Themes

Areas I’m most likely to invest in during 2010

Derek Pilling, , , , , , 5 Comments

I have always been fairly thematic in my investment approach. For me, the process starts with identifying big markets that are either 1) emerging (and will therefore be created over the next several years) or 2) undergoing some structural shift that will enable new entrants to grab market share from incumbents. I have seen Companies succeed in both types of markets and so I don’t have a preference for either approach. In 2010, there are a several big themes that I’m tracking which are likely to influence my investment selection during the year.

Everything is a service

For several years I’ve been spouting off about the notion that “everything is turning into a service”.

Areas I’m most likely to invest in during 2010

SaaS and Software: A distinction with a difference

Derek Pilling8 Comments

Anyone who knows me reasonably well knows that I tend to be a structured (albeit non-linear) thinker and that I have a penchant for semantics. Words have meaning and are not to be trifled with. Words with different meanings should not be used interchangeably; they have different meanings for a reason.

So when I got a call from a “adviser” to a growth stage business today promoting a “software company in the human capital management space” , I near about turned it down on the spot. You see “software” doesn’t fit in my investment thesis; “SaaS” does. You can imagine me saying:
I’m sorry, I don’t invest in software companies.

SaaS and Software: A distinction with a difference

The future is in services

Derek Pilling, , , , , , 2 Comments

Last week, I attended GigaOm’s Structure ’09 Conference: Put Cloud Computing to Work. It was worthwhile to attend and I intend to return next year. It was exciting to see how the services business model is being rapidly adopted by the technology-delivery value-chain.

In a talk titled The Cloud in Context, Russ Daniels, VP and CTO of Cloud Services Strategy at HP put it most succinctly, describing HP’s vision as:
“Everything is a Service”.
Full video of Daniels’ talk here. While the “everything is a service” mantra is almost certainly overreaching, it drives home an undeniable point; the action is in services. To make it fully, I think you have to start with the view from the customer’s perspective.

The future is in services