I was reading Virtualization, Data Migration Upstart AutoVirt Closes Doors by CRN’s Andrew R Hickey. The article announced the sudden demise of an interesting and innovative storage virtualization company, AutoVirt. The reason given was that AutoVirt had not been able to successfully close another round of funding and had to cease operations. My condolences go out to the management and staff of the company.
I’m wondering if this is the leading edge of an industry trend.
In the past, company founders having a good idea, a working engineering prototype, a reasonable go-to-market strategy, and an executive team having the talent, the skill and the ability to turn the idea into a growing concern were able to get funding. The investors understood that they were planting seeds and watering the ground, but time and careful tending were absolutely required for growth. Careful multi-year plans were made and the team started executing knowing that if some level of success could be seen, additional rounds of funding would be available to keep the idea alive.
What’s new today is the short term thinking I see in the investment community. If an idea doesn’t produce a bumper crop immediately, they cut their investment and go onto something else. Good ideas are left to rot in the field.
While it is possible that a large storage virtualization supplier, such as EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM or NetApp might come along and buy up the intellectual property for a song and incorporate it into other products, it is just as possible that it is just the end of a dream.
I see similar thinking in the marketing departments of start ups as well. They’re looking for “silver bullets” rather than carefully building a brand image over time. This, of course means, that it is quite possible that they never follow a course long enough to get anywhere.
Are we in the era of short term thinking?
