Comments on: Incumbents

By: Raising Venture Capital and Angel Investment Funding Can Only Be Done by You

Raising Venture Capital and Angel Investment Funding Can Only Be Done by You — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:55:17 +0000

[...] are enough high quality resources out there on raising venture capital and angel investment. And there are some fairly [...]

By: 1 week ago

1 week ago — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:13:21 +0000

As a geek with no social skill, I have trouble understanding the community building process. I guess it's the same for many googlers hehe.
Could you give some insights about it.

By: Incumbents | Igniting Startups - nPost

Incumbents | Igniting Startups - nPost — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:11:23 +0000

[...] From cdixon.org [...]

By: Dave Blanchard

Dave Blanchard — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:44:29 +0000

They actually killed that program because the subjective standards for the awards were causing tension between projects. That's habitats question is a tough nut to crack..

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:57:19 +0000

I think its possible to fight the incumbent as Jamdat did – just very hard. Interesting postscript is Jamdat would probably be worth very little today – games on non-smart phones have cratered. Seems like Jamdat timed things perfectly.

By: Mike Su

Mike Su — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:55:04 +0000

To your last point about sustaining technologies and the threat from the incumbent to build their own – I recall listening to Mitch Laksy talk about EA approaching Jamdat early on and gave them a lowball offer to acquire them. Jamdat respectfully declined, and EA basically said, “well, prepare to be crushed suckers!!!” and proceeded to throw tons of money into building a mobile games division. Since then Jamdat went public, and eventually kicked EA's ass, and EA ended up buying them for nearly $700mm, a huge premium from their original offer.

Of course one analogy doesn't disprove your point, but it is a good example of a company that was able to take on the incumbent head on and the incumbent paid the price.

By: Keith B. Nowak

Keith B. Nowak — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:52:19 +0000

I just watched the sly stallone video you posted on Twitter and it reminded me of this discussion, especially the bit about his hunger being his only advantage. Talk about an unnatural act of willpower!

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:46:55 +0000

I think its probably mostly incentives. My experiences in big companies is no one cares and they all leave at 5pm etc. Also as you say complacency. It really takes an unnatural act of willpower to do something new and that just doesn't tend to come from the cozy confines of incumbents.

By: Keith B. Nowak

Keith B. Nowak — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:35:28 +0000

Why do you think big companies cannot build new products? Do you think it is a matter of focus (they have enough balls in the air already) or is it a result of the type of leadership at a big company vs. a startup? Or perhaps, its due to a sense of complacency since they believe that if they miss an opportunity they can just acquire the best startup in that space.

By: David Semeria

David Semeria — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:13:59 +0000

Nice reply.

Emphasizes the notion that it's all about the “all-in” hand. You can get lucky (by definition rare) and get there soon after the game starts, or, more likely, patiently accumulate your chips and wait for the big moment.