espite being coastally challenged (currently living in Philadelphia), Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Permanent Record
I am pleased to welcome my partner at First Round Capital, Rob Hayes, to the blogosphere. His new blog, Permanent Record, is off to a wonderful start. In his most recent post, Rob is right-on with his comments on Web 2.0, where he astutely observes that:
"the Web 2.0 label will inevitably end up in the dustbin of overused company descriptors (where it can have a cup of coffee with B2B, nano, and any non-medical usage of the word “eyeball”)..."
I share his concerns. While I'm looking forward to attending the Web 2.0 Conference next week as a convenient location to hold many of my west-coast meetings, I've come to believe that Web 2.0 has no useful meaning as a company descriptor. What started as an attempt to classify an emerging form of business model has come to signify any Internet company that was formed after 2003. I don't look to fund Web 2.0 businesses - I look to fund good businesses. I don't care if you use AJAX to develop your website any more than if you use Ajax to clean your office furniture -- just show me how you will satisfy an urgent and pervasive customer need and how you will generate revenue.
Welcome to the blogosphere Rob - I can't wait to hear what you have to say next...
Rob's Blog, Permanent Record, can be found at http://permanentrecord.firstround.com/
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