Webware

Jeff Clavier at ETech: I can make mountains from your molehills.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

Maybe two years ago, I hosted a panel discussion on the emerging Web 2.0 economy, and I asked my panelists if we were in a bubble. Because it's clear to me that we are. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you. This is how technology evolves: like life itself, in blooms and crashes. And I think we should all acknowledge where we are in the cycle. Anyway, one of my panelists, SoftTech venture capitalist Jeff Clavier, was adamant that this was no bubble.

Now Mr. Not-a-bubble is trying to convince start-up companies that their income, if it's in the $300,000 a month range--a range that most companies made up of three guys and a credit-card funded Amazon S3 account would kill for--is "noise" that distracts them from their potential.

Clavier, and other Web VCs, have a problem: start-ups are getting off the ground with minimal funding, and some are achieving moderate financial success very early on. That makes them think they don't need funding. Clavier claims that attitude limits them. So when Clavier is trying to sell a company his money, he first has to convince them that their cash flow is irrelevant and distracting.

For entrepreneurs who have dreams of building a real company--one that "scales," as they say--Clavier's position makes sense. But I argue that Clavier is looking for big wins in the wrong places. It's quite a trick to take a small (by VC standards) idea and make it big. Personally, I'd rather see the venture money funnel into truly big ideas, where there is only limited likelihood that profits will plateau, or even arrive at all, before the company is well established. As I've said previously, to win big, bet big.

SAN DIEGO-- At the side-by-side ETech and Graphing Social Patterns conferences, before the Monday Night Werewolf social event kicks off, there is the AppNite session, in which 10 developers showcase their new apps, in five minutes each. It's like a mini Demo. But the apps are rougher, and because of that, a bit more intriguing. The first six apps were made for Facebook, the last four were Open Social demos.

Facebook apps

Biggest Brain is a quiz game that challenges you with geeky brain speed tests such as counting blocks on-screen. Then you get to compare the "size of your brain" with your Facebook pal. Verdict: You Don't Know Jack it ain't, sorry.

Just Three Words is a group story-telling app for Facebook in which participants weave a story by entering three words at a time, in a giant text free-for-all. The presenter said, without a hint of irony, that these stories are helping "weave engagement at a level of depth." He also said a lot of the stories can't be run on a family site. What would you do with three words? Verdict: Fun parlor game, less likely to get the developers sued into oblivion than Scrabulous.

Puzzle Messages lets you enter a message for another person or to put on s site, but it scrambles it as a jigsaw puzzle, which your viewers have to reconstruct before they can read. Works in Facebook or you can put on a blog or other social site. Verdict: Someone please find this app on Facebook (I couldn't) and send me a press release as a puzzle message so I can mock it. Please.

Ski & Snowboard is a Facebook app that lets you find resorts that other users like. You can also collect "badges," like lift tickets, to show others where you're been. There's a bit more here, too: There's a mini wall for notes, a way to find ski buddies by level (it asks you to confirm double-black-diamond eligibility by having your friends to confirm it). And there's a trip planner sub-app within. Verdict: Impressive demo. A lot of functionality for a very focused, and very social, activity. See also Liftopia.

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