Nearly five years ago, I wrote a post called Color and the Mania in this Valley (you might want to re-read it; I think it’s pretty good). In it I mentioned how, many years earlier, a company opened up adjacent to my start-up, Prophet:
Next door to us was a startup called DoDots. They appeared out of the blue and had $20,000,000 dropped into their laps for a product which – as far as I could tell – was absolutely useless. It needled me that someone could dream up an idea – – and, in my mind, a really lame idea – – and, without a single dollar of revenue, let alone profit, get a check for twenty million dollars to pursue their “dream.” I admit I was a little jealous at not having that kind of cash at my disposal, particularly since I had worked hard on a legitimate enterprise for years.
