Unintended Consequences
Russ and I have worked on stuff together in the past. One of the interesting side effects of online celebrity (or whatever you want to call it that Russ has, blog popularity, name recognition - the term itself isn’t important) is that whenever we work on something together it’s not “Russ and Mike”s whatever, it’s Russ’s whatever. It’s happened a few times, and we even named it “The MoMo Effect” after Mobile Monday, which is where it first seemed to happen. Normally I don’t care about it much, as long as I can get done what I want to I’m happy to ride on Russ’s popularity. With the collapse of Mowser I’m actually happy to see that it’s written up all over the place as “Russ Beattie’s Mowser.” At least I don’t have my name directly associated with that flame out in most people’s minds.
However something happened out of this that I wasn’t thinking about at all. I’ve spent the last 3 months tapping everyone I could to get a chance to talk to angels and VCs to see if we could find some funding. Obviously we didn’t. However, the “is the mobile web dead” conversation that got kicked off has caused issues for some of the folks who helped me out who were also currently looking for funding. I’ve had a few calls that went something like: “What the hell? I introduced you to a bunch of folks, and you guys turned right around and screwed us! People are starting to wonder now if they should put their money in the mobile web.”
Interesting, after not being able to get money out of anyone for Mowser, which I was working on with Russ - I’m interested to hear that anyone’s investment policy would be impacted by a post that Russ put up. I would be surprised if even the secondary conversation that came out of it impacted anyone. So just something to keep in mind for the other folks out there. Just because when you go and sit down with a group of folks to discuss what you’re doing and have it dismissed, that doesn’t mean those folks aren’t going to turn right around and use your commentary against friends and partners. Watch your back, sometimes the problems come from the places you least expect them to.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I wouldn’t be too guilty. If a VC is using a single blog post to justify passing on an investment then they were looking for an excuse. That kind of reaction should really tell you something - if the VC community isn’t excited about your opportunity then maybe VC funding is not the way to go.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
People need the stats, case studies and examples to show investors that the mobile web is growing fast. Look at the sort of revenues Buongiorno and Zed are doing - $100s of millions. I’ve put together a list of stats and data on mobile success stories here - keen to add to it.
http://blog.mjelly.com/2008/04/10-reasons-the.html
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I wouldn’t take it heart too much Mike. Russ’s comments certainly stirred a few ant’s nest and may have impacted upon a couple of investment discussions others may be having around “mobile web” business’s, but as Sean in a previous comment has already stated if a simple blog post really did have an impact then the investors were just looking for an excuse.
Having said that my own investment experiences have taught me that VC’s and the like are very fickle and always looking to have their money in the next buzz word without fully understanding the opportunity at times. Like the stock-market private investment is also driven by greed, fear, trends and hype.
Even though it’s quite obvious to many that Russ’s talk up the mobile web one minute, slander it the next is more of a PR stunt than anything some of the uninitiated will take his comments at face value, those that do probably should be investing their money elsewhere.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 am
Eh, I’m with Sean and Antony - one post does not a trend make (though I weight heavuly the comments you two make, since you are pretty clever to begin with).
I think it’s just an excuse not to invest. I think out there, folks are still clueless about true mobile (rather than just a rehash of the big-screen big-keyboard web).
Ta.