Slashdot Mirror
Red Herring Comes Back
alinv writes "Red Herring, once the hype bible of the Valley VC economy, has made a comeback. The site was relaunched today. They are trying to pitch the site as an Economist-style, no-bylines gig. More details on the buyout by a French company and relaunch plans here."
Red Herring is right. I bet they led a lot of people down the garden path in their previous incarnation.
I wonder whether this is a dotcom comeback, along with Redhat posting positive results. :-)
Then again, Red Hat isn't a dotcom
This
...the new red herring will surrender to bankruptcy faster than the first one.
here's a mirror of the story
I think this magazine is drawing us away from a more important inssue.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
We should start calling the site Freedom Herring.
That was "A pup named Scooby Doo". And it was the kid he accused of stealing his bike, instead of finding the real culprits, the mole men.
Television raised me as a child. That's my excuse.
And judging from the amazing amount of bandwidth they have given it, they are expecting it to be really popular! Not.
Having suffered through an attempt to launch a dot.com in the Spring of 2002, I find this reappearance bittersweet. Let me tell ya, in the Spring of 2002, it looked like a fellow Slashdotter was correct in believing that all the Venture Capitalists had participated in a mass suicide two years earlier. I don't think ANYTHING could get funded at that time other than a successful, working prototype of one of those silly devices that appear in IBM's ads. One of my fellow board members described things perfectly during an interchange between us: Me- "How did we go from these guys funding sock puppets and companies that literally burned piles of cash on Super Bowl ads to being unable to fund ANYTHING?" Him- "VC's are conservative sheep. They only do EXACTLY what all the other sheep are doing." And at that time, the other sheep weren't funding anything. Let's hope this "reappearance of the Red Herring" bodes well for the future. Kind of like the groundhog not seeing his shadow.
In principio erat Verbum.
OK, it's not that funny, but when I hear it in my head it makes me giggle.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
I wonder what'll happen to my subscription, I got a letter a while back saying that for every issue of Red Herring I was still to receive, I'd get 1.9 (!) copies of Business 2.0 instead.
Actually I find Business 2.0 more readable, and frankly more interesting
Notice that the site is now running ASP.NET? Anyone know what the site was running on before?
I for one welcome our renewed, maritime overlords!
i guess they forgot about getting a designer to do their page, it doesnt validate is littered with shitty adverts and uses a fixed pixel layout, looks like a poor attempt to recreate a certain php CMS but in
poor article content and features again in a long thin single column littered with banners and sponsors, i guess no one told them its the 21st century
bloody awful
if i want real business talk ill stick with Forrestor thanks, at least they try to act and display themselves as a professional company
Sounds fishy...
where the hell do these trolls come from??
I just hope they won't be as arrogant as they used to be before. I think that almost every slashdotter would agree with me that the level or arrogance coming out of Red Herring during the dot-com boom, probably surpassed the arrogance and self-righteousness that comes out of Wired.
Damn! I'd better stop reading both those magazines.
Newsfollow.com
I agree. Like the Great Chairman Mao once said: a revolutionary should feel like a fish (!) in the water when he is among the people. And in "the quest for the holy grail" the red-herring reference is in fact a metaphore for the (red) danger lurking in the shrubberies... Or am I getting lost here?
You catch Herring in a net. By trolling. Coincidence? Mais non!
...than the French?
A more interesting question is what the under/over line is for the Euro collapsing. Given that France and German are blithely ignoring the deficit constraints required by the Euro agreement, it's only a matter of time. By then, all investments outside France, even in a failed American dot-com magazine, will look farsighted.
Primates capitulards et tou-jours en quete de harengs.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Hilarious coming from a country whose own currency is going the way of the Thai Bhat.
Won't be relaunched for long...
Who doesn't like free music?
Damn ! He's at it again ! Jean Marie, won't you ever learn ???
Thomas Miconi-
(PS: More seriously, the man seems to be called Alex Serge-Vieux. Never heard about him, but if his credentials are genuine, we can say two things:
1) He's probably not the most stupid manager on this planet (Paris-Dauphine and La Sorbonne means "good", especially if it's on the teaching side of the desk; same thing for Le Monde).
