-)

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