Yahoo! interview: what's the next Flickr?

After listening to a talk by the brilliant and peppy Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and now-Yahoo! employee, on Friday, I was intrigued to see an interview with Yahoo!'s VP for product strategy (the guy who makes the deals), Bradley Horowitz, about what the entrepreneurial tech firm is looking to buy next [WSJ subscription required].

He mentioned that his team looks at hundreds of pitches each week, while he ends up seeing only "dozens" of them and still so many of the products have the same pitch: "it's the next Flickr!" they all say. He's surprised at the number of "Computer Science 101 projects" that come across his desk -- i.e., companies that are both obvious and simplistic.

He's looking for people ("in it for the right reason" and "passionate about their product") more than he is product, but he's unclear as to what sort of product he might invest in. When you think about it, Yahoo! already had photo sharing before it bought Flickr. The next big thing for Yahoo!? Just might be more of the same, but with really cool folks attached to it. After all, haven't all the really great ideas already been invented?

Sarah Gilbert has a Wharton MBA and worked in investment banking for several years, then at a series of increasingly edgy startups before finding her calling, producing blogs for AOL. She doesn't own stock in Yahoo!.

Photo courtesy Horowitz' colleague Stewart Butterfield.