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Tech bubble or opportunity knocking? #AnotherAngle





Is it a bubble or isn't it? Dylan Collins, of SuperAwesome and Brown Bag Films, writes in the Irish Independent about the growing investment opportunities in start-up companies.

Deals like Facebook/Whatsapp and Google/Nest aren't really symptomatic of a tech bubble. It's actually about a stock market bubble.

The public markets are unquestionably frothy and share prices are broadly up across the board. So companies can afford to pay more (in stock) for big deals. This gives Google and Facebook massive purchasing power and they're clearly not afraid to use it. Deals like WhatsApp and Nest are outliers and aren't really useful as a reference point, as excited as everyone gets about them.

Secondly, there's more big-cheque venture capital money going to work. I don't know about you, but there are days when I feel I'm the only one of my friends who hasn't raised at least $10m for their latest venture.

Dylans points out that despite the “(relatively) good investment odds” that VC funding offers it is still a shrinking market:

Today you've got an industry which is essentially a large number of small funds and small number of very large funds. And if you think raising money for a start-up is hard, you should ask first-time VC-funds how long it's taken them to secure investment.

So, where would Dylan go next if he was starting a company?

* Home automation: Nest, iRobot are just the beginning

*  Services which ameliorate personal income (Airbnb etc)

* Dietary restrictions: gluten and nut intolerances are soaring

* Food in general: egg and meat substitutes

* Kids' education and content: a new generation with new expectations

* Technical education: for all levels of kids and adult.

These are all multi-billion dollar categories and which have many opportunities for re-definition (remember, a category definer can also be a re-definer).

Read the full article over at IrishIndependent.ie


David Maybury

David works at Brown Bag Films and occasionally eats cake, lots and lots of cake.
@davidmaybury
http://davidmaybury.ie

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