Google Glass, the fall of Color, and why timing is everything

When a company and app called Color announced its launch, its $41 million of Sequoia funding and its all-star lineup of a team in March of 2011, the tech world issued a collective gasp:

Could any startup – no matter how stacked with talent and vision, possibly justify the valuation on a $41 million raise BEFORE launch?

The majority of the commentariat said no. Color's launch (and subsequent splat on the sidewalk) was proof that we were in a bubble; that Silicon Valley was high on its own farts; that Bill Nguyen had somehow conned the partners at one the valley's most legendary VC firms into making one of their biggest Series A software investments in pretty much ever.

But if you go back and listen to Bill Nguyen explain the idea behind Color, you might notice something remarkable: Nguyen's vision for Color is fantastic and prescient. It was just two years ahead of its time.

The technology, too, was pretty fantastic. Using location data and the camera on a smartphone, Color could create a temporary "real-time" visual social network - one built around taking the photographic experience you were having right now and sharing it with the people nearby.

Well, if you take some of that potion and mix it with the power of Google Glass, and you have something remarkable: an app that lets you see the world in real time through other people's eyes.

That is some pretty epic shit.

Imagine the nexus of Google Glass and Color at, say, a concert at a sold out stadium: the band is all wearing Glass, and with a simple voice command, you're watching the show from the lead singer's perspective. You glance to the upper right part of your field of vision and suddenly, you’re looking out over the microphone at all those lights, all those adoring people in thrall. Think of a taking in a football game and being able to watch it from anywhere in the stadium, from the nose-bleeds right to the sidelines, without actually moving from your seat.

When you look at it from this angle, a lot more of Color makes sense: the hype, the vision, the $41 million of Sequoia’s cash. It really could have been grand.

The key lessons of Color are not about over-funding and hype. The problem wasn't the technology, the vision, the team, or even the funding. The problem was that Color's concept came to market ahead of its time. The problem was that the team – perhaps overburdened by the weight of massive expectations – lost its morale and unraveled too soon.

The problem was that Color launched a Google Glass app into a smartphone world.