[socratic]

Is that what Blank is arguing though?

I remember listening to your office hours at TC Disrupt, when you were talking to the guy from Omniplaces. You said: "This is commercialized research? Ouch. It’s often a solution in search of a problem..." (Of course, that was part of a broader commentary about how the startup shouldn't be competing with Google in search, which I don't necessarily disagree with.)

But I think that's what he's talking about. Sun, Google, Cisco, Akamai, VMWare, and a variety of other technology companies came fairly directly out of commercialized university research in systems, databases, networking, virtualization. Are there YC companies that are commercialized university research? Such companies at the very least seem very different from companies like Airbnb which seem like they evolved from a consumer problem rather than innovative technology. What's more, it seems like basing investing decisions on current consumer behavior and problems seems much more sensible than doing so based on technology, which is what Blank seems to be arguing and what you seemed to be arguing at Disrupt.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/tc-disrupt-office-hours-wit...

[pg]

The problem with commercialized research is more the attitudes of the founders than what they're building. They usually approach starting a startup as a solution in search of a problem. Sun (and Google) were exceptions in that even while working on the project within a university, they were building a product. We'd love to fund that kind of project, but they're rare.

[waterlesscloud]

Isn't the fact that they're rare his point?

[herdrick]

No, Steve is saying

    ... material science, sensors, robotics, 
    medical devices, life sciences, etc... 
    VCs whose firms would have looked at these 
    deals or invested in these sectors, are now 
    only interested in whether it runs on a 
    smart phone or tablet.

Paul is saying that founders aren't coming to him with the former sort of startups.

[ThomPete]

But couldn't that be said about Facebook too?

[nswanberg]

Facebook was born in a university dorm room, not a university lab (or department lounge). Facebook is a great product, and has spawned some interesting technology created to solve a massive scaling problem, but what cause the scaling problem to begin with was a product created with a good intuition for what people love, built with some existing, not academic, technologies.

[ThomPete]

I was more thinking about the problem looking for a solution part.

[DanBC]

Do they know you're there? Do they realise that they can do interesting research, and build a product, and get a chance at funding from you?

Has anyone tried to solve that publicity problem?