David Semeria

"What do you expect your normal investment size to be? Will you be doing follow-on rounds (if small)?" - David Semeria

"No French genes then? :) Joking apart, Hunch is going to have to work hard to keep this fresh. I was already bored taking IQ/personality/whatever tests in the last millennium." - David Semeria

"Sometimes your comments are seriously surreal, Shana." - David Semeria

"What about the perfume? We *demand* an answer to the perfume question!" - David Semeria

"I think there is an inevitable tension between security and functionality, especially in web apps. For example, the "single site rule" was created to plug cross-domain scripting attacks, but developers are actively trying to find ways around it so as to make their applications be able to dialog with multiple data sources." - David Semeria

"As usual JLM, bang on the money. The Italians have a saying "Clear pacts, long friendships". Agree with a handshake, then write it down. Always." - David Semeria

"How frequent are post-money option pools?" - David Semeria

"Usage can apply to anything. Hosting services, an email application, media content. You host a service (perhaps made up of all of the above) and charge users $10 for, say, 1000 accesses. You then pay the ultimate content/service providers, say, $5/1000. And pocket the difference." - David Semeria

"Hi Kid. I've lately been thinking a lot about web monetization. When I worked in the public equity markets, I witnessed the tail-end of the emergence of something quite strange. People started taking volatility, which is an *effect* of trading activity, and began trading it. People built profitable businesses from the buying and selling of something which before they hadn't even considered tradable. If you had suggested this to people in the sixties and early seventies, they would have laughed at you. I get a similar reaction when I suggest that in the future the new internet currency will be usage. I see both a wholesale and a retail market for usage, with the service provider acting just like a standard retailer. Hence a website can 'buy' usage for applications, content, hosting services, etc - perhaps do some repackaging/branding etc - and then sell the usage on to the end user. Are you laughing?" - David Semeria

"Does it really make much difference which is to blame? The key point is that it's going to be increasingly difficult to rely on advertising as the principle revenue stream going forward, no?" - David Semeria

"Great points Albert. So how do you see this affecting web monetization models?" - David Semeria

"In essence, you are exploring the space between the combined transport and presentation layers (TCP/IP, HTML, etc) - which are very open and transparent - and the data management layer - which is still very closed. You rightly highlight FB, but even the seemingly more open Twitter ultimately controls access to the UGC on its servers. Over time, I firmly believe a "meta net" will emerge in which people will be able to host their information wherever they choose, and allow selective access to users and applications. For me, the major issue is who will pay for it. Freedom, as we all know, frequently comes at a price." - David Semeria

"Good point Carl. Proper investment requires total intellectual honesty - perhaps not by coincidence, another Lynch quote." - David Semeria

"And rightly so. You two are going to have a whale of time!" - David Semeria

"Thanks Shana, very kind." - David Semeria

"Tying in a few threads, was is not Churchill who said (of Atlee, I think) "He's a modest man with much to be modest about" - that's me alright. That said, I would never have anticipated my petticoats had the potential to inspire such heated debate :)" - David Semeria

"After a quick rendezvous with a dictionary, I can only say I'm humbled by your words - but alas, much as I would like to believe them - who wouldn't? - they describe a better man than I. Fred is right, JLM, you're the real deal." - David Semeria

"As I was reading the post and the comments, I was reminded of the famous Fidelity fund manager Peter Lynch, who by coincidence JLM also mentioned here a few days ago. Lynch was famous for holding many more stocks than his peers. The running joke was that it was quicker to ask him which ones he didn't like. He used to take small positions just to remind himself to keep an eye on certain companies - the way most other people would use post-its. The funny thing is that he didn't really have a thesis (he was very bottom-up). People analyzed his portfolio, and how it changed over time, and provided him with a variety of ex-post sector and macro based thesi(?). Oddly, he agreed with them, and used them as the chapter headings for his most famous book. I'm not sure how any of this adds to the conversation, but I quite enjoyed writing it." - David Semeria