

Google Forms $100 Million Venture Fund - jkrols
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_google_fund

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vaksel
I think a lot of people will be scared to pitch to Google in the seed stage.

Google has pretty much established itself as "anything goes" company. So no
matter what you pitch, you'd worry about them stealing your idea.

And why should Google back someone like you with no connections/traction etc,
if they have plenty of resources to implement your idea on their own.

~~~
deepster
I certainly would be hesitant to just email them a business plan...While
Google itself might not "steal ideas"; What's to prevent an engineer at Google
from culling through great ideas and starting up his/her own company?

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moe
These concerns are overblown. Reminder: Ideas are worthless. Implementation
matters. Business plans are dime a dozen.

Furthermore google knows that such an event would kill their credibility as a
VC instantly _and_ hurt the Google brand as a whole due to the motto
violation.

I can't think of an idea or business-plan that could possibly be worth that
risk, therefor I assume google will take proper care of confidentiality.

~~~
jdileo
I agree with this comment completely.

I've been reading comments on the Google Ventures launch on HN, TechCrunch,
CNet and others........the general tone is ugly. Why is it that Google was
beloved as a young, underdog company but after it achieves what we all strive
for....true global impact....people become skeptics and, almost, root for
their demise? Human nature or something more?

~~~
alain94040
Simple answer: absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We all like the cool kids from Google. What is starting to scare some (and
soon more) is the power that Google has. With no counter-powers. Google needs
to think about a better, more sustainable, implementation of their do-no-evil
brand.

Having an ombudsman, at the VP level, to which any "citizen" can go and
object, would be a start. Think of it as the supreme court of Googlers. With
transparent complaints and answers from humans.

It would cost a little bit of money, but it would go a long way to building
long-term trust in the company. If Google doesn't come up with their own
counter-power, someone else eventually will and Google won't like it!

~~~
moe
Well, in theory we already have the counterweight, it's called government and
it's supposed to protect us from evildoers.

In practice our governments are unfortunately struggling to adapt to this
whole "globalization" thing where multi-national corporations are alarmingly
ahead in most regards.

So far not many of the corps have abused their power in truly damaging ways
(apart from evading taxes and the occassional uncomfortable law) but I do
agree that this is a worrying tendency. It might even be part of the cause for
the current meltdown.

But in the longterm I'm actually less worried about google here. Not because
of their motto but simply because they're a rather small fish when you compare
them to some of the energy-multis who operate at petrodollar scales.

An Ombudsman at every large corp is not the solution either way. That would
just become another sock puppet on their salary-list.

The only cure seems to be global regulation of the financial sector - a
subject that you don't hear much about in the middle of all these bailout
discussions...

------
wheels
VCs are competing with YC the same way that bachelors programs are competing
with PhD programs.

Edit: Title originally mentioned Google competing with YC.

~~~
shibido
Seconded.

YC provide the capital they do to cover only the most necessary expenses. For
many people there are other ways to raise that amount of cash if you really
needed to. (Probably not glamorous ways, but you could likely get there).

It's not exactly apples and oranges, but to focus on the cash kind of misses
the point of what YC is about, and what it really offers.

I'd like to believe that Google entering the space is a good thing, and I do,
but I believe the focus in the article on the $100m is kind of irrelevant.

How much of that is Google really going to invest at seed stage? And with what
ventures?

I'd be eager to find out.

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jkrols
From the article :

 _The fund will focus primarily on companies seeking seed funding and early
stage funding, and Google Ventures will have the ability to make investments
ranging from tens of thousands to "several tens of millions" of dollars, Maris
said._

The seed part in the "tens of thousands" sounds a lot like YC.

~~~
trapper
It would make sense for google to make sure that companies it buys are doing
it the google way. I think they have learned from jotspot and jaiku that it is
probably better to get in earlier rather than rewrite the entire system to fit
on their infrastructure.

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dpnewman
I had both feelings of initial excitement and concern. My concept might be
'perfect' for a Google property, but that becomes a double-edged sword. Sure,
GVentures will not want to get a rep for stealing ideas from submissions, but
it's not about intent. It's always been the main reason I wouldn't be
concerned so much about NDAs with VCs is that they're really not in the
position to implement at the drop of a dime, or effectively weave key parts
into an existing project. Google on the other hand... Hmmm.

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Dilpil
Google is slowly morphing from technology company to tech focused private
equity firm.

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elv
where the fuck is the "dont be evil" thing? i dont think financial results as
the first focus is ethical

