Stardust Global Ventures

This evening as I was doing some housekpping here, I wandered across this post from March of this year, almost six months ago. And I realized once again how important the little fish are in the world economy today. I thought it was worth quoting to remind us all that the little fish outnumber and overpower the big ones.

Small and medium businesses employ more people, create more jobs, and drive more money through the economy that large ones do. We should all give warm thanks and healthy respect to the little fish. The big fish look more and more like a very tasty meal.

This week eComm ‘09 took place in San Francisco. We were so disappointed that we couldn’t be there for a number of reasons. eComm is the vortex of change in the communications industry. There are plenty of conferences we love that focus on sustaining the industry and the evolution of communications technologies. eComm isn’t about evolution, but about revolution.

It really hit home for me in the past week that the key to this technological revolution is really accelerating because of something that eComm embodies. Many companies use the word ecosystem in reference to their developers, their outspoken customer fans and the like. I’m more of a mind today to think less of an ecosystem and more of a set of microcosmic innovators.

eComm is about the little fish, those innovators, and the attack being mounted on the big fish, the legacy telecommunications industry. The little fish will eat the big fish.

The companies at risk in the communications sector today are decidedly not the small innovators. I can’t begin to list them, but those attending and presenting at eComm are the leaders, not the followers. The innovators, not the defenders of the past. They are the inventors of tomorrow. The companies at risk? They’re many, and their names are recognizable. Cisco, Lucent and Avaya – not at risk for hardware infrastructure, but absolutely in danger because they can’t ever deliver the comprehensive solution that will win. They’re too big.

Microsoft may be one of the companies most at risk. They’re too big to survive. But in another way, Microsoft is far too cosmetic and superficial. Ok, this is only a partially formed thought, but Microsoft is focused on visual appeal. They’ve provided a wrapper around the visual appeal that is our interface to resources for a long time. Call it the OS if you like, but it’s still wrapping paper. They’ve certainly dug into real services with SQL and OCS, but they are a wrapping paper company, incapable of the microcosmic ferocity required to win.

There’s something that’s really notable about eComm and the people involved there. They’re engaged with a passion and focus. They’re intent and intense.

Small fish? Yes, and we should remember that piranha are small fish. The innovators that spent this week at eComm planning the industry revolution are piranha – fast, ferocious and hungry.

And the big fish? They’re going to be a very tasty meal.