Why Silicon Valley Funds Instagrams, Not Hyperloops

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

These people were never interested in pure research, that's for big corporations and the government, where a clear path to profit isn't required for every penny invested.

And that is the problem. Pure (fundamental) research is no longer being conducted by big corporations when great labs such as Bendix, Sarnoff, and Bell created so many world class innovations. Take Big Pharma as an example. Once these companies (about 42) had 7 drugs in the innovation pipeline. Today there are less than 13 (due to M/A and other business school money games) with only 3 drugs in the innovation pipeline. Most research comes from outside sources (ie universities) and is paid for by government and other sources. Since profits are now more important than the product, Big Pharma now does less research.

Wall Street will not invest even in application research. Wall Street will freely invest in non-innovative companies like Kodak, airlines, Xerox, ethanol producers, GM, or hedge funds. A growing company for 3D printing in NYC needed crowd sourcing for capital. Wall Street cannot invest is a product that cannot be measured by dollars on spread sheets. Other companies that innovate find other and fewer who actually pay for, understand, and promote application research such as Venture Capitalists.

Unfortunately Jerzy does not know the difference between investors who invest based upon product's potential verses investors who actually think the spread sheet can predict future profits (as Carly Fiorina so boldly claimed). Instead his arguments assume profits (not the product) motivate innovators.