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From: jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,misc.invest,comp.ai
Subject: Re: Expert Systems Company Financing...
Message-ID: <17194@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Tue, 13-Oct-87 12:09:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: glacier.17194
Posted: Tue Oct 13 12:09:18 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Oct-87 00:42:42 EDT
References: <7260@dartvax.UUCP> <1111@omepd>
Reply-To: jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 25
Keywords: Venture Capital, Govrt loans,...
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.mac:8109 misc.invest:1035 comp.ai:887


     Right now, the venture capital community has had it with expert systems.
Hambrecht of Hambrecht and Quist, one of the more influential venture
capitalists, has been quoted as saying "Artificial intelligence is the most
effective means yet invented for separating investors from their money".
There are no AI startup success stories yet, remember; nothing comparable
to SUN or Lotus has happened.  A few companies made it to IPO, but the
stocks never took off.  Of the companies that received a lot of public
attention, the score is as follows.

			Annual  Annual  Yesterday	P/E
			High	Low
	Intellicorp	11 1/8  4 1/8	5 3/4		29
	Teknowledge	21 5/8  8      13 1/4           loss
	Symbolics        6 1/8  3       3 1/4           loss
	Lisp Machines					(bankrupt)

So forget an expert system startup using the venture capital route until
somebody makes it.

     But venture capital is a fad-driven industry.  Neural nets are hot
this month. 

					John Nagle