Looking for the next big thing...

I've been very busy these past few weeks. First, I am consulting to several companies on issues concerning Mobility - mainly R&D stuff (High level architecture and design), this alone can take all my time, but I am trying to take only a few selected projects to make some time for my other main activity...

And this activity is "looking for the next big thing", I definitely know I will launch a new startup some time soon. The only questions remaining are in what field, with who and which funding to take.... 3 simple questions...

As for the first question, there are a lot of interesting fields out there. The field I've been engaged with the past few years is mobile content (and more specifically games). I still think there's a great potential there but some of the problems that should have been solved by now, are still here (i.e. operators closed gardens, device fragmentation etc.). However, the opportunity seems to be around the corner as devices are becoming easier to handle, so everything is still open.

There is of course a broader field and that's mobile. Working in the mobile content field requires deep understanding of all things mobile, and I am very familiar with other fields within the mobile space. In fact, many of the problems and challenges are the same. And the good thing is that all the problems in the mobile space that I've been surprised to discover time after time are now known and easier to handle - "Know thy enemy..."...

So mobile is definitely a good sweetspot for me, but I am also looking at other ventures some in the (non-mobile) gaming field and some in the IT/Security field, in which I have a long history (I've been in this space for about 5 years, all before my deep descent into the mobile space).

Regarding the second question (with who), I have been meeting with several entrepreneurs groups this past month with ideas in all the spaces I mentioned above. I must say that all the ideas I saw are quite good - but I am trying to figure out whether they're excellent... Some of these entrepreneurs are old friends, so it's fun to catch up. There are a lot of advantages going with other entrepreneurs as a group rather than founding a startup alone (which is what I did in GamearraY), but it all depends in the opportunity and the situation.

And last but not least - funding... the first thing is when to seek funding - on one hand developing the product in a garage company mode, coming with more to show, is a good approach - on the other hand if the vision is clear and the opportunity is there - why waste time and sit in the garage instead of getting funding and increasing the workforce from the start? Of course the first approach is better in terms of evaluation - but - you can rarely get to a point that your garage work made your company pass the seed stage and get immediately a round A.

There are also 2 smaller projects I am thinking about that can reach the user phase without funding (aside from me not working...). In fact a lot has been said about the trend of entrepreneurs that try to postpone as much funding of any kind. It has been claimed that Web 2.0 apps can be easily written by 4 capable entrepreneurs in a garage mode. However I think that's not enough since you have to "make some noise", go to conferences, spend some marketing dollars and constantly improve the application (And if it really has a great potential you'd rather have dozens of programmers working for you), so I still think that for most projects VCs/Angles will be necessary - but it is true that a lot can be achieved without funding, which may improve the term sheet you get at the end.

Well, these are my thoughts, I plan to settle on one idea sometime soon... however, setting up the startup and get the funding can easily take 6-12 months, so in the meantime I am still accepting consulting projects. The ones I have taken so far are interesting, sometime not less than the startup "scene"....

P.S. - My post on deploying J2ME apps in the US was published on Reddit's programming community. This led to 7,500 visits to my blog in two days (4,500 in one day), definitely a record for me.... Thanks to whoever posted it. This post seems to attract a lot of attention and in fact it is the entry point to my blog for most new visitors. Just shows how the closed gardens issue is bothering the industry.

P.S.2. - Since this is a mobile blog, I can't end without saying something about the iPhone 3G: It looks like Apple is going to create another revolution, and aside from the added GPS, I am talking about the platform openness on one hand and the surprising price on the other hand. If technology advances failed so far to drive sophisticated devices to the hands of mainstream users around the globe, the significant pricecut has a great potential of doing it. However, I was disappointed to learn that the 2MP camera was not upgraded.

P.S.3. - I should get a Sony PS3...