“The Great Streaming Wars” and global subscription video on demand (SVOD) land grab are finally fully “on” after years of anticipation. Disney+ exceeds expectations, Apple TV+ underperforms, and Netflix faces new headwinds as it plows forward with its Herculean content budget that ballooned to $15+ Billion in 2019 (and its rising debt load to support it).
Monthly Archives: December 2019
The Irishman Gets De-Aging Right—No Tracking Dots Necessary
Remaking one scene from Goodfellas was one thing; making a 3.5-hour movie full of actors of varying ages was another. Helman had a proof of concept, but he still had to develop the technology to allow Scorsese to film his movie the way he wanted to. That development process would take two years. Finishing the whole film would take twice that long. “For four years it was building a Ferrari,” he says, “while you’re running the grand prix.”
Why do investors seem to care about “billion dollar exits”? Historically, top venture funds have driven returns from their ownership in just a few companies in a given fund of many companies. Plus, traditional venture funds have grown in size, requiring larger “exits” to deliver acceptable returns. For example – to return just the initial capital of a $400 million venture fund, that might mean needing to own 20 percent of two different $1 billion companies, or 20 percent of a $2 billion company when the company is acquired or goes public.
So, we wondered, as we’re a year into our new fund (which doesn’t need to back billion-dollar companies to succeed, but hey, we like to learn): how likely is it for a startup to achieve a billion-dollar valuation? Is there anything we can learn from the mega hits of the past decade, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Workday?