Why Lytro Matters

The web has ben abuzz for the past 24 hours about a new start up called Lytro - which has come up with a technology to capture light fields instead of a plane of light.

Put simply, it is a new form of camera that allows for almost infinite depth of field and focus after the fact - it is like image capture for the human eye.

Very cool looking

So why is it worth yet another post? Why does Lytro matter?

the answer lies in the state of the venture world today:

Go back a few years and access to capital was of paramount importance - today, capital is plentiful and fungible

Technology used to be a very big key differentiator - now most tech is derivative (and I admit I'm not a tech guy and couldn't build any of these products or services - but most of the tech is being built using off the shelf parts, Rails etc...)

Ideas are important - but given the lack of tech differentiation, most ideas can be knocked off quickly and iterated on once use cases have come to the fore.

The key - as it always has been for some time - is the strategy and execution that a company ultimately brings to the table. Never has this been more true - and never have companies had less leeway in terms of their strategy and execution given the first 3 comments.

Why Lytro is so important is that they seem to have come up with a radically new technology.

You look at what they are doing and a few round the clock hack sessions is not going to duplicate it.

What is so important about this is the fact that Lytro, while still having to strategize and execute, will have a heck of a lot more time to do this - given their technological headstart.

This is a luxury that few companies have today

And that's why Lytro matters.

If you are just starting out - how are you going to give yourself more leeway in the execution of your plan?