Disqus - Friends of c0wb0yz

Re: Everything's Swimmy in Gay Paree?

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:22:13 -0000

I agree with you wholeheartedly, but your argument sounds a lot like an appeal to authority. Just because someone won a Nobel Prize doesn't mean they're right about everything.

That is, unless you're willing to defend Joseph Stiglitz's disastrous "Globalization and its Discontents."

Re: If You Can't Figure Out What To Get Someone For Christmas

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:51:54 -0000

Fred, I think you're a terribly smart and engaging fellow, but I also think the handmade pledge is one of the silliest things I've ever heard.

It's so typically bobo, and it smacks of anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism. It's authenticity at a bargain; if you want real authenticity, move out of New York and go to an ashram. If not, don't willfully restrict your choices of gifts for friends. Doesn't it matter more that you get your friends THE gift they like/want, rather than the warm fuzzy feeling of telling yourself "I bought handmade!"?

Re: If You Can't Figure Out What To Get Someone For Christmas

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:12:40 -0000

"Buying handmade is authentic Real people make these things."

But see, according to me this is completely irrelevant. When I shop for gifts, I shop for what I think my friends & family will like, period. That means looking for best quality, and for some products the best quality is always handmade, but that doesn't mean I should willfully limit my shopping choices. If my nephew really really wants an iPod for christmas, should I say "Sorry, this year I'm buying handmade?"

I'm sure that buying handmade can be a real movement and commercially viable; by all means buy a stake in the company, but that doesn't mean you should drink the Kool-Aid.

(By the way, I'm sure the people who design and make non-handmade products would be surprised to find out they are not "real people.")

Re: My first advise for 15 year old Daniel Brusilovsky's startup

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:58:07 -0000

Wow, this is great. I wish I'd had opportunities like this at that age -- after all I graduated high school at 15, and I really wanted to start a business back then, but I didn't have the guts. Now I'm sorry I didn't.

Re: Am I Bored With “Web 2.0”?

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:37:25 -0000

So does that mean USV is going to start investing in biotech/cleantech? In Europe? Are you going to go international, DFJ-style?

There's definitely a lot of potential for cleantech in Europe because of the regulatory climate. And especially in France, because France has some of the best engineering schools in the world. They're very small so they don't make much of an impact but they replace quantity with quality. The problem is that the entrepreneurial bug hasn't quite caught on among French engineers -- most of them still want to be civil servants or work for large corporations -- but this is precisely why we need talented VCs to catch them early and show them they can be much, much more ambitious.

Re: Am I Bored With “Web 2.0”?

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:39:51 -0000

Good to know. It did seem like you were trying to look at other investments than web which, with the right people, might be possible.

I still think (and this is a contrarian view) that France has got a lot of VC potential. You need to look at it as a developing country: an adverse regulatory climate (for web, at least -- not for cleantech), and under investment. Of course developing countries also have plenty of growth, but just because you have slow macro growth doesn't mean you can't have lots of growth in certain sectors. Paris does have a pretty lively startup scene but it's small, lacks ambition, and lacks smart VC money.

Re: Am I Bored With “Web 2.0”?

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:01:32 -0000

Sure there is -- http://www.facebook.com/gro...

There are also bigger events like the French American Conference of Entrepreneurs (FACE) this friday or Loic Le Meur's LeWeb '08 this fall.

One of the problems with the Paris startup scene is that it's spread thin. You have plenty of people doing amazing things, but on their own. There's very little clustering.

Re: Twitter finally gets its new round of funding led by Sabet and Bezos

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:00:18 -0000

"With the right pieces in place, I believe Twitter will continue its march towards the mainstream. Not that it really matters, it’s useful with or without mainstream usage. That is why I believe that the only thing that can kill Twitter, is Twitter itself. It has the right combination of users, simplicity and developers building apps on top of it, that no one is going to come along and replace it — that it unless it cannot in any way shape or form be relied upon."

I think that’s just right. I have two questions though:
1. Does Bezos joining the funding (great news by any account) mean Twitter is going to use Amazon’s cloud for its database? It’s probably the perfect solution for them.
2. Must every web 2.0 company insist on calling itself a X utility?

Re: Happy Birthday America

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:55:34 -0000

Very thoughtful and perspective comment. The 4th of July should be a special day for the French as well as the Americans, as our countries share so many bonds and so much history.

Re: A Deep Dive Into The Paris Startup Scene

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:12:31 -0000

Excellent news Fred! Can we hope to read more thoughts about the Paris startup scene (and also the Berlin startup scene)? I'd love to read your thoughts about the startups here, if our scene has something different/special compared to the others.

Re: Taking Stock Of Tech Startups In Paris

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:44:57 -0000

Fred, thanks for such an amazing post. There are plenty of great insights in there, and I'm happy to see that, unlike too many French people, you don't report as bleak a picture as could be. I'll almost certainly have more elaborate thoughts later in the day, maybe on my blog. Overall I definitely think you get the picture right.

So, the big question: anything you're going to invest in?

