The current cover of The Industry Standard has a picture of a cornfield and says "On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're in Nebraska." This cracks me up, because I started an Internet company in Nebraska in 1995. Nobody knew we were in Nebraska, but that's because nobody knew us, period. During that time, when to be able to speak about the Internet intelligently here (SF) would have probably landed you VC, it was incredibly hard in Nebraska to get investors or customers, because we first had to explain what the Internet was to people who had rarely used a computer. And even on the net, it was noticably harder to get people to take us seriously, once they knew where we were located. Location still matters. Although, I'm sure it's easier now -- as the article, about Ameritrade, says and as Craig's company is demonstrating. (Although, now that they landed big bucks, guess where Covalent's new main office is going to be? Hint: Not Lincoln.)
The current cover of The Industry Standard has a picture of a cornfield and says "On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're in Nebraska." This cracks me up, because I started an Internet company in Nebraska in 1995. Nobody knew we were in Nebraska, but that's because nobody knew us, period. During that time, when to be able to speak about the Internet intelligently here (SF) would have probably landed you VC, it was incredibly hard in Nebraska to get investors or customers, because we first had to explain what the Internet was to people who had rarely used a computer. And even on the net, it was noticably harder to get people to take us seriously, once they knew where we were located. Location still matters. Although, I'm sure it's easier now -- as the article, about Ameritrade, says and as Craig's company is demonstrating. (Although, now that they landed big bucks, guess where Covalent's new main office is going to be? Hint: Not Lincoln.)