Comments on: Does iPhone Need The iFund?

By: VC Firm KPCB Looking To Hire a Digital Media Partner: Tech News «

VC Firm KPCB Looking To Hire a Digital Media Partner: Tech News « — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 23:01:22 +0000

[...] and AOL in the past is looking to bring on board a technically savvy partner who will help bolster the iFund, a fund devoted to the Apple iPhone ecosystem. KPCB doubled the size of the iFund in 2010. [...]

By: Should Android be Startups’ First Choice? «

Should Android be Startups’ First Choice? « — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:46:00 +0000

[...] In the heady days of the iPhone’s advent, Kleiner Perkins announced a $100 million fund to focus on investing in its wake. Just two years later, Kleiner Perkins has [...]

By: Kleiner Perkins Commits $100M More to Its iFund

Kleiner Perkins Commits $100M More to Its iFund — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:46:27 +0000

[...] touch — as it’s already spent its allocated $100 million in the two years since the fund was first formed. The announcement comes on the eve of Apple’s iPad launch, the SDK for which, in light of [...]

By: iPad Launch Spawns a Tablet AppFund – GigaOM

iPad Launch Spawns a Tablet AppFund – GigaOM — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:16:43 +0000

[...] iPad and other tablets. The New York City-based AppFund doesn’t have quite the resume of the Kleiner Perkins-backed and Apple-supported iFund, but it’s jumping in at a time when tablets are top of mind. The [...]

By: Booyah: iPhone Game Startup Gets $4.5M in Funding

Booyah: iPhone Game Startup Gets $4.5M in Funding — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:29:28 +0000

[...] in Series A financing from the iFund of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (Om wrote about KPCB’s $100 million app funding initiative last year.) The funding comes a month after Ngmoco, another iPhone game startup, launched with [...]

By: iFund Has Invested in 5 Companies So Far - GigaOM

iFund Has Invested in 5 Companies So Far - GigaOM — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:33:53 +0000

[...] and said the names of three more would be revealed sometime between September and November. Given that the iFund was only announced back in March, I am surprised by the number of startups they’re investing [...]

By: iPhone Applications are VCs Favorite! What about Android? || Technology Nerd

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:18:54 +0000

[...] read about the 100 million dollar fund(iFund) for iPhone applications companies, Gene Munster’s predictions of $1.2 billion [...]

By: Pavle Shirkov

Pavle Shirkov — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:15:33 +0000

“Missed out on Facebook”?

Don’t forget Facebook doesn’t make any money. %99.9 percent of this web 2.0 stuff is hyped garbage. Successful businesses solve a problem – they don’t wildly guess what the market might want….that’s what fad chasing twitter heads do.

By: Venture Capitalists Eyeing iPhone Start-Ups - GigaOM

Venture Capitalists Eyeing iPhone Start-Ups - GigaOM — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:57:59 +0000

[...] the Facebook platform, this year the new new thing are iPhone application makers. In addition to the $100 million, iFund floated by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, other VCs are getting in on the [...]

By: Android: Much Coolness, But 3 Big Problems - GigaOM

Android: Much Coolness, But 3 Big Problems - GigaOM — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:02:40 +0000

[...] by big carriers on their captive hardware/software offerings, especially those designed for the already popular iPhone. With a big crowd overall and packed rooms at Android-specific discussions, the Google I/O [...]

By: And Now a Blackberry Fund | DougsTech.com - Tech News, Reviews, and Guides

And Now a Blackberry Fund | DougsTech.com - Tech News, Reviews, and Guides — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:49:43 +0000

[...] development departments is now being replaced by venture capital. A fund to foster Facebook apps, the iFund to jump start the iPhone app revolution or the rumored $150 million fund to give Blackberry apps a [...]

By: And Now a Blackberry Fund - GigaOM

And Now a Blackberry Fund - GigaOM — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:19:10 +0000

By: Stefan

Stefan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:44:03 +0000

Does anyone knw who the investors in the iFund are?

By: links for 2008-03-09 | stuart henshall

links for 2008-03-09 | stuart henshall — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:20:23 +0000

[...] Does iPhone Need The iFund? - GigaOM I like Om’s realism in this post. He’s correct they will have to sell a lot more phone! Thus my tongue in cheek 100 million number the other day. I’m less certain about the carriers and apps. The Carriers need to do a better job of thinking through WiFi. (tags: iphone ifund gigaom wifi) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "links for 2008-03-09", url: "http://www.henshall.com/stuart/2008/03/09/links-for-2008-03-09/" }); [...]

By: steve bell

steve bell — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:07:35 +0000

there is a quote at the end of Om's post, about Steve Jobs. It seems to be there out of context; their is no attribution. It just says "MacWorld" at the end. Just wondering who that's from? (Did Door say that at the Apple event?)

re: the KP "iFund", I'm puzzled how venture capital scale investments will be made in iPhone software application developers. Unless they decide to make seed level investments of $250-500k. Those companies aren't that resource intensive, but more importantly they aren't going to "grow up" into $200M+ revenue operations. Wish Door would have explained exactly what he is thinking. But it's great to see something that will stimulate some true Apple-style innovation in the mobile computing market! I just hope the iFund isn't iHype:)

By: Mark Sigal

Mark Sigal — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:27:10 +0000

Hey Om,

As to the question of whether iPhone needs the iFund, that is debate-able but I think that from Jobs and company perspective, what they are trying to show is that 'we get it.'

Understanding big customers like enterprises matters. Cultivating and growing a developer ecosystem matters. And providing enough chum to garner VC interest matters.

I would net this one out as Microsoft playbook meets Cisco playbook tuned for the 'just add water' sensibility of the internet age.

Now, when you say, "...any start-up or developer will have its destiny controlled by Apple...I am just trying to understand how a big standalone company will emerge when Apple is going to be gatekeeper," this belies just how many big companies emerged from the Microsoft ecosystem.

The devil is in the details but I am more optimist than skeptic. Along those lines, I just posted:

Mobile reasons for optimism: http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/03/mobile-reasons.html

It's an attempt to connect the dots between the customer-developer-enterprise-investor-Apple big picture.

Check it out if interested.

Cheers,

Mark