Re: Accessibility

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:03:55 -0000

Tremendous post Fred. Yes, negotiating accessibility is key and figuring out new ways for VCs to get in touch with entrepreneurs and vice versa is very important. But of course -- that's what the web does best, bringing together people who otherwise wouldn't have gotten in touch. That's why it's so exciting.

I was sorry I missed the pont party, I was working late that night.

Re: Dear YouTube friends, can I have my account back?

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:45:12 -0000

The funny thing is the only video I have on YouTube is me giving an interview on BBC World and they haven't taken me down.

But maybe I shouldn't say it quite so outloud...

Re: Dear YouTube friends, can I have my account back?

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:07:05 -0000

Quick conspiracy theory: maybe YouTube doesn't like a competitor promoting themselves through their service?

Nahhh...

Re: [bijan sabet] the personal tumblelog of Bijan Sabet

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:39:28 -0000

Bijan, I didn't add a new comment because the comment interface didn't work last time I tried. However, my take on the Jobs health issue is basically the same as Dan Lyons': if Steve Jobs believes his health is a private matter, that's fine, but he shouldn't leak things to the media, demand off the record conversations with journalists where he gives them info that he won't give to shareholders. If he believes this strongly about his privacy, that's completely fine but then he should just shut up and let the stock price do what it will do. If he doesn't want to face the consequences of his lies, bullying behavior and obfuscation then he should just say what's up.

Re: [bijan sabet] the personal tumblelog of Bijan Sabet

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:58:27 -0000

Come on. You know better than I do that Apple has the most locked down PR apparatus in tech. No way those leaks weren't sanctioned by Jobs. Or we'd be seeing heads on the floor right now.

Re: A VC: Corporate Venture Capital

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:24:21 -0000

The problem with incentives in corporate venture capital is when the VC "firm" is just an arm of the company, but if it's an independent firm with the company acting as an LP and actively recruiting the best VCs to run the firm as partners then I think the incentives could be properly aligned.

Then you have to think of why a company starts such a firm? There are three potential reasons in my view: 1- money; 2- technology; 3- people.

1 is a non starter. The best VC firms make eye popping returns to shareholders but these are only the top few and anyway if you need that to provide your shareholders/investors with the returns they're looking for maybe you should rethink your core business instead of setting up a venture arm.

2 can be a smart play in my view. It's kind of like an outsourced research lab. Instead of setting up Xerox PARC you set up a VC arm that invests in interesting technologies that you can later snap up. The danger of course is that since it's out in the open other people can buy the companies or copy their ideas but that's life, and generally entrepreneurial teams are more innovative than indoor researchers and the openness and sharing of ideas brings its own benefits as well.

3 in my view is the killer. Look at a "VC firm" like Y Combinator. I think Google would be much better off creating something like Y Combinator in every major city in the world and using it not to create new technologies that they could eventually buy (although it would be a big plus) but to *recruit*. They would get much more innovative, talented people in-house by buying founder teams at $2m for 3 after six months (and they have been doing that, of course) than by hoovering the top 10% of cookie-cutter CS graduates at Stanford and MIT each year. I think this was the thinking behind Yahoo! Brickhouse but it seems to be a non-starter.

History has proved time and time again the truthness of that great Doriot quote: "someone, somewhere is making your product obsolete." And history has taught us that this someone is a small startup founder because it's in the nature of big companies to not be as nimble and innovative and to not notice the fastball flying into their blind spot until it's socked them in the jaw (and even then...). It's the classic story of Yahoo! refusing to buy Google before they were big.

Google is a tremendous company that I admire endlessly but it is also standing on tenuous ground: if tomorrow someone invents a way better search engine or a way better advertising network they'll be dead walking. If I was Google I'd start a $100 million or even $1 billion prize for anyone who comes up with a brilliant new search product. Because someone somewhere *will* make their product obsolete and the odds that that someone is a Google employee are pretty damn low. It was too late for Yahoo in 1998 and they didn't realize it until 2004 (or they still haven't realized it if you listen to Jerry sometimes). Maybe it will be mobile/location search, maybe it will be a new social advertising paradigm that will make AdWords useless and all ads will go through Facebook and Loopt, but some day Google as we know it will be obsolete, even before their competitor has launched their product. Cuil and Powerset are jokes but some day some startup won't be. And Google had better be there with a blank check when that day comes. Maybe that VC arm will help them spot that.

Re: Posting from the gym

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:15:14 -0000

I just bought one for my birthday -- the typing is hard at first, but it gets easier. I have the added trouble of typing in two languages, which screws up the typing predictor. It adds accents when I'm typing in English and doesn't add them when I'm typing in French...

The other downside (famously) is the battery. I left with an almost full battery today, didn't do too much interneting but wrote a long message on Facebook and by the time I got home by battery was at 20%... I can see when it wouldn't be an issue. If I could I'd just buy a new charger for my office but I do most of my work outside offices.

I'm still very happy with the device but these are real drawbacks.

Re: Disqus is one of the coolest startup around

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:03:33 -0000

Yes, Disqus is really cool. As you said they execute well and fast, and that's the most important thing in a startup.

Plus they have Seesmic, so two cool startups combined! Great stuff.

