Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Apollo who wrote (21755)	3/30/2000 9:07:00 AM
From: gdichaz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Snasraway: Agree. Particularly agree that the basic principles of the original Gorilla Game book are the only solid guide. As you observe even the Godzilla ideas are tentative and the "vision" idea (whatever that is) is ultra tentative. It makes no sense to me to stray from basics to tentative as a foundation. A house built on tentative ground is a very shaky structure. All I have been trying to suggest is that since Geoff Moore seems to be testing new approaches, that we pay attention to his attempt at dealing with the differences (such as the internet and e commerce - hence "Godzillas" and the speed with which changes take place now which could be called "internet time" - hence "vision"). Whatever "vision" is seems to me to be a particularly slippery concept. As best I can make out it is advance warning of a tornado formation, i.e. before rapid revenue increases signal a possible buy point. He seems to see an earlier possible buy point - but how and why seem fuzzy in the extreme. All I suggest is that we watch with interest, not change how we actually invest in any way. Best. Cha2

To: Apollo who wrote (21755)	3/30/2000 12:38:00 PM
From: Bruce Brown	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

RE: Godzillas... (OT for Gorilla Gamers with no interest in the Godzilla Game space) Bruce Brown was kind enough to quote Moore awhile back in which Moore confirmed exactly this, in that Godzilla is a concept idea, that "hasn't been fleshed out". Bottom line, I think the basic principles of the FM are intact, and important. I think we should be open minded about the rest, such as entry points, godzilla plays, definitions of godzillas, etc. I think it is hard to defend "godzilla", pro or con, when Moore is obviously evolving. Same may be true for other issues, too. A large part of the equation when one uses the terminology "hasn't been fleshed out" has to do with the absolute reality of 'new territory' in terms of business models for the Internet space. We simply haven't seen some of these models before. Hence, investors have had to dive in and try to get some sort of a grasp on a Godzilla business model only to watch it change due to the option effect of ever changing models. Think of AOL's history. Think of the recent talks about eBay and Yahoo! (that was a shocker for me!). I don't study them all, but the best business models have come to the fore and I hold some shares in my portfolio. Companies like eBay, Yahoo!, AOL, DoubleClick and the whatever you want to call CMGI - the Godzilla incubator. There are a few more that look pretty compelling, but we have already seen and will continue to see many of the poorly conceived internet business models fail and fall from grace while the well conceived models that did execute the best during their tornado will most likely have a long lasting success. There are more than 500 'internet' companies today as opposed to below a dozen just a few short years ago. The strength and power of those first companies, using the revised manual's Icarus Scoring system, have been living up to their 'Godzilla' title. I'm sure their are a host of survivors that will reward their investors for many, many years. I have really not been anxious to invest outside of the 4 I currently hold. As I follow the GG list that Geoff participates on from time to time in between his busy schedule, I can generalize that the discussion in terms of posts aimed at the Godzilla space are few and far between. The latest comments revolved around HLTH's business model and strong cases were made that in no way does it appear that this business model has the foundation of other wildly successful Godzillas. The model may hold, but some flaws in the model are too looming for my investment. Sorry for the off the track discussion. However, I believe it is only natural for Wall Street, investors and the books authors to allow the 'Godzilla' space the 'fleshing out' that it needs. Not really an analogy, but you all remember what Coca-Cola was selling way back at the beginning? One hell of a drink that none of us ever had the 'joy' of consuming. Yet, the business model held and evolved over the decades. Some of these huge Godzillas have the clout, success, management, stock, money and vision to evolve. BB