I just started a company with which I will attempt to involve myself in startups. For simplicity, I have dubbed it David Shen Ventures, LLC.
Through advisorships with companies, I can give them the benefit of my 9 years of Yahoo! experience in creating businesses on the Internet. I meld that with my experience in design and believe that I can increase a company’s chance of success.
But one thing I’ve noticed being out here in the world for 2 years after Yahoo! – even after the Internet being around for about 11 years or so now, the broadness of knowledge still has not made it out of the walls of Yahoo! or Google. If you think about it, not many people have really left those companies until just recently. As a result, most of the companies don’t get the exposure to the breadth and depth of thought that occurs within those companies. I’ve always said that the most junior of employees at Yahoo! has still more knowledge about Internet products than the most experienced of another company. It has nothing to do with intelligence; smart people are everywhere. It has everything to do with experience and exposure to lines of thinking that you would never had seen unless you worked at a Google or Yahoo!.
As I get David Shen Ventures, LLC into operation, I find that there is a real desire of startups to learn the secrets of Yahoo! or Google. My hope is that I can truly add value to these companies, and to the industry in general, by exposing them to the thinking and experience that I had 9 years of immersion in.
I want to spread the knowledge. I want to share the wealth of the wisdom.
It’s been a positive thing for me; already I have 12 companies wanting me to join them. So much hunger for Yahoo! know-how…