Jim Clark Decides Perhaps Silicon Valley Isn't Over; Pushes Home/Boat Automation

Venture Capital

from the he's-back? dept

Last we had heard about SGI/Netscape/Healtheon founder Jim Clark, he was saying that Silicon Valley was “over,” and he was off to Florida where he could relax a bit and play in the real estate market there (he apparently has a good nose for bubbles). However, while there, he apparently spent plenty of time playing with his fancy boat, chronicled in a book by Michael Lewis. He’s now taken the software he wrote to help power that boat, along with similar software to power his house and has set up a company to try to sell these various home/boat automation offerings. He says he just wants to test out the market to see if there’s really demand for the software, but the fact that $12 million (nearly $7 million from Clark) has been invested in the venture (called CommandScape) suggests it’s more than just a little investigation into the market feasibility. And, of course, it’s worth noting that this new company is (oh, look at that!) right here in Silicon Valley. Maybe it’s not so over, after all.