An Extremely Jaundiced View of Web 2.0 Circa Right Now, Courtesy of a Web 2.0 Exec Who Lived Through Web 1.0

Posted by: Jon Fine on May 10

The reason there’s so much venture capital money available is because they’re not spending it—because there’s a sameness to so much they’re hearing. Or so says one Web vet when buttonholed after hearing a few too many pitches at the OnHollywood conference:

“Everyone is wearing the exact same dress.”

“Everyone is building a video community. The pitch is: You upload it, you share it, mash it up, you build a community around it, it shows up on your mobile phone. And maybe there’s an ad around it.”

“No one learned the lessons of the last bubble. It’s not good to be the 19th guy in the space.”

“The difference [today] between a mash-up and a company is indistinguishable.”

“The venture capitalists’ problem is that it’s too easy to build something. The technology cost to build [these companies] is nothing. An awful lot of this stuff can be built by a guy and his dog … The VCs have the money, but these guys don’t need it. And the VCs are not interested in mash-uppy things that can be sold for thirty million bucks [and, thus, leaves them with an insufficient upside].”

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