After raising a decent $12.5 million in cash last year, Powerset, the secretive search engine company that wants to take on Google by using “natural language” technology, is going to raise a larger round this year.
This and other gossip about Powerset spilled out Saturday evening during a lively party the company held at Frisson restaurant in San Francisco. Powerset investor, Charles Moldow, mentioned the funding plans to us, and asserted that this time, investors may be skeptical about pushing Powerset’s already high valuation even higher.
In an unfortunate video taken by PartyCrashers of the party, Pell also confirmed the plans, saying once you raise money, you start raising money over again. Troubling was a part at the end of the video (worth watching; see below, it is short), where one Powerset guy, clearly looking as if he had too much to drink, doesn’t express much confidence in the company’s abilities — or at least, it comes across that way.
Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington said earlier today that I gush about Powerset everytime I write about it. That’s the second time in four days he’s claimed that. Clearly, he’s upset that we continue to break news about Powerset, including its launch and sky-high funding last year. In fact, I’ve tried to be pretty even-handed, each time making sure to solicit input from Powerset’s biggest critics like Danny Sullivan or Google’s Peter Norvig. Our first story suggested the investment valuation was “crazy.” Powerset has a very long way to go, and we should make that absolutely clear. If Powerset hones its natural language technology into something usable — and it just may — it will become an acquisition candidate, if not for Google, then for Yahoo and for MSN. As a stand alone company, it is a still a very long shot.
Tags: co:powerset, people:Barney-Pell, people:Charles-Moldow, techcrunch15 Comments
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Marcus said:
I absolutely love the Party Crashers.. I ran across one of their videos this morning and watched all of them that I could find, on D7TV and Youtube, where’d you find this one! Hillarious!
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Ryan said:
Even the people that work for this company don’t think they will succeed, you got to love that. IF their technology so awesome, why do they need to license PARC’s technology.
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Thomas Hawk said:
The video was a little rough. I can’t believe the last guy said what he did on videotape. The thing is irrespective of the party and whether or not it was a good idea/way to spend your VC money the company either has technology that works or that doesn’t. And no one knows until they launch at least a beta and people start really pushing the buttons.
If it really works then it would be an obvious buyout choice for Yahoo, Microsoft or IAC. If it really, really, really works then it could be an obvious buyout choice for Google.
But that’s a very big “if.” Obviously some pretty smart people have put 12.5 million into the thing and have seen at least something that they kind of like.
Like the guy in the video said, I guess we’ll see in a year, won’t we.
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Eric said:
What a lovely example of the Snark Generation the Party Crashers are. Snark for snark, sake. Yawn. One can only imagine their take on say Netscape trying to make the net available for the general public. “Ew, why would anyone want to be a nerd and spend that much time with their computer, duh?”
On the other hand, this video proves that even pre-product start ups need a VP of Marketing teaching their founders how to position the company and their (coming) technology.
Messaging 101.
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Courtney said:
Would someone please get these guys polished. What was that last guy thinking and speaking?
Was that the new business english? Does he talk often - put a lid on it! -
Kevin Burton said:
Note to single guys. Don’t talk to Sarah while drunk or else you’ll probably risk job security.
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Sarah Meyers said:
Thanks for leaving my name Matt Marshall. It’s Sarah Meyers.
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FF Cynic said:
Why is Powerset *really* eager to raise more financing?
http://venturebeat.com/2006/12/15/the-ff-class-of-stock-for-founders-who-want-cash-early/
Smells like a pump and dump.
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Anyone heard any updates on the above yet?
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