Re: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/08/is-geek-tech-go.html

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:58:34 -0000

Fully agree Fred, as usual.

I've seen the same phenomenon as you of this mainstreaming of geek tech. A friend of mine, a middle aged writer, is using Facebook to promote his book. I can't wait for him to twitter. Of course this is really important, I would say even more important than monetization, because once a product or service goes mainstream, that'll make it easier to monetize, but the other way around is often harder.

Incidentally, it's interesting that you point to Delicious as the prototypical geek service that never went mainstream, since it was a successful exit nevertheless. And on the other hand you'll have services that are mainstream-oriented from day one and won't work.

Re: The Human Piece Of The Venture Equation

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:58:10 -0000

To me this is a very important post Fred, as a wantpreneur and, more importantly, someone who sees himself as more of a manager and builder of organizations than as simply a product or "vision" person. How to transition from a great idea and great first product into a sustainable, growing business is something I think about a lot. And some day I hope I make it.

Re: Initial thoughts on the Palin nomination (Scripting News)

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:35:40 -0000

I'm not sure I agree with all of these.

#1 - Ditto!

#2 - I would also agree. Just like the Biden pick and the unaudacious stadium speech shows Obama thinks he is the frontrunner and must therefore run a cautious campaign.

#3 - What does she know about economic issues? Unlike Obama, she has actually run an actual business. Yes, she is less experienced than, say, Ted Stevens. Ahem. But the entire Obama campaign has been launched to its great success on the premise that experience counts less than judgement, and I think she has shown a ton of that. Her personal life story certainly shows more "profiles in courage" moments than Obama's. And I think that's a very important part of a VPOTUS or POTUS choice.

#4 - I agree that Obama's exceptionally well-run campaign is proof enough that he is qualified for the presidency. But I disagree that being "thoughtful" and "studious" and "well educated" somehow makes up for his other failings. We're not selecting a grad student here. We're selecting a president. Intelligence matters obviously. But if having read a ton of books about foreign policy makes you as qualified as having had the actual foreign policy experience I'm Henry Kissinger. You're also right that Alaska is a very peculiar state. It is a state with very high welfare spending and entrenched, corrupt machine politics. Kind of like Chicago. When faced with that machine, Sarah Palin confronted it and pretty much tore it to shreds. Barack Obama? Um, um, um, well, you know, um... he kind of just got along to get along, as he always does. Who was it who said judgement matters over experience, again?

#5 - "It's the Republican approach to problems, shoot from the hip without thinking things through." Ahem. What do you say to such a blatant troll?

#6 - First of all, Americans are not pro-choice. They're not pro-life either. If you look at the polls, most Americans are very uncomfortable with the issue, on the fence, and depending on how you *phrase* the question the answers come out very differently. If Americans are so pro-choice, why did they pick a pro-life president for 20 of the past 28 years? As far as getting Hillary voters -- I don't know. I think downscale voters will definitely identify with her awe-inspiring, moose-eating, snowmobile-riding, up-by-your-bootstraps life story. I think pro-choice women, while disagreeing, will nevertheless admire her decision to carry to term a child with Down Syndrome. I certainly don't think Hillary voters, or women in general, would identify with any woman. But I think Sarah Palin is definitely a woman worth identifying with.

#7 - I don't think it's a PR stunt. I honestly don't. Let me say that few things -- even presidential politics -- fascinate me more than the world of the web, entrepreneurship and venture capital. I love this world because it's a world where a young, inexperienced guy to whom a "serious" person would never lend money can still build a business and change the status quo. I like the fact that it's the same way with politics. Let's be serious -- Barack Obama couldn't have run with his amount of experience even four years ago. But that's a good thing! Experience is relevant, but not as relevant as intelligence, judgement and character! And for the first time in a long while, both candidates for the presidency have that by the bucketload! I think both McCain and Obama are thoughtful patriots who want the good of their country. I honestly think McCain saw in Palin the same thing a good VC sees in a young guy with no business and barely a product. I honestly think he thinks she is going to make a terrific VP. Obviously he was aware that picking her was smart politics (and then again maybe not? Thankfully they're going to have to can these "is he ready to lead?" ads.) but labeling the pick a PR stunt is just not right in my view.

Re: PEG 2.0 - Why Tumblr is the future of blogging The...

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:19:47 -0000

For a while I thought reblogs & stuff was enough to have interactivity but I want my readers to be able to comment, even if it brings the painful realization that there are none.

Re: PEG 2.0 - Why Tumblr is the future of blogging The...

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:46:08 -0000

Merci! On est d'accord sur Tumblr, et j'adore ta manière de le dire.

J'aime beaucoup Disqus, c'est très bien foutu comme plateforme aussi.

Re: Zemanta

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:08:06 -0000

I'd briefly looked at Zemanta before but originally didn't think much of it, but the way you describe it definitely makes it seem exciting. If there's a Tumblr/Chrome version forthcoming I'll definitely check it out.

As a European web enthusiast I'm also definitely excited to see you invest in a European web startup. As I've argued here before, I think the European scene is full of hidden, diamonds in the rough potential and US VCs will almost certainly be key in unlocking that potential.

All great news!