

TechCrunch 40: Underwhelming - colortone
http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2007/09/techcrunch-40-and-death-of-web-20.cfm
I tend to agree...they are mostly "minor" problem solvers.<p>The VentureBeat link is particularly interesting.<p>Bubblegeneration group on facebook:<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5842972550" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5842972550</a>
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garbowza
I'm not underwhelmed by these. Some of them looked very good, particularly the
startup that uses facial recognition in videos.

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colortone
One of Umair's refrains is that Silicon Valley types are often overly enamored
of raw [or novel, in the pejorative sense] technology that isn't directly
serving people's [or society's] biggest problems NOW.

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paul
That's a rather shortsighted criticism. Large things start small, and often
solve problems in an indirect way. YouTube probably didn't look like something
that would "serve society's biggest problems", but it does just that (by
giving more people a voice, exposing corruption and abuse, etc).

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colortone
Well, I would say that I agree with Umair that YouTube did indeed solve a huge
personal/social problem (reinventing the stale, inefficient television/video
value chain). Right off the bat, too.

I also agree that "large things start small", but which of these companies do
you think really have potential to create enormous value for millions of
people?

ZocDoc? Zivity?

I'm just playing devil's advocate here...I hope some of these companies really
knock it out of the park, but the roster is a little "underwhelming" on paper.

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paul
I don't know if any of the startups are good -- it's very difficult to judge
from a few line summary on the web.

My point though is that important products often appear minor or niche as
first.

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cellis
ok....how is viewdle underwhelming? I personally think that blinkx and viewdle
are on to something...

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colortone
Viewdle is definitely not underwhelming...to be fair, I think he was talking
about "many" of the companies, not all of them.

