One example was in 1978, when a venture capitalist in the San Francisco area, Don Valentine, was introduced to an ex-employee of a video game maker who wanted to build computers that would be sold to individuals. At that point, only businesses could afford them.
The young man couldn’t secure funding, in part because of his messy appearance. His name was Steve Jobs.
Boring Co. investment
After bankrolling Apple, Valentine’s Sequoia Capital became one of the most successful private equity firms specialising in technology. In April, it co-led a $US675 million ($1 billion) investment in an Elon Musk start-up, The Boring Co.
Like much of what Musk does, it was an idea proposed in a tweet. “Traffic is driving me nuts,” he tweeted in 2016. “Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging …”
The Boring Co. intends to replace highways with tunnels drilled by cheap drilling machines. Computer-driven electric cars will move people around, underground.
There’s a catch. It isn’t happening.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Musk’s company has built only one tunnel – a demonstration site in Las Vegas. Projects announced with fanfare in California, Chicago and Maryland have failed to go ahead despite enthusiasm from government authorities.
The Maryland governor granted Musk’s company approval to build a high-speed train to Washington in 2017.
“All Boring had to do was bring its machine and start digging, former Maryland officials said,”…
