Texas Flag on Fire Truck Grill, originally uploaded by jehinote
I’ll be trekking to Austin next Friday for my first SXSW conference. Do let me know if you’re attending and interested in meeting up.
I’ve been glancing through the agenda and caught the following: “Don’t need no VC when you’ve got a PC.” How’s that for a grabbing panel lead-in? Actually, it’s a rehash of a worn tune in the industry and it’s a misnomer for the topic of a panel that’ll be worthwhile for attending creatives: “Web 2.0 / 3.0 ArtsEntrepreneurship.com: Make Your Passion Your Profession.” Venture dollars rarely go to content creators and when they do, value creation often lies in unique aggregation or distribution mechanisms rather than in proprietary content development. As creation costs drop though, I do think some innovators are figuring out how to create “hits shops” that churn out a lot of content, utilize analytics to identify the promising ones early, and generate long-term value out of the hits. In the meantime, distribution costs have already dropped to an effective zero and talented creators can build franchises on their own with relative ease. Hence, “don’t need no VC.”
To the developers out there, though, I offer the following analogous maxim: “Don’t need no backing to go hacking.” The explosion of investment opportunites that are beyond concept stage as a result of declining startup costs have been a boon to many VCs.
Personally, I’m looking forward to the keynote by Will Wright. After all, he’s putting the final touches on one of the Top 10 Gift Ideas for Venture Capitalists.
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