VC & Startups

Change the World

Chad Albrecht — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:05:00 GMT

According to Technology Review, startup Avanti Metal, using technology developed at MIT, hopes to commercialize a process that drastically reduces the cost of producing titanium, making more of it available for large, lighter-weight airplanes. I know this seems like a non-news issue, but I think it will change a lot of things. Being as strong as steel but only 60% as dense it will now be used in situations where steel was to heavy and other solutions were cost prohibitive. Can you imagine the kind of bridges that could be built using titanium? It's corrosion-resistant and extremely strong. Imagine the Golden Gate Bridge in stainless steel! How about cars? Fuel economy and no rust! I hope Avanti Metal is able to commercialize the process quickly as I want my titanium Delorian! ;)

while(lesson != learned)

Chad Albrecht — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 11:34:00 GMT

I find it a bit ironic that the New York Times should release this only a few days after my DotCom Flops and eBay post.

DotCom Flops and eBay

Chad Albrecht — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:37:00 GMT

Thanks to Steve Shu for pointing me to this article on the Top 10 dot-com flops. I'm glad we can look back at this and laugh. The funny thing is I thought that eBay was going to be on this list when I first heard about them back in 1996. The thought being, who's going to send a stranger money for something sold over the Internet? It's the stuff scams are made of. But as it turns out, services like PayPal gave people enough security that they took a risk. This coupled with the fact that people love a bargin has made eBay VERY successful. Q2 2005 revenues were reported at just over $1 BILLION with a consolidated net income of $291 million! Wow! Just goes to show that a solid leadership team, business model and an understanding of the market can lead to great things. Meg Whitman, eBay's President and CEO was brought on in 1998 by founder Pierre Omidyar. This was the move that changed everything. Meg quickly assembled a top-notch executive team, built the basis of the current eBay model and made Pierre's net worth somewhere in the $10 billion range. Not bad for a guy who "sat in his modest home office and spent 3 days cranking out the code for an Auction Website and then posted it under his existing URL..." So what's the moral of the story? You may have the next revolutionary idea that will make you a billionaire, but you're not going to do it by yourself.