Max Niederhofer | Venture Capital - Latest Comments in General

Re: Software

Marco Barulli — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:59:56 -0000

Max,
maybe you could be interested in reading "Freedom and privacy in the cloud: a call for action" on the Clipperz blog.
http://www.clipperz.com/users/marco/blog/2008/0...

It's the result of a long discussion about free software and web application between me and the very Richard Stallman.
It contains a challenging proposal to combine the convenience of web apps with the principle of FLOSS and the privacy of your data.

Marco
http://www.clipperz.com/blog

Re: ACHTUNG! Seedcamp

Hansjoerg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:45:20 -0000

Im Juni hatten wir das Vergnügen tunesBag.com beim Mini-Seedcamp in Berlin präsentieren zu dürfen - schon diese Veranstaltung war wirklich eine tolle Erfahrung und ich hoffe wir schaffen es auch nach London!

Re: Life is good

leafar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:49:45 -0000

I edit therefore I am ;-D
Currently migrating to real life.

Re: Summer Plans

Stef — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:38:01 -0000

i-lik?

Re: Summer Plans

leafar — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:14:11 -0000

Oups.... But that's my best business plan. Dammit !

Re: Summer Plans

cballou — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:26:11 -0000

Dammit, Leafar, how many times have I told you not to tell people that we sell children here?

Re: Summer Plans

leafar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:26:40 -0000

If you stopped by the third in paris.
Go to the marché des enfants rouges at the angle of rue charlot and rue de bretagne.

Re: Sorry You’re Not A Winner (Enter Shikari)

ein ex straight edgler — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:23:17 -0000

boah. rockiges höre ich ja seit jahren nicht mehr aber enter shikari rockt echt! höre es gerade rauf und runter!!!

Re: Sorry You’re Not A Winner (Enter Shikari)

steaner — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:22:39 -0000

Haha, this is great. I'm always stunned to see you like these kind of bands and being a VC in an industry one wouldn't expect in the first place. Pretty cool. Hope to meet you soon again so we can talk about that. My Hardcore days are behind me now but still sticking to my all time faves and heroes (Snapcase, Refused, Madball and the likes).

Re: Sorry You’re Not A Winner (Enter Shikari)

cballou — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:25:15 -0000

Frightening that I actually understand this.

Re: Zynga

Nic Brisbourne — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:13:38 -0000

Hey Max - I missed this. Sure is hot in the FB app space right now!

Good to see you last week.

Nic

Re: Idea #10: Free Online Dating Service

dirk — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:33:36 -0000

this is a great idea... we also thought about this some time ago because we have a perfect domain in our portfolio which is people.de and currently unused...

Re: Idea #12: Amazon Web Services as a platform

Martin Buhr — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:27:24 -0000

Max - I really enjoyed meeting with you as well. Thanks for the insight on the EU startup ecosystem, and for helping spread the word.

Martin

Re: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the Big Bet on Subsidies and Technology Buys

PalMik — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:37:38 -0000

We've been doing a project in SE with the family and neighbours for almost four years (building 3 windmills). Some notes during the time:

The cost of the windmills we need has during the project gone up from about EUR2.3 million to a bit over EUR3.0 million due to the extreme rise in demand due to deregulation in SE and EU about being able to put up the mills. Delivery times are also extremely long. Deregulation will continue and demand will increase I’m sure.

Investment companies approach landowners very aggressively about leasing fields for 30-50 years where they can put up windmills.

… and most importantly which you note a bit yourself, buying a land property and flunking up a one million euro windmill has become sort of a statussymbol and a statement in SE (people can live with the fact that its maybe not the best investment they could have done and banks happily provide good credits for such projects). I think this will really be the shit when looking at concept houses driven by solar- windpower etc etc, ie its not the energy itself its the statement.

Alternative energy/lifestyles is serious fun.

Re: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the Big Bet on Subsidies and Technology Buys

CD — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:25:40 -0000

I find it hard to believe KPCB has missed by as much as the Fortune article seems to claim...Their investments may seem risky on a case by case basis, but taken as a whole portfolio they seem very logical to me. Obviously there are going to be failures in the renewable energy market, because the market hasn't even begun to become efficient enough for anybody to decide which technology will emerge (if any) to dominate globally. My guess is that a few will fall flat on their face (ie biofuels such as ethanol...this does not include advanced biofuels which I believe show potential) and others such as solar will emerge as leaders...However, to think the renewable energy market smells of "bubble" you must be crazy. The question of renewable energy is not of if, but of when. It is inevitable, it may not be this year, it may not be 10 years from now, but eventually, oil will be obsolete. We have a limited resource that weakens our geopolitical position dramatically in the world we live in, we (the US specifically, but mankind in general) have no choice but to follow the road of clean energy. The energy industry is a FOUR TRILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY...do we comprehend how massive that is?? KPCB is literally throwing rocks out of a boat on a lake and trying to hit water.....I'm sure some of their investments will fall flat, but even if 7 out of 10 fail, 2 are mediocre, and 1 is a homerun, KPCB will come out looking squeaky clean....let alone the VERY HIGH odds they have of finding Google 2.0 of the energy industry, and if and when that company emerges, it'll make Google look like peanuts. If anybody feels bad for, or doubts, John Doerr & Co.--you might want to replace your bets. (ps it's not like KPCB is alone here....what do you think Vinod Khosla is doing with all his money?)