Today we launch a new feature here on the Nestoria blog. To mix things up and get a fresh perspective we'll be interviewing thought leaders from the UK search, property, and entrepreneurship scene once a month.
Our inaugural interview is with Jason Ball, investment director at London Seed Capital. LSC helps support fledgling London based start-ups and co-invests with business angels. Jason has experience in internet and mobile start-ups, in Spain and the US, and is an active blogger.
1. The last 18 months has seen an unprecedented level of activity in internet innovation, generally summarised in the term "web2.0". As someone who follows technology closely, what are some of the trends that most excite you as in this space?
People are social creatures. Whatever accentuates, facilitates and amplifies that social interaction will create significant value for all stakeholders. Asynchronous entertainment is becoming a large part of our lives – I personally feel that technologies that bring back the "social currency" of real-time events will be very successful.
2. Likewise there's been a big increase in start-up and M&A activity. The most prominent example of this is perhaps Google's recent purchase of YouTube. Are we experiencing another "bubble"?
Bubbles happen when there is no underlying value to support a given valuation, i.e. speculative investments. I think if you look at News Corp's acquisition of Myspace you could make the case that they got a great deal for $580 million. The acquisition more than paid for itself with the $900 million Google agreement shortly thereafter.
3. Given your role at London Seed Capital, you have your finger on the pulse of the London investment community. Are professional investors in London in a supply or demand situation? Is there too much money or too many start-ups?
I think that great companies get funded- irrespective of the source of funding. US investors are doing deals here. EU investors are doing deals in the US. I think London is really at an inflection point. We have a rich supply of funding, a rich supply of innovative technologies and university spin outs and we have a growing supply of experienced entrepreneurs – that is a potentially explosive cocktail. It's an exciting time to be in venture in London.
4. What are the challenges you think a vertical search engine for property like Nestoria faces, particularly as many of the innovative features like map mashups become commodities?
The challenge is UI innovation. Making it easy for users to find what they are looking for- the emphasis is on "find" what they are looking for. Most users can't articulate what is they are searching for- that is your challenge. Visual representation is one approach to this problem- obviously Nestoria are tackling that through maps and topographies on those maps (nearby schools, shopping, etc.) The challenge is to push the envelope even further.
5. Do you think the "vertical search" skillset is applicable across multiple categories?
I think similar search offerings broadly share a similar set of problems. I think that differentiating between what I call "vertical search" and "horizontal search", is important though. I see vertical search as deep search over a very narrow geographic area, like Nestoria. Horizontal search is very narrow over a wide, if not global, geography, think Long Tail. The key skillset required is identifying the relevant attributes in each area- they are not always self evident.
Thanks Jason. We'll do our best to keep on "pushing the envelope", and we certainly agree that identifying the key attributes of relevancy isn't always self-evident.
