Author Archives: Duncan Davidson
VC Outlook 2013
At our recent LP meeting we presented our view of where the venture capital markets were today, and where we thought they were going. A year ago, most funds had ebullient outlooks, as we were amidst the Social Mobile Local bubble. Zynga and Groupon had gone public, and Facebook was anticipated to set the stage […]
Series A Cliff
All this chatter of a Series A Crunch makes light of a widening gap that looks more like the jaws of death for many seed funded startups, as the gap between Seed and A is becoming a yawning cliff. As part of our VC Outlook for 2013, we incorporated the latest info from CBInsight, as […]
Hollywood is Giving Up on 3DTV
This is no surprise, we saw it two year ago: Hollywood is putting down the 3D glasses. Sure, there will be a few more attempts, but the next step in movies may be what is being attempted with The Hobbit: hyper-realism using 48 fames per second, twice the normal rate. This can be simulated on […]
Green Shoots for Small IPOs?
After killing off the small IPO with nefarious rules that are little recognized for their pernicious behavior, the Congress passed the JOBS Act with the hope of jump-starting the small IPO. While we await regulations from the SEC – and the early indications have not been promising – there seems to be some progress being […]
Square Rounds Out the Faceplant Storyline
A big concern in the VC community after the series of disasters beginning with the Facebook IPO fiasco was whether we had seen the end of the recent increase in IPOs and eagerness to pay $1B valuations in private companies. A key test of that worry has now been successfully passed: Square was able to […]
The Settop Box is Disappearing
HBO just launched an OTT service to the Nordic countries – huge move, not tied to cable, presaging what is about to come. Something like 30% of viewing is now off TV, and tends to be excerpts not the whole title. The Smart TVs finally have a sufficient built-in capabiltyy to enable direct to TV […]
Who Really Won Apple v. Samsung?
Winner: Samsung, who showed that cheating (copying) worked, according to trenchant analysis by the inimitable Robert Scoble. The $1B damages, even if trebled, and the injunction on eight older phones, even if granted, and the jinks and jives from endless appeals, even if they end in Apple’s favor, means that by copying Samsung has become […]
Venture 101: Use Restrictions in NDAs
I often see a willy-nilly attitude in lean ventures towards NDAs, especially when asking investors to sign. Venture firms usually decline to sign. Founders do not seem to understand the reluctance. This may because the founders are too conscious of the non-disclosure restriction, and not conscious enough of the non-use restrictions. The non-use restriction is the […]
The East Texas Patent Troll Honey-Spot is Going Away
The patent trolls have lurked in the Eastern District of Texas, reaping rewards as it became very pro plaintiff. Legitimate patent holders used it too, and for the past decade it became the sweet spot for patent claims litigation. It was not known for granting quick injunctions, but pushing forward into litigation of damages, where […]
What Facebook Should Have Done
I would like to expand on my Five Lessons from the Facebook Fiasco IPO. Lesson 2 is there is a reason why IPOs have been done in a way which gets a 20% or so first day pop. It is not banker greed nor giving a free benefit to the institutional buyers (who can flip […]
