An article in the business section of the Times reports that three venture capital funds have teamed up to look to fund applications for Google Glass, the glasses with some mobile computing functionality built in that are forthcoming from Google:
On Wednesday, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz announced the Glass Collective, an investment partnership. The three firms said they had agreed to share every pitch from start-ups related to Glass, so each firm would have the chance to invest.
It is an efficient way for software and hardware developers to get their ideas in front of three prominent venture capital firms and to jump-start developers' creativity in thinking about ways to use the new hardware, said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures. The fund, which operates separately from Google, invests up to $250,000 in this type of early-stage start-up.
It is also a way for the firms to make sure the deal flow of the best ideas comes to them first. They are trying not to miss out on wearable computing, which many analysts say could be the next big wave of tech investing.
The article quotes John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and Bill Maris of Google Ventures, but it doesn't quote a single software or hardware developer or entrepreneur who might be seeking funding rather than offering it.
The one-sided sourcing of the article translates into an unasked, and unanswered question — is it possible that this "collective" might actually be bad for entrepreneurs, because instead of competing for the chance to fund these ventures by offering better deal terms to the entrepreneurs, the venture capitalists are all working together and all offering the same terms, take it or leave it.