Now, the naysayers think that number will be flat next year, which is fine because it's still a large number. There will be 500 million handsets sold this year. With much higher packet rates, you'll be able to tap into the mobile Internet right off my handset. So I think that you'll see widespread deployment of 2.5G, beginning in Asia and Europe. The nice thing is that the second generation fixes the mess left over from the first. The joke is that WAP is the sound you hear when a cell phone hits the garbage can. About one-third of the population has cell phones, but the data side remains pretty weak. Once we have all these wireless nodes, you can do triangulation location services. Along with security and privacy come things like authorizing visitors to use (the intranet) dynamically. They pay a lot of money to make the pain go away. ![]() In the corporate market, people are very concerned about security and privacy on their intranets. Nowadays, entrepreneurs who I know find that it's taking many months to raise money.Īre there any sectors that are especially hot? You saw this with those five or six pet things all getting funded within weeks of each other-and most got funded because their competitor got funded. Then your competitor could come and do the same thing. It used to be measured in days: You'd take a walk around 3000 Sand Hill Rd., and by the end of the day, one or two firms would invite you back and by the end of the week, you'd have a handshake. What's different about the vetting process you use to decide whether or not to invest in a particular company? They're also doing triage on their portfolios and don't have time to look at new deals unless these are way, way high on their radar screens. Last year was the year of, "Build it and they will come." There's now a more cautious approach to capital consumption with VCs turning very, very picky. What's different about the ways venture capitalists select the companies they want to bet on? I've seen too many companies knocked over by companies that ran over their tailpipe-the reason being they didn't have a sustainable technology. Third, I'm looking for a defensible technology. There's an old axiom that I'll take an A team with a B plan, rather than a B team with an A plan. If entrepreneurs from this domain want venture investment from you, what sort of things should they be saying in the interview to whet your appetite? ![]() But much like the ISP market, this is going to get built region by region, and then there'll be a consolidation. ![]() It's reminiscent of my days at Netcom where customers want a nationwide footprint, even when they don't need it. Any familiar trends in this emerging market that resemble what you've witnessed in any of your former careers?
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