Web 2.0 has left the building
Well, well, well…lookie here…one of the top VC firms no longer has interest in Web 2.0 companies:
“We have absolutely no interest in funding Web 2.0 companies,” says Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. He mentioned this during an after dinner conversation last week. He said he had recently told John Battelle, one of the organizers of the rapidly growing Web 2.0 Summit conference, that the term no longer had the same positive cachet it once had. In the VC community it clearly has a negative one.
Congratulations. Lemme give you a virtual pat on the back. Lemme get a drink for the startups thinking they were going to get some startup money and are realizing that pipe dream is over. Cue the music…let’s party.
VC firms almost always invest in trends. You know what that means? If you aren’t one of the first ones you missed the boat. If you’re thinking about developing a Web 2.0 company perhaps you should be thinking about Web 2.5, 3.0 or whatever the hell comes next. Or, a better idea - focus on the business not the cool term of the moment.
9rules has always been tagged as Web 2.0 but I don’t think of it that way. 9rules was also tagged as a blog network and I never agreed with that either. There are people that follow trends like they brush their teeth; they just do it. I’m not so quick to hop on a bandwagon and I outgrew peer pressure a long time ago. How silly does an adult sound saying, “I did it because all my friends did!”.
Let me break it down to you.
- Web 2.0 trend was on its way out when stupid ass ideas cropped up for the quick buck. That was at least 6 months ago.
- If you decided to develop a Web 2.0 company to cash in on the trend and didn’t do anything to improve the space you entered, you’re a follower not a leader.
- If you invested in a trend you didn’t truly understand, learn from it. Don’t repeat it.
- Trends don’t last. The only way to win the trend game is to stay ahead of it.
Here’s another piece of advice: if you have a Web 2.0 site, you might want to consider starting the process of re-branding to something that’s not a trend. If you haven’t you’re behind the times…because your main competition already did. Note the difference:
TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new web 2.0 products and companies. In addition to new companies, we will profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the web 2.0 space.
Now:
TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, we will profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space.
Here’s another example. Look at the archive of Read/WriteWeb and look at the current page. I know, I know, you have a site that’s still focused on Web 2.0 and you “were” going to start making that transition because you realize Web 2.0 is a trend that is fading. You’re just busy with all the Web 2.0 stuff.
Rrrrriiiiigggghhhtttt……
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