Monday, April 20, 2009

Facebook...? Again...? Or still...?

In my last Friday's post I wrote that Tesla Motors seems to be the hottest startup in Silicon Valley... Well, today I accidently came across this topic in a meeting with one of the top VCs and he, after a couple of seconds of thinking said: "I think it would have to be Facebook"... I almost fell off the couch (oh yes, in some hippy VC firms in the Valley you actually sit on a terrace with couches)... Does he mean THE Facebook that was hot a year ago...? THE Facebook that was voted the world's most overrated company in 2008...? That is really surprising... Either this VC spent a couple of months on vacation, or I must be missing something... So who is really the hottest startup...? From my discussions with people it really seemed Tesla was the one, but isn't it just in wrong people I met...?

I did a bit of searching and surveying people and I found 3 candidates, let's see who they are:

Tesla Motors - well, not exactly fresh startup, with almost $ 200m of angel and VC funding, but with them actually delivering the cars and revealing the sexy sedan, those guys are surely in press and talks...


Facebook - oh yeah, they still get a lot of coverage and it seems that they succeeded in building and now maintaining momentum... and, oh yes, the user base is still growing madly...

Twitter - but it seems Facebook is no longer as hot as Twitter... Yup, the microblogging app, simple and easy is really hot - Ashton Kutcher reached one million followers (maybe), Oprah tweet in her show, ... a lot of traction...


My personal guess is that Facebook is less likely to be the one than the other two, but again, that's me... What would your guess be...? (please, leave a comment if you have an idea)

But, let's remember, sometimes not even a search on Google or 2 weeks talking to people in Silicon Valley can reveal who the real "hottie" of the industry is...

And also, let's remember that sometimes even the hottest startups become huge disappointments...


(added 2 days later) Well, actually I almost forgot one company which shouldn't be missed out here... Not exactly a startup either, but certainly something people here in the Valley know about and talk about a lot... I have mentioned it already twice in this blog alone... And the mysterious company is ... Plug and Play Tech Center...


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4 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 21, 2009 at 11:41 AM

    It depends how you define 'hot'?

    Is it a synonym for hyped? Is it a synonym for stellar growth but no revenue? Is is a synonym for profitable? Is it a synonym for disruptive technology?

    Depending on how you look at it we will find different winners. The hottest one will be the one arriving 1st in each definition of hot if that's possible of course.

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  2. OndrejApril 21, 2009 at 8:46 PM

    Interesting view, Cedric... But what I actually meant was hot as "currently sexiest company with highest expectations from the industry"... Like back in 05 Friendster was... Like Google before (and after actually) the IPO...

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  3. Jan HornaApril 23, 2009 at 12:05 AM

    Never heard of Plug and Play. As for Twitter, they got a lot of the mainstream press coverage as celebs join the service. But they are not making any money at the moment. Is this hot?

    Facebook builds a platform, not just a social network. Its international growth is amazing. It is a real snowball. But they are still looking for a stable revenue stream and falling behing MySpace in terms of profits.

    To make it clear, I can not name any young, hot and promising startups :)

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  4. Milan CermakApril 23, 2009 at 6:47 PM

    Definitely Facebook. I wouldn't be so sure two weeks ago, but than I realized what's the deal with FB - it's becoming the new Homepage (dethroning Google). FB already is the largest identity provider on the web, that's their leverage. Facebook *will* be huge.

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