Comments on: Is Color’s Team Worth $41M, Even if Its Idea Isn’t?

By: Carl Hancock

Carl Hancock — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:02:40 +0000

A team is only as good as the products they produce. If Color.com is the best they got, those VC’s just pissed their money away. I guess now they have to figure out what they can build with that $41 million to safe face.

By: PXLated

PXLated — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:12:52 +0000

Segway Hype = Color –> Good One
———-
Wasn’t Twitter local/social when it launched at SxSW? Twitter grew into more. But…
Of all the places I’ve been today, coffee shops, clients, etc., I can’t think of one place I’d have used Color. By comparison, I’ve used Twitter at each.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:54:26 +0000

The whole to-do reminds me of the Segway launch, but that’s neither here nor there. Or maybe it is relevant. They’re both really cool technologies, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a huge market there. Color, to me, sounds kind of like technology looking for a problem. The initial application just does not sound that compelling, especially outside of early adopter circles. Maybe the initial app is just a demo app, and they want to control the local/social layer. I suppose that could be lucrative, but that’s not a given either.

I still find the funding odd. Excessive expectations coupled with a lot of money can doom even good ideas and good teams. I’d love to be proven wrong. Maybe they’re just so visionary that it will take the rest of us a while to catch up.

By: Jürgen Messing

Jürgen Messing — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:27:16 +0000

Just pondering what really purposeful things one could do with $ 41,000,000.

By: Will

Will — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:16:22 +0000

This is the wrong question to ask. The company can’t liquidate for $41M and give the investors a return obviously. So, the question that should be asked is, “is the talent worth 100 million? or whatever it’s liq. preferences are.)” Possibly, but it won’t meet its liq. preferences if there isn’t enough growth despite how talented and brilliant everyone involved in Color is.

By: rohitsift

rohitsift — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:55:39 +0000

flawed question – yes, its worth 41MM – the “Market” just paid that much.

None of us commenting here are likely the prototypical users of color btw – i think ages 14-19 will be far more enamored of it vs. current gen of fb/tw/google fed users.

i will bet you $1 that it works in 5 years. if i was a VC, i may have bet 41MM.

By: PXLated

PXLated — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:54:39 +0000

I think most put too much emphasis on the first two and way too little on the latter.

By: Atle Iversen

Atle Iversen — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:40:44 +0000

Yes, the team is worth $41 million if someone (read:Facebook or Google) is willing to pay more than that to get 6-7 high-profile co-founders with a crappy idea :-)

(I wouldn’t pay that much, but then again, my company isn’t worth $50 Billion either :-)

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:05:18 +0000

Todd, I think it is Mathew and Darrell who are driving the coverage here. I am just being lazy today after a long day yesterday

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:00:10 +0000

Rick

I met with Drew and his co-founder literally the day he joined YC and I thought — what a great team. No idea if their product would work. Three months later, I was eating humble pie.

You know what that happened: D & A were thinking about experience and solving a problem and not a product that was check-box app.