

FYI: Last time someone made a $100MM fund to boost development it didn't turn out all that great - alaskamiller
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0D61330F931A1575BC0A960958260

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mechanical_fish
I think this new fund is basically a stunt to get a lot of headlines in the
business press. It's not a coincidence that KP is announcing this at the
_same_ press conference where Apple announces a bunch of business-friendly
iPhone features.

The seventies-era Steve Jobs would have just put up a bloody banner that said
DELENDA EST RIM, but I'm sure the older and wiser Jobs decided that an
influential VC in a suit, wielding a suitcase stuffed with hundred-dollar
bills, would make a better impression on the typical IT manager.

Did they name a single company that would actually get any of this money? I
haven't seen any mention of one. And AFAIK the existence of a big pile of yet-
uninvested VC money is not news.

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sanj
Do we actually know it didn't turn out great?

Beyond the fact that Java is the de facto language to work in, I'd wager that
KP made an excellent return.

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pg
It got ok returns, but only because they tossed the original plan to fund
companies using Java, and just invested in the same kinds of companies KP
would have anyway.

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henning
There are lots of great Java companies at the moment (JetBrains, JBoss,
Atlassian, ...). However investing in a particular company just because it
uses certain technology or doesn't makes no sense to me.

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mixmax
I think that's because you're an engineer and not a business person ;-)

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comatose_kid
There is probably little basis to draw any conclusions from one data point.
Besides, this focuses on the wrong thing - what they aren't realizing is that
apple doesn't need 100MM to boost development. Apple just provided a way for
any smart person with an idea to place his/her product in front of every
iphone user.

Bring on the naysayers. I see huge opportunity (VC funded or otherwise).

~~~
wallflower
Put it this way: Would you rather be the proud owner of an iTunes-marquee-
featured Top 50 (by sales, with 70% going into your bank account) iPhone
application or a top 50 Facebook app (where your revenues are eaten by
bandwidth and server hosting costs)?

~~~
comatose_kid
And the barriers to entry are lower for Facebook apps. Comparatively fewer
people know Objective C and the Cocoa frameworks.

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bayareaguy
I always thought it ironic some of the biggest investment successes of the
KPCB Java-fund were companies that actually had little or nothing at all to do
with Java which nonetheless rewarded the investors handsomely when they were
subsequently bought or went public (albeit before the bubble burst).

Edit: KPMG -> KPCB. Thanks to myoung8 for pointing that out.

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myoung8
It's KPCB. KPMG is an accounting firm.

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omnipath
Wait, did they lose all the money they put into the fund? They tried
something, it didn't exactly work the first time around, and are probably
making some changes to try again. (2nd? 3rd?). Why is this a bad thing?

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aswanson
_Why is this a bad thing?_

Because it's dumb to dole out money based primarily on a programming language.

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mixmax
That depends entirely on what your motives are...

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aswanson
They probably just used Java as a buzzword to pull in more institutional
investors who read about the language and were ready to put up money based on
it.

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pg
A firm like KP wouldn't have had any trouble raising money. I think they
genuinely believed the hype about Java, and they were hoping that if they
became the official Java fund (I think they were anointed by Sun) they'd get
first crack at all the related deal flow. And that is probably what's
motivating them here too.

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aswanson
I guess perspective is everything. I was an EE undergrad during the first
bubble era, with little programming experience. I remember everybody talking
about Java during the time, magazine articles, etc. Looking back, I can see
how they thought that way; not being an active programmer can cause one to
develop bad taste.

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joseakle
If it didn´t work out why are they doing it again?

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alaskamiller
publicity and association with apple

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jdavid
are you actually claiming that apple and sun have anything in common?

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xirium
One rumor going around is that Sun will merge with Apple ... The logic behind
this rumor is that Apple is now effectively a Unix company, that Apple and Sun
could target the desktop and server markets, respectively --
[http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2003/pulpit_20030213_0007...](http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2003/pulpit_20030213_000762.html)

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jey
What's the last time that any of Cringely's predictions actually happened?

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xirium
His annual predictions for 2007 achieved 61.5% (
[http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080104_0037...](http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080104_003787.html)
).

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prakash
looks like somebody is suffering from cognitive dissonance;-)

