I have been reading Whiplash, a book I recommended here last week. It starts with the story of the Lumiere brothers, who are credited with the invention of “the moving picture.”
As told in Whiplash, the Lumiere brothers started showing films to audiences in 1895 using their patented cinematograph. But by 1900, they were out of the film business and had moved on to color photography. The industry they helped to start went on to be one of the biggest new industries of the 20th century.
I often think of the formative years of the Internet, in the early/mid 90s. There are a lot of people from that era that remind me of the Lumiere brothers.
I was in a Board meeting on Friday in my office and one of the executives of the company that was having the Board meeting left to get coffee or use the rest room. When he came back, he said “why do you have one of the Josh Harris Gilligan paintings in your office? I explained that the reason Gilligan hangs in my USV office is to remind me that being first to something doesn’t mean you will profit from it. Josh Harris was the first person to show me audio streaming over the Internet. Josh was the first person to show me video streaming over the Internet. He did both of those things at his Pseudo Programs company that he started in 1993. Around the same time, 1993 ish, Josh predicted to me that auctions would be one of the first big businesses to take shape on the Internet. That was roughly two years before eBay was founded. Josh didn’t profit much from any of his visionary efforts or insights. But there is a Josh Harris painting in my office because I respect being early more than I respect making profits. I think the latter is easier than the former.
Which takes me to some things we have been thinking a lot about at USV recently. Things like Blockchain and Genomics. We think we are very early in these two important technological revolutions. We are investing actively (but not heavily) in one of them (blockchain) and trying to find the right entry point to the other one.
I think that the investing we are doing in these sectors right now is more likely to be like Psuedo Programs than YouTube or SoundCloud.
But I also think that you have to be early to learn the technology and the markets and build the networks and relationships that will allow you to see, understand, and invest in YouTube when it shows up. What you don’t want to do is lose patience or interest and move on, like the Lumiere brothers did. Early stage VC is a marathon, not a sprint. That is true in everything, from the hold periods, to the work you do with a portfolio company, to the patience you must show towards a sector you think will be important. It is hard to sustain the enthusiasm sometimes, but if you have conviction about something, you have to stay the course.
