Lumping All Open Source Companies Together

from the lemming-think dept

Not all venture capitalists are like this, obviously, but some VCs do earn their reputation as being lemmings. They won't invest in something until they see other VCs are investing in the same "space" and then quickly jump into to find their own version of whatever others are investing in. Remember a year ago, when every VC firm had to find their "social networking play" to invest in? This year, it's apparently "open source companies" that are all the rage, which makes the NY Times wonder if investors are being stupid. Of course, it's completely pointless to simply lump all open source companies together into one bundle and assume that investing in them is either good or bad. These are different companies, after all, with different offerings, different strategies and different staff. Some of them may work out great, some of them will obviously fail. Looking at the space as a whole doesn't seem all that useful from a VC perspective -- when looking at the individual opportunities and their prospects does. VCs shouldn't be looking to invest in a "space" but in the individual company.

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