To my point: Tynt or Fetchback are more than products. Sure: I can create and copy scripts of Tynt and start my own analytics website, but that doesn’t really cut it, right? (and it won’t scale to 20b pages, 250m users, and countless B2B relationships and channels, either)

I agree with faster beta testing / more prototyping and accelerating opportunities for customer acquisition. But prototyping early and often leads to publicizing products or features instead of making companies public – hence the felt need for faster innovation (in the ‘old times’ we first built the company, not ‘just’ several beta products). I’m sure there is a place for VCs that ‘prototype’ often and early and their mechanics will be different, as the acquired customers may neither be paying nor sustainable.

Which brings me to sustainability – or long-term positive effect on quality of life at a larger scale. Many services and apps are surely fun and entertaining, interesting and helpful. But do they move boxes? Do they help producing something? Do they make me healthier? Do they reduce carbon footprint? I’m becoming increasingly weary of investment opportunities that are just ‘nice’ – and there are really many of them. my Point: Because of lower (capital) market entrance barriers (thank you, Cloud) VCs can find more and increasingly smaller-sized early-stage opportunities, but not all of these opportunities make me excited.