Invest In Innovative Companies; Not Failing Ones
from the well,-there's-an-idea dept
While the US is looking to bail out its biggest businesses, it looks like the UK is working on a plan for the other end of the spectrum: creating a £1 billion "emergency" venture capital fund for startups. While it's not clear how this money will actually get doled out, this could make a lot of sense. With increasing rumors that existing venture funds are having some trouble getting limited partners to actually meet the capital calls they committed to, there is some worry that the next generation of innovation (which may be necessary to get us out of this economic funk) will be stymied. While folks like Paul Graham are correctly pointing out that many internet startups these days really don't need venture capital to build success stories, that's not true of all startups. There are still innovative startups that will need risk capital to get anywhere, and having more money focused on those early stage, innovative companies with high growth potential seems a lot more intriguing (and useful) than dumping hundreds of billions into mismanaged behemoths who will quickly squander what they're given, and come back asking for more.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: uk, venture capital
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That's Un-American
Auto Bailout Deal Appears to Be Likely by End of the Day
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Re: That's Un-American
did you know that before man invented the technology for refrigeration, the worlds largest industry was in the bussiness of harvesting ice off of frozen lakes and shipping it around the world? It employed almost half of the north american work force. where are those jobs today?
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Re: Re: That's Un-American
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Re: Re: Re: That's Un-American
The death of an industry has happened before and will happen again. The point is that when this happens, yes people will have some discomfort, but given time nobody will even remeber the event.
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Re: That's Un-American
Small companies produce electric cars that out perform a Ferrari and go 200 or more miles between 2 hour or less recharges. That's the car I want to buy. If the government gives the three automakers the money we get 20 more years of junk thrust upon us (remember the Vega, Horizon, and Pinto) while the big three make sure innovation never happens (the Tucker).
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Re: Re: That's Un-American
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meet-half way alternative?
My reasoning is that we should be supporting those who are successful rather than those who are known to be wasteful. These are the companies that can make lasting changes. Additionally, I find that creating new jobs should be more important than preventing people from losing jobs. Right now, those who are hurting most are the people who have been unemployed for a long period of time. It is these people that can't spend. The people who are currently losing jobs will end up on unemployment, but at least aren't scraping the bottom of the barrel on savings. Thus, they should still be able to contribute to consumer spending.
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Re: That's Un-American
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No Shortage
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Re: No Shortage
I have the cash and credit to buy anything GM, Ford, and Chrysler make. But, I drive a big 17 year old Chrysler I picked up for $500 and fixed up. Why? Because nothing the three auto makers offer is worth buying new.
When they produce a car that fits what the public wants they public will buy that car. The economy will have to recover first, so some money should be provided as low interest loans or a taxpayer equity buy in. However, this has to be used solely to boost research and development and keep the workforce employed, not free money for billionaires to waste.
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bail out..
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Bailout or Bailup
It's a great idea on paper. Once the bureaucrats get a hold of it, it becomes a mistake we pay for and never learn from in the future.
We see that money disappear from our paychecks and hear about these really big plans, but the only *result* of these really big plans is less money in our pockets.
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The Same Thing in Reverse
But I guess the governments of the US and UK think their citizens are stupid. They'll print paper dollars devaluing the dollars we have in our pockets today and invest for us because they are smarter then us.
Obama, congress, parlimant please come and save us. We need our saviors now more then ever I guess. (Please read sarcasam in this last paragraph)
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Oh dear
This sounds like a pretty bad idea all round. Either:
In a way, the whole point of a startup is that it's a high-risk, high return strategy. Having the government dive in to lower the risk is, one way or another, only going to reduce the return and push real risk-takers and innovators elsewhere.
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