Wednesday, August 29, 2007

What we have here is... failure... to communicate

Please, read this post about VC funding on Thought Leader - it sounds like the world has gone mad... or business in general anyway.

On one hand - VC funders saying they don't get enough good proposals, cancelling events due to lack of interest, looking for the best place to invest their war-chests.

On the other hand - entrepreneurs struggling to obtain funding, trying to raise capital from "friends, family and fools" [Tycoon - "Finding startup capital"], and just generally spending more time trying to fund the business than actually running the business.

Lets be honest - there are some absolutely mind-blowingly, awesome ideas out there. Yes, many of them internet-based businesses [Justin Hartman - you're spot on with your comments in the VC article!] - my personal favourite in terms of stunning growth potential and making the most out of "systems" [I hate the word, but love the concept].

Do any of the VC's have the guts to go with this? Vinny, you know how to do it - Lingham Capital could prove to be the groundbreaker in this field and show government and the dti how to 'do it'!

To the dreamers... keep dreaming! To the funders... get funding! And to the business people... let's help put this together and make it work!

[BTW - my belief - this is SA's greatest opportunity, and will solve many of our legacy problems]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darren I really like your take on this and I think you're spot on. I honestly believe there is a lack of communication between funders and the ideas people and as a result we all seem to string it along.

As I've said in the Thought Leadership post there is a clear apparent risk associated with any web-based startup and while I hear the fears, VCs need to also look beyond connectivity and high costs of telecoms in SA as so much more creativity can come out of the country if only the money will back it.

Darren said...

Thanks Justin. Your experience counts volumes - in the article comments, its mentioned that there is possibly a cost advantage of starting the business here versus in a "developed" market. I believe this is even more true for internet-based business where we have all the upside and global-reach potential [telecom infrastructure aside] without a lot of the other hassles some of those markets face. Bring it on! I will watch your progress with great interest.