X for Y, or X meets Y

Recently, it feels like many internet based businesses being born in the valley are not revolutionary new technologies, business models, or use cases. Rather, they fall into one of two categories:

• X meets Y
  

Or

• X for Y

A great example of this is Yammer, which won first place at last week's TC50 conference. What is Yammer? It is "twitter for the Enterprise". Don't get me wrong, I like Yammer and think it could do very well as a micro-blogging service in the enterprise, but is it a revolutionary new technology, business model, or use case? No, but it does fill a gap as twitter had not yet made much traction in the Enterprise. An "X for Y" service such as Yammer winning first place at a premier silicon valley conference such as TC50 is a clear indication of the state of the valley.

I think there are two reasons for what we are seeing. We are either at the top of the S curve in the evolution of the internet or we are creating businesses with the objective of having a quick exit. My opinion is that many of the ideas being generated around the valley today are focused on how can we get a quick exit, versus how can we build a business that can grow into a profitable standalone enterprise. Sure, the opportunity for a quick exit exists in these copy/paste type of businesses, but the real opportunities and up sides are in new revolutionary plays. My own belief is that we are not yet at the top of the S curve by any means, but somewhere in the middle with a whole lot of opportunities for services that leverage the data layer more deeply ready to be born.