2) His political inclinations seem to lean on the center-left. He served as a top civil servant under Socialist governments only. In the French system, this speaks a lot.
So, what news will they cover? The latest outsourcing to Bangalore? What to do while waiting in the unemployment line? What homeless shelters have the least cockroaches?h
Once again, some corporation is trying to make money off of a recognized name. I'm so tired of the Breck commercials on the radio. But, Packard Bell made a good run of it with their bargain priced PC's! One thing's for sure, the new Red Herring will never be like the original. (Not that I really liked it.)
www.mikesmind.com - www.daddyworkathome.com - www.freetofarm.org - www.tenfoottable.com
A more interesting question is what the under/over line is for the Euro collapsing.
Euro collapsing? Last time I looked the Euro has been gradually gaining strength against the dollar and sterling for the last couple of years. But then perhaps you know something that the markets don't... Or maybe you're just prejudiced against the Europeans...
I now see more content on FuckedCompany.
If you're telekinetic raise my hand.
Red Herring comes back with a java applet?
Why a java applet which means that my browsing experience comes to a jarring halt while the java plug in loads?
Evidently the designers are more interested in resume padding, and gazing at their navels than in swift page loads and letting me read anything they might have to say.
Once again function follows form and they will wonder why they don't succeed....
Do you realize that the French and German budget deficits are nowhere near the level of the US budget deficit?
Now Red Herring is back, and it seems to be the whipping boy for the Dot-Com era. We can all remember back to those days and blame all the hype and excesses and idiocy of that time on one magazine. But let's be honest - a lot of people bought into the hype in those years, and it wasn't just the writers and editors at Red Herring. In fact, a lot of their articles were pretty sceptical.
If Red Herring's re-emergence means that seed investors are slowly edging back into the technology field, so much the better for those of us who do work in the tech world. I for one like it when there are multiple sources of information and multiple viewpoints. Schadenfreude only gets you so far.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Zero credibility. "Gates invented while at Berkeley"??? Obviously, this post is strictly intended to be humorous. Gates was briefly a student of poker at Harvard, not Berkeley. "Wozniak the Polish inventor"??? I have doubts that Woz knows even two words in Polish. Is Wozniak even a Polish name? Slashdot is strictly about facts, sir. Please do not post such misleading information in this forum of the factual.
At least Red Herring is not selling 40 lb bags of dogfood with free shipping. Then, we'd know for sure they weren't in this for the long haul.
No bylines? Isn't that just a license to spew? Who is their audience, and who do they think will pay for advertising? How do they plan on gaining credibility? For that matter, who would want to write for them? They mentioned a selection of freelance authors. Are they writing nothing but editorials? I hope it's not another Salon.com. Advertisers don't like liberal mags. I certainly wouldn't pay to read "news" with a liberal slant. I think that's why Salon struggles... there's not enough revenue to be successful.
-- No sig for you!
Who knew there was a faction of the Viet Cong in the Valley?
I personally am glad that they are back. Yes they were arrogant when they could afford to be, but they still had a valuable angle on the investment scene. Also from the perspective of someone in technology interested in seeking funding, which I was two years ago, one could glean a lot of the trends, the players, as well as do's and don'ts. Reading Red Herring beat the heck out of Motley Fool, TheStreet, CBS Marketwatch and most other investment sites in this way. And it was just out and out more interesting to me. Lastly, I find it heartening in some way to see sites from the good old days return from the dead. Welcome back!
Nope, definately doesn't rhyme.
Given that France and German are blithely ignoring the deficit constraints required by the Euro agreement, it's only a matter of time.
If you think that deficit spending will lead to devaluation of currency, then be ready for the U.S. dollar to be worth the same as the peso. It doesn't work that way, at least not in black and white.
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
Red Herring has their own NYTimes entry point/partner link:
&partner=MOREOVER
I guess we can stop abusing &partner=GOOGLE now.
"One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin." George Bernard Shaw
Do you realize that the French and German populations are nowhere near the size of the US population?
Do you realize that the whole French and German countries are nowhere near the size of the US?
