Techcrunch has posted a great interview with angel investor Paul Graham, which covers some different ground to the one he did with me. Especially interesting, I thought, is Graham’s point that new software startups can effect social and political change:
Frankly, even though I’m supposed to be an investor, the ideas that excite me most are not necessarily the ones that make the most money, but the ones that blow away evil old monopolies. For example, I love collaborative news sites not so much because they make a lot of money — though they might — but because they’ve shown what a bad job the ‘old media’ were doing.
Most people don’t understand what a social force startups can be. There are a lot of changes that can only happen through companies. One startup I dream of funding is the one that kills the record companies. You know your business model is broken when you’re suing your customers. The new business model must be out there somewhere, and my guess is that the way to beat the bad guys is not through political action (or at least, not only that), but by inventing
whatever replaces them.
(Parochial headline alert: PG Tips is a brand of English tea.)
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I’ve never heard of Paul Graham before, but he sounds like a pretty cool guy. Anyone who’s out there searching for a way to take down the record companies is a good person in my book. He’s absolutely right about the industry’s business model being “broken”!!
Interesting different take on the interview here…
http://www.dead20.com/2006/09/03/ycombinator-says-yprofit/
Rising Sun — Graham is a very good writer — I’d recommend some of his essays here:
http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html
I don’t really buy his idea that geeks will be taking over the business world any time soon, though.
Dave — yes, I saw that. Skeptic has a great gift for ruffling feathers.
Of course the model is broken, but great ideas are what makes the world keep going