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December 11, 2007
LeWeb3 From The View of a VC- 3i's Daniel Waterhouse
We could not make it to Paris this week, but Daniel Waterhouse of 3i gave us his view of the first day of LeWeb3 2007, a two-day event in the French capital that attracted some 1700 participants this year.
"We arrived last night and hosted the speakers' dinner at our hotel. It is a great lineup with people like Mike Arrington, Jason Calcanis, and Kevin Rose…the Who's Who of the Web 2.0 world," said Waterhouse whose firm is one of this year's sponsors.
Compared to last year this one is even bigger and it is better organized, he reported. "Good content on the main stage was the main attraction," said Waterhouse, adding that he did sit in on a few startup pitches.
More than 30 ventures were scheduled to pitch today.
"I haven't seen anything that really blew me away, but I think that is a function of where we are at in the cycle. We have had two or three years of quick innovation. The pace of innovation is slowing now," he said.
We asked if that meant that the number of startups saying that they plan to build a - great product and a big digital audience and will worry about monetization later- was decreasing.
He replied, "There are still a lot of people talking like that."
Another aspect of being at this point in the cycle: "It is possible to step back and see the companies that have emerged -- and have a done a great job and have a real business," said Waterhouse.
What kind of businesses? "We want to invest in [online] businesses that are relatively close to a transaction."
He mentioned Twenga as an example, a comparison shopping business (funding by 3i and co-investors was announced on Friday). "The traffic acquisition model is well understood by merchants by now," said Waterhouse.
How do you keep track of all the companies you hear about at a show like LeWeb 3. "You don't. You get bombarded with information and some of it sticks."
Why did 3i sponsor the event [it was the only venture capital firm among a list of sponsors from the Internet and mobile sectors]? "We're very active with Internet investments and have done well with them: Seloger.com [IPO], Blue Lithium [acquired by Yahoo] and Fotolog [acquired by Hi-Media]. Recent investments are Fastbooking and DemandMedia. So we want to continue to support emerging venture in this sector so we can back the best, brightest, and biggest.
Some links to follow for coverage of LeWeb 3
IHT
Lunch over IP – Susan Kish and Bruno Guissani's running notes. The Philippe Stark one is good, especially his comments on the Kindle from Amazon.
Posted on December 11, 2007 06:14 PM | Posted to News And Updates | Permalink
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