This is an excerpt from TechCrunch ( March 5th)
Seven week old Geni raised a $10 million second round of financing last week, led by Charles River Ventures (see our coverage of CRV here), with a post-money valuation of $100 million. George Zachary from CRV is joining the Geni board of directors. This was originally passed to us as a rumor, and Geni founder and CEO David Sacks has confirmed the story.
End Excerpt
David Sacks was a key person at PayPal and I am glad to see he has been able to in seven weeks get $10 million at $100 million. You may like to play around with Geni. Do you think CRV is out of their mind or do you think Geni is the next $1 billion company.
Another intriguing question is could something like Geni have been built in India. By the way Geni which is based in Los Angeles had around 18 people only when it launched.
- Community Platform For Ward 103 - November 22, 2012
- Municipal Elections New Delhi-16 days for rolls to close - October 15, 2011
- The next Facebook ? - September 17, 2011
Pat
When a VC asks how easy your idea is to copy, he is in essence looking at entry barriers to the whole business. Technology wise every single idea is copyable. Even MS Windows is copyable. But can some one do it? The question here is not just a technical entry barrier it is also a business barrier. I can also build a Geni or YouTube kind of site. But Can I grow it? That is the question. YouTube is a perfect example. There is no technological barrier here since YouTube did not build any thing themselves. They just used Flash and served out flash movies. But can YOU build another YouTube? Tehnically yes. But Can you get in the number of users that they did?
And yes. Most VC are dumb. They wouldnt be able to recognize a good idea even if it came and bit them in the ass. Why else do you think they invest is soo many companies? If they dont invest in your company it doesnt mean that they are wrong. The blame lies in your telling of the story. You need to package your story well and sell it well like a good used car dealer.
It is every VC’s wet dream to fund the next YouTube or Google. It is up to you to package your company to make it look like the next YouTube or Google.
Good luck with your Hunt and dont get disheartened and give up. In this business it is usually the last man standing who wins.
That was really interesting Deepak. Even I can now visualise various ways how Geni can go on to add multiple revenue streams.
BTW I completely agree with your first para. Only that none of them was a “she”!
Pat: Here’s a thought: if an investor in the tech space is rejecting your idea saying it’s “copiable”, it could be a polite way to say she doesn’t find it interesting enough.
Read: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/10/how_to_change_t.html for a perspective on how defensible ideas can get anyhow.
Geni is perhaps easily copiable, and is definitely not the first family tree representation on the planet. Unfortunately it has also not taken into consideration the probability that someone could have 13 siblings, like in my father’s family and therefore it will not work unless I have a dual screen monitor. What actually worked, when I had to explain the 126 “close” family members to my wife, was pen and paper and lots of arrows. Actually it’s better represented left to right rather than up to down – all family trees are, IMHO.
But they have a model for sure. Have you seen the most popular serials on television? What are they about? Some of the biggest blockbusters in the hindi film industry were: Maine Pyar Kiya, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Hum Saath Saath hain, etc. Think of the basis of all of them. Everyone’s related. And now, look at Geni’s logo.
Soon, you may see Geni sprouting the capability of saying “I don’t like this person” and you will see strange music in the background when you drag and drop people near each other. Perhaps even red colors as you move across the evil people who try to murder their mothers-in-law using faulty fans (don’t ask me, I saw this on TV, I swear).
Then there will be mock fights and in comes the revenue from online betting on who will win. And you can SMS to a four digit number who you like the least so that person’s icon will be relegated to a corner of the screen. The SMS revenue itself, shared 50:50 with Airtel, will yield millions.
And there will be people who will pay to see who is having whose baby in the Bold and the Beautiful and to unravel how, through a series of bad marriages, a person has become his own step-aunt.
I have now come to the understanding how this can be a billion dollar company. Maybe there can be a Geni for India that gets there before they do – http://www.khandaan.in ?
Sanjay:
Thanks for your response. You seem to have misinterpreted my post wrong. The word “stupid” was only directed at a few questions and never at any of the individuals. I’m sorry if I have offended you and your breed of investors.
But I’m sorry to say that this is how the real issue gets lost. The issue I was trying to raise here was that one common question that is put up by investors to entrepreneurs is that how do you ensure that your plan will not be copied or how is your plan different from others. And in most cases this is the reason they give for not investing in a particular plan.
So what I fail to understand is that how are DVD rental firms or even online travel portals protected from imitation by others. They are more open for copying than any other plan I can think of. Then why are investors putting in hordes of money there?
As for investment in my startup, I really feel that we were lucky that we have passed that phase being rejected by investors and now we are happy to be without them. But what I feel is wrong here is leave investment, mentoring is more important and what young entrepreneurs are looking for and unfortunately that is really missing. I wish you guys can do something serious about this rather than having general sessions and scouting for big ticket plans.
I accept that the way I had put up my post above would have been a little blunt but then I guess this is expected from my age and generation. I hope this post puts my point in a more decent manner as is expected from your age and generation and I also hope that your reply (if at all) will be in the same vein.
Pat,
What is great is that the user growth has been very rapid. Further several companies have been acquired for large sums by people who can monetize such as Google, NewsCorp etc. The track record of the CEO is very good.
Having said all that I am amazed at the valuation but then till quite late I thought Google would not be such a huge success.
If customers do not buy your product it is tempting to call customers stupid but it does not help. Today there are lot of funding options in India and if nobody is willing to fund your plan then maybe there is something not so good about the plan, the way it is presented , the valuation or the team. It is tempting to label all investors as stupid but at the end if you are trying to raise money that does not help too much.
I wish you much luck and hope you will find a stupid or not so stupid investor.