at least that's my prediction. in the past week i've been pitched on three more social networking ideas. while i like and respect the people, i got a queezy (sp?) feeling hearing the ideas. painful reminders of march 2000 when the last people to show up were still pitching ecommerce it ideas.
now i'm sick of the 'is this the bubble talk', but we do all need to remain somewhat conscious of the environment we're working in.
also heard today about a web 2.0 mashup company getting $5m in first round funding.
does anyone else ever wonder how all these newly funded companies are ever going to see exits without an ipo market? i do get that if they are good businesses and cashflow positive, the financial markets will follow. however, i'm not seeing a lot of companies hitting big numbers. even in the bubble it seemed like companies were mostly doing big revenue numbers.
curious if anyone else is seeing a lot of companies making money?
Technorati Tags: web 2.0, vc, venture capital, social networking
Technorati Tags: web 2.0, vc, venture capital, social networking
Founder,
Chief Executive Officer &
Chief Product Officer
Mark is the founder, CEO and chief product officer of Zynga. He founded the company in 2007 with a mission of connecting the world through games, and in founding zynga.org, he also believes that games can do good.
On his way to creating Zynga, Mark started three companies. In 2003, he launched Tribe.net, one of the first social networks. Before that, he founded Support.com, a pioneer in automating tech support, and took it public. In 1995, he launched FreeLoader, the first web-based consumer push company. Mark started his career in new media and venture capital before he discovered his calling as a consumer technology entrepreneur. Mark also made founding investments in Napster, Brightmail, Twitter and Facebook.
Mark graduated summa cum laude from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an angel investor in multiple Silicon Valley startups and regularly gives lectures to aspiring entrepreneurs.
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April 11, 2006
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connecting the world through games
Zynga Core Values
- Build games you & your friends love to plays
- Meritocracy: level ups
- Be CEO, own outcomess
- Move at Zynga speeds
- Zynga first: decisions for the greater goods
- Innovate on best of breed mechanics
Mark,
A lot of the "big revenues" during the boom were at very low and sometimes negative margins. I've got four projects in which I'm significantly engaged. Two are profitable and growing quick (iUpload and Dogster), and two are cheap enough to bootstrap indefinitely (WINKsite and MyBlogLog). All four will likely raise money this year, but the amount to be raised is approximately 1X forward revenues in all cases. Modest raises to execute on well-defined plans where the growth is such that liquidity comes when the market can handle it with no need to rush or drag heels.
Re: social networking. Dedicated social networks may have peaked, but social networking creates the kind of 10X economic advantage in customer acquisition that will make it a basic CRM feature for everyone.
Posted by: Scott Rafer | April 11, 2006 at 05:22 PM