4 companies sounds like a really small batch, though. And $1M going to all 4 sounds teeny tiny. Maybe I'm just used to seeing different VC portfolio scopes or reading about different Series A type numbers.
Still, we're talking about pre-pre-pre startup environment here. As the articles allude to, there isn't a culture or an infrastructure base even really setup to breed startups, and that's moreso what KYN seemed to be about than actually funding startups. Super pioneering stuff.
One thing that is notable lacking is "competition". Competition brings results. A place like SF is highly competitive. One really really has to prove out their thesis and pitch quite well (though even Andreesen has had a lot to say about that recently). Lots of $$$$, but even more ideas and the best and brightest flocking to the area for their chance. In Jax, it almost seems like self-motivation to do a little work here and there on some idea. The cost of living allows so many to just float around, and there's never any competition/carrot, or on the flip side, no promise of backing either.
I read a documentary on the creation of "Silicon Valley" recently. There are definitely different puzzle pieces that led to the Bay Area, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Denver, and a few others to be really start-up focused. VC was basically invented in the 50s/60s by Arthur Rock (who's still alive and friends with my roommate's family I should add) as a way to scoop 8 guys out of a fledgling company into their own "startup" (which became Fairchild Semiconductor, bank-rolled by the CEO of Fairchild Camera who was the initial investor called by Rock - Fairchild's dad had founded IBM).
Anyway, I digress.
I'm moreso on Rummell's side, just emotionally, than Khan's. Rummell is a local. Khan is not. Rummell has not taken handouts, per se, to the extent that Khan has. Rummell puts his money where his mouth is, time and time again. Khan hasn't truly proven that to us yet, nor has he fully proven how vested he is in the region (the Jags is a business purchase and can ultimately be moved if need be...the NFL has already whittled 3 teams down, of which 1-2 will go to LA, and San Antonio and a few other markets are being bounced as possible expansions or relocations). So I don't view the Jags as a full on bet on Jacksonville. The local minority owners were bought out, as well, and so it's truly a new non-local who owns the team, not a handful of locals.
