Cringley on VCs

The new world for west coast VCs is on Robert Cringley's Blog, based on his interviews with some very experienced entrepreneurs. The recent history according to Cringley:

There was a time in Silicon Valley when starting a company meant building something that you wanted to have, then other people came asking to buy one and you were in business.... As an example look at Apple Computer, which was financed in part by the legendary VC Arthur Rock who invested -- get this -- $37,500 in the company.

Then the 1990s brought the dot-com era where this system was thrown on its head. Start-ups took gobs of venture money, a lot of it simply used to figure out what it was they really intended to do when they grew up.

And now we've entered the crazy era of AJAX and AJAX-related start-ups where a new hybrid rule set applies. Companies no longer need to raise lots of cash, no longer need lots of people, no longer need to even directly sell anything at all to be considered successful. They need revenue, of course ...

And tomorrow?

Buy west and sell east, they'll call it, and the strategy will be a
key one for the next decade. It will buy a whole new fleet of Porsches
and jets for the boys and girls of Sand Hill Road.

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