week end report (OPEN)
Good friends. Good ideas. Good places to invest.
Ten years ago the corporate world was in the Internet bubble. Investors bought up shares of companies that happened to add .com or e-this or i-that to their name. We could tell something was happening, but everyone could only guess where it was all leading.
A group of my friends started holding informal weekly investment meetings to contemplate opportunities. We talked stocks and IPOs. We learned a lot. We made a bit. Actually, some of us made a lot from what we learned.
Gradually, we started realizing that some of these IPOs were based on ingenuity more than extreme technical skill. All of us were of the generation that required computer programming classes in college. If you can't tell, we were all geeks and nerds with a few verifiable geniuses in the mix. Maybe we should try starting our own company.
We met for weeks and narrowed the possible businesses down to two main candidates: online golf course reservations, and online restaurant reservations.
And nothing happened. The ingenious businesses were being started by twenty-somethings that weren't yet constrained by careers, mortgages, or other responsibilities. We had lives, and commitments.
The ideas didn't languish, but we weren't the ones that pursued them. Other people came up with the ideas too and they devoted their time, money and lives to making the companies happen. A search on "online golf course reservation" finds a crowd of businesses. Online restaurant reservations just did them all one better. One of them, OpenTable.com (NASDAQ: OPEN?) held their IPO this week for a market cap of about $500,000,000.
It may have taken ten years, but it is warming to know that we had a half-billion dollar idea.
One of the best places to invest is in yourself. Silly ideas persistently pursued spawn wealth, empowerment, and are the source of America's innovations. Dream. Invest. Live. all captured in one pursuit.
Would we have succeeded? We won't know. Does every idea succeed? Definitely not. But, how many half-billion dollar successes does a person need in a life? It is worth it to occasionally try.
I congratulate that team that worked hard for ten years. I thank my friends that taught me much. And I will wonder and pay more attention to those sparks of creativity that pass through my consciousness. Maybe I should spend more time with them.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
