Reports surfaced today that Bill Gates has started a new company called bgC3. The instantly forgettable name, which most bloggers have called a think tank to develop new ideas, has a new office and an unassuming logo.
If you recall, this is the Bill Gates who snuck into computer labs in high school to learn how to write computer code. The guy could conceivably take over the world. Yet the experts have surmised that bgC3 might operate like one of those celebrity "handlers" that filters ideas out to the Gates Foundation (which is mostly run by Melinda Gates) or to Microsoft, but might also have something to do with the Microsoft alum's day-to-day schedule and various business pursuits. It could also be a venture capital firm of some kind, helping young start-ups become Colossal Empires of Technology.
Silicon Valley insiders already know that Steve Jobs has a private office somewhere in Mountain View that he uses as a personal space. Maybe bgC3 is just a private firm for Gates to explore ideas? I don't think so. After all, what's with the mysterious C3 nomenclature? It must mean something, right? No one is talking. Techflash says the C might stand for company, as in Company Three. Or it might have something to do with being a Catalyst. The logo highlights the C3 name, but that could be temporary.
So here's what I think: Bill Gates never does anything small. He doesn't start small companies. He doesn't start small foundations -- the one he started intends to cure major diseases. Here's a few possible scenarios:
1. According to Wikipedia, C3 is a scientific term that has something to do with carbon. More specifically, C3 is a chemical symbol for tricarbon, which is found in space. That's right, folks: Bill Gates might be building the Microsoft of Space! Imagine the possibilities. Flying to the moon in your own personal spaceship instead of a personal computer -- now that is cool. Hopefully they won't run Vista.
2. If C3 is scientific in nature, it coudl be similar to 23andMe in mapping your DNA on the computer. I love this idea because there is no one else I want mapping my DNA than someone who built a computing empire brick by brick.
3. C3 is also an old command line interface, and the name bgC3 certainly sounds like something out of BASIC or C++. Maybe the new company will get back to basics -- a kind of CLI for the new millennium, possibly running in Linux. There is a precedence for this, you know. After all the raging success of Windows Server in the enterprise, the new trend is to use something called PowerShell -- a command line interface -- to control servers in your data center. You can string multiple commands together to do some very powerful things. Maybe bgC3 is planning some sort of command line resurrection.
4. Another possibility -- and this one is perhaps the most exciting -- is that bgC3 has something to do with the Web. (This blog is called Web 2.0 Watcher, so I have to write about the Web at least for a few minutes.) Microsoft loves Web incubation -- that's what Live Labs and Office Labs are all about. Maybe Bill Gates is planning on creating a bunch of really amazing Web 2.0 start-ups! Er, probably not.
5. The idea I like most, which I saved for the end: What if bgC3 is just a placeholder for a new company that will do everything? I mean, what if it is the next Microsoft? I always thought that Gates was limited by being in technology. What if Company Three is the real monolith -- part foundation, part tech, part oil and gas, part -- I don't know, travel. What if it's sort of a Heart Corporation that owns television stations, magazines, Web sites, newspapers -- but C3 even goes further. Maybe this is the real legacy, a conglomerate that will make Microsoft seem tiny, the start of somehting Really Big.
I don't know, either that or the guy just wanted a little more office space. Post what you think it is in comments.
source
blogs.computerworld.com
