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June 9th, 2007 
QuadsZilla $12,107.09
That’s how much it cost Guy Kawasaki to launch Turmers: a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site.
The reason this is interesting is because Guy’s day job is as a coffee gofer (or something like that) at a Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm. If Guy, and just about anyone else, can start an Internet company for $12,000 or less, then why on earth do we need venture capital firms in the Internet space?
For Internet Startups, if your idea needs more than $100,000 to get it off the ground, it’s probably not a very good idea. If you don’t already have $100,000 saved up for this “great idea” of yours, you’re probably not qualified to manage $100,000 in Investor capital.
So I ask you – What purpose does the venture capital firm serve? Are they nothing more than Ponzi scheme pimps decked out in business suits?
Because it sure smells like it.
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Right, and everybody has a top 20 technorati blog with thousands of daily readers and media centers just waiting to cover our every move.
And if you notice some of the comments in his post, people are asking how the hell did you spend $12,000 — many people are used to launching things a lot cheaper than this.
1. Truemors is a glorified Wordpress plug-in for fuck’s sake. It hasn’t “proven” anything and has thus far been a waste of money:
http://www.uncov.com/2007/5/17/guy-kawasaki-should-stick-to-contentless-blog-posts
2. Guy Kawasaki has essentially conceded defeat and acknowledged that it’s a flop:
http://valleywag.com/tech/guy-kawasaki/you-can-do-a-lot-more-stupid-things-265843.php
All this debacle has “proven” is that you can get overpay $12K to some dipshit third-rate programmers to set you up yet another worthless “Web 2.0 long tail social media” bullshit site.
[...] Guy Kawasaki on how much it cost to launch Truemors, in conduction with how to make a billion bucks and You Don’t Need VC money gives you a nice complete picture. [...]
I always have felt bad for the VCs, they just go after the really crappy investments all the time, while others are gaining market share and receiving funds consistently. I think it’s hilarious, because there are so many ways to make money online, with just $50k, you can become Dane Cook/create a Squidoo/whatever one may ever think of. What were FeedBurner/DoubleClick’s expenses over time and how much was needed for investment? I don’t believe there ever was a lot.
The only reason I think VCs exist is for advice, support, counsel and scalability.