I think I've made my point about comparing things one shouldn't...
Maybe it should be titled "Red Harangue"...
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
Did you notice the url ? It says .aspx (http://www.redherring.com/IndexArticle.aspx), meaning the site is running on ASP.NET! :-)
I have to buy groceries in pesos, you insensitive clod!
All that means is that the dollar is dying faster than the euro.
What's the problem with a comparison? 2004 budget deficits are projected at 4.5 % of GDP in the US, 4.3 % of GDP in Germany, and 3.9% of GDP in France. Granted, the differences in the deficit levels are not that great, but none of the three governments has much reason for gloating.
Well at least the non francophone ones can gloat. They after all are not weighted by the handicap of being French. At least thats something.
Forget about VC (until you don't need it)
bernard Lunn [Concordia Consulting LLC] | POSTED: 09.18.03 @05:26
In case you still have any illusions about writing a business plan and getting a few million dollars of venture capital, here is the wake up call. It won?t happen. Period.
OK, maybe you think, ?I can get angel money to build the prototype and then get some money to get it to market.? Sorry, that used to be true but the goal post just got moved again.
Bottom line article summary: unless you are in a position where you can make a business case to tards whose home VCRs blink 12:00 that you need at least $10M and that you'll be able to turn that into a $1000M net cap, don't bother looking for US VC funding.
Given this, what's the interest for slashdot readers? There's no reason for anyone who actually makes technology to care what USA VCs are doing.
Tech Public Policy stuff
As an Anonymous Coward who used to work for DASAR, I'd say that the New Red Herring sans Tony Perkins et avec Alex Vieux ain't gonna be much like the old one. I'd expect the content to be along the lines of the computer freebies, and the focus to be on selling ads and cross-promoting the rest of their business.
Wow, one could almost taste the bile you must have been choking back as you typed that...
:)
Just as a datapoint, according to the most recent surveys by Fenwick and West the SV venture market is picking up again. The bottom was probably Q1 of this year, in the past quarter the number of down rounds decreased and the number of companies getting seed and A round funding increased.
VCs move in herds, and at the moment the herd is breaking out its checkbook again. BTW, Mr. Lunn is full of it. I know from personal experience that at this moment you do not need multi-million dollar revenue, 50% quarter to quarter growth, or first-mover in a multi-billion dollar market to get funding. OTOH, if it keeps people like you out of my way, please do follow his advice
Red Herring is back? It's official then, the second dotcom bubble has begun. SELL YOUR TECH STOCKS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
Or do we have to wait until fuckedcompany.com reveals it?
Are you the 5th, 8th, or 10th company in your technology space?
So you think you've been anointed by the VCs as THE NEXT BIG THING. Well, Renaissance Ventures apparently still thinks SCO is the NEXT BIG THING, too. Perhaps your backers are just as good at picking winners.
There was once a time when people were impressed by what VCs consider the NEXT BIG THING. That time is considered ancient history by most. Good luck on finding suck... I mean, er, people willing to accept stock options instead of money.
Tech Public Policy stuff
You sound like a 16 year old who heard about all the musicians who've decided to do without record labels and said "What clu3l3ss luz3rz, all the more money for m3!"
Your position with respect to what's in your contract is also similar.
If you're lucky, you'll get the money and a VC willing to work his Roladex (it will not be a contacts database) for you. And if you actually manage to build a real company with real products that people will be buying. . . your real troubles will begin. You will believe that you're having troubles with VCs as you build that company. I've personally been involved with two companies that have been sunk by their investors mixture of stupidity combined with greed long before the IPO point. Neither at decisionmaking levels, though I've still got 1K shares of stock in one of them. So I got to watch the fun as an outsider.
Not to say that I'm immune to stupidity and greed, I've done the money hunt myself. However, now, I'm not sorry about the negative results.
Basically, you're using your technology or business model as a lottery ticket. Or more accurately, as a chance to use yourself as live bait as you go fishing for sharks.
Please ignore the above now and keep doing what you're doing, I just want you to remember it when the time comes.
By then, you'll understand why I regard VCs as generally irrelevant to the creation of interesting technology.
Tech Public Policy stuff