“Imagine investing in Google at the start…”

Often you hear people compare a new venture to the opportunity that has passed us by … just as if we had been offered an opportunity to invest in Google (or Microsoft, or eBay, or amazon.com), and passed it up. By not investing in Google, or eBay, or amazon.com …just imagine your loss. If you had that chance now, of course you’d take it. Or so the logic goes. (The recent marketing by Dubli heads down this path…)

But here’s the funny thing … the start of Google had Sergey Brin and Larry Page wearing out shoe leather around Silicon Valley trying to get capital … endlessly pitching … and with lots of smiles. But no cash.
(Source: The Search, John Batelle)

It wasn’t until 1998 that Andy Bechtolsheim put in some cash, and the real success story starts from there and other funds coming in after that – including Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame. At the door knocking stage it didn’t even have a revenue model or a company structure (it did have a name, having just changed from being BackRub)

So, what did all those venture capitalists not see, that in retrospect seems like such an amazing opportunity.

Whatever it was… here’s the lesson: venture capitalists miss opportunities daily. And they don’t mind.

And this also presents your challenge. Even when you (think that you) have a sure thing, that the market needs what you have and that anyone would be mad to not want it… remember that you are competing with so many other opportunities put before them, that the chance of them passing on your opportunity is high.

If smart people can pass on Google, then they can pass on you.

There are some valid reasons for this. In the early days, Google had fantastic technology but a poor revenue model. In fact, it is possible that if it were not for the hype around dot coms, a plan as skinny on detail as Google’s would not get off the ground even now.

Your job as an entrepreneur, is to make sure you have a strong business model and can convey to a potential investor how you will commercialise your technology, and what their risks are. And of course what the upside will be.

For a great read on the steps that lead Google to where it is now, check out The Search. . Or here.

Just a note – the Google founders had a real life “start in a garage story” – much as Microsoft did. Their frugality extended to their celebrations on receiving their first investment: Burger King.