Comments on: Tim Draper’s DFJ, riding high, breaks with ePlanet Ventures http://venturebeat.com/2005/12/28/tim-drapers-dfj-riding-high-breaks-with-eplanet-ventures/ News About Tech, Money and Innovation Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:43:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Sarasota Vacation Rentals http://venturebeat.com/2005/12/28/tim-drapers-dfj-riding-high-breaks-with-eplanet-ventures/comment-page-1/#comment-627650 Sarasota Vacation Rentals Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:28:53 +0000 http://venturebeat.com/vc/?p=1006#comment-627650 feisty feistier <a href="http://www.sarasota-vacation-rentals.com" rel="nofollow">Sarasota Vacation Rentals</a> . feisty feistier Sarasota Vacation Rentals .

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]]> By: Chris Marino http://venturebeat.com/2005/12/28/tim-drapers-dfj-riding-high-breaks-with-eplanet-ventures/comment-page-1/#comment-2911 Chris Marino Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:47:42 +0000 http://venturebeat.com/vc/?p=1006#comment-2911 Matt, when I first read your article today I was going to fire off a cynical email asking basically: haven't you written this article before? Wacky Tim Draper, family business, elephants, Batman, Frisbee, Hotmail, viral marketing, Skype, Baidu, affiliate networks, blah, blah, blah. This blog entry at least sheds more light on the subject, so I'll hold back what I was originally going to write. But still, I think it's useful to put Skype and Baidu in perspective. In Q3 '05 Baidu had had net income of $1.1M on revenues of $11.0M. Roughly a $50M company. Nice, but it ain't no Google. I think the trend you point out will continue. Rumors were that Skype had approximately $20M in annual revenue before they were bought. I think most VC would consider companies of this size a clean single. Their fabulous liquidity events can't be considered a reasonably expected outcome. That doesn't make it any less a great investment, but I think it be a stretch to attribute skill where serendipity played the dominant role. Luck is a major element of start-up success. I think intellectually honest VCs would concur. Also, in my opinion, the article (but not your blog entries) attributes to Draper much more credit than is probably justified. Your blog addresses these points, but they are nowhere to be found in the article. As you said, success has a thousand fathers. Their affiliate model still isn't entirely clear, but it sounds like they're more active than a Limited Partner (they are on the investment committee), but not sure how much more active. If the affiliates are sourcing the deals and taking the board seats, how active can DJF really be?? As for ePlanet being a magnet for headhunters, you can bet they're a magnet for LPs as well. Maybe DFJ decided to split once they realized ePlanet had (as George Castanza says) Hand? Matt, when I first read your article today I was going to fire off a cynical email asking basically: haven’t you written this article before? Wacky Tim Draper, family business, elephants, Batman, Frisbee, Hotmail, viral marketing, Skype, Baidu, affiliate networks, blah, blah, blah.

This blog entry at least sheds more light on the subject, so I’ll hold back what I was originally going to write. But still, I think it’s useful to put Skype and Baidu in perspective.

In Q3 ‘05 Baidu had had net income of $1.1M on revenues of $11.0M. Roughly a $50M company. Nice, but it ain’t no Google. I think the trend you point out will continue.

Rumors were that Skype had approximately $20M in annual revenue before they were bought.

I think most VC would consider companies of this size a clean single. Their fabulous liquidity events can’t be considered a reasonably expected outcome. That doesn’t make it any less a great investment, but I think it be a stretch to attribute skill where serendipity played the dominant role. Luck is a major element of start-up success. I think intellectually honest VCs would concur.

Also, in my opinion, the article (but not your blog entries) attributes to Draper much more credit than is probably justified. Your blog addresses these points, but they are nowhere to be found in the article. As you said, success has a thousand fathers.

Their affiliate model still isn’t entirely clear, but it sounds like they’re more active than a Limited Partner (they are on the investment committee), but not sure how much more active. If the affiliates are sourcing the deals and taking the board seats, how active can DJF really be??

As for ePlanet being a magnet for headhunters, you can bet they’re a magnet for LPs as well. Maybe DFJ decided to split once they realized ePlanet had (as George Castanza says) Hand?

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