Latest news with #SteveCase
Business Journals
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Revolution, Hilton team up to deliver Waldorf Astoria in Costa Rica
By submitting your information you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement . The Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique has been in the works for nearly two decades. In August 2007, Revolution LLC co-founder Steve Case and then-Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez jointly announced a new luxury, oceanfront resort Case was bringing to the Cacique peninsula in the Guanacaste province. More than 15 years later, the Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique has finally opened as a joint venture between Revolution Places — the real estate and hospitality arm of D.C. venture capital firm Revolution — and the Waldorf Astoria's parent company, McLean-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT), the companies announced Tuesday. The beachfront resort has 188 rooms, a multilevel pool, 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a 17,000 square-foot spa and gym. It also has an eye toward sustainability, with native plants that help reduce water use on the property and greenery-covered rooftops to manage heat. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Hilton and Revolution have also built 40 permanent homes on the site — 20 fully furnished 'estate homes' with private pools and 20 condos — and plan to continue adding homes, lodging and other amenities on the roughly 600-acre property in the near future, the companies said. expand The hotel's rooftops are covered in greenery. Revolution 'Growing up in Hawaii, I saw firsthand how the economy evolved from agriculture to tourism, and how that transformation strengthened Hawaii's economy and increased the value of resort real estate,' Case said in a statement. 'Guanacaste is now on a similar journey, offering a rare chance to invest in an extraordinary and accessible destination, while it remains an emerging opportunity.' Case and Revolution Places did not have any specific plans for the roughly 600-acre site when they purchased it in 2006, a spokesperson for Revolution told me over email Wednesday. However, when Case and the Costa Rican president announced the pending project in 2007, Revolution was partnering with One&Only Resorts to build 120 villas on the site, the Washington Business Journal reported at the time. One&Only was also planning to build a spa, an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts and a fitness center. That project was estimated to cost $800 million, with an initial target date of 2010, but that was eventually scrapped and the two parted ways. A Revolution spokesperson declined to disclose the cost of the new resort because the project is ongoing. Launched in 2006, Revolution Places has backed travel-themed companies, such as Miraval Resorts, which operates luxury resorts and spas in three states, and Exclusive Resorts, a membership-based travel booking service that owns more than $1 billion in luxury real estate in such locales as Napa Valley in California and the Hamptons on Long Island. It is also an investor in Maui Land & Pineapple Co. (NYSE: MLP), an operating company that owns more than 22,300 acres of land in Maui used for a combination of conservation and agricultural and commercial uses. Revolution Places was also part of a 2016 effort to bring the first U.S. location of Paris-based MOB Hotel to D.C. as part of a mixed-use development at 400 Florida Ave. NE. MOB Hotel will open its D.C. location in 2027, according to the company's website. Here are the 10 largest venture capital investors in Greater Washington Deals closed in 2024 Rank Prior Rank Name/Prior/URL 1 2 In-Q-Tel Inc. 2 4 Lockheed Martin Ventures 2 3 SaaS Venture Capital View this list
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AOL's Steve Case Sees More Challenges for IPOs
Steve Case helped build the early internet as co-founder and longtime CEO of AOL. Now he's investing in the next wave of American innovation through his venture firm, Revolution. Steve joined Bloomberg's Open Interest to talk about the market volatility and what it means for US innovation and competitiveness. Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
10-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
AOL's Steve Case Sees More Challenges for IPOs
Steve Case helped build the early internet as co-founder and longtime CEO of AOL. Now he's investing in the next wave of American innovation through his venture firm, Revolution. Steve joined Bloomberg's Open Interest to talk about the market volatility and what it means for US innovation and competitiveness. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What the AI Generation Can Learn from the Dotcom Bust
Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and CEO of Revolution speaks in New York. Credit - Riccardo Savi—Getty Images This March marked the 25th anniversary of the dotcom bust, a moment that serves as both a cautionary tale and a source of valuable lessons as we navigate the current artificial intelligence (AI) boom. AI, much like the internet in the 1990s, is being hailed as the next transformative technology, with massive investment and sky-high valuations fueling excitement—and speculation. But if history is any guide, it may take longer than many expect for AI to reach its full potential, and there will be both winners and losers along the way. As the co-founder of AOL, I had a front row seat to the Internet revolution. And I see several key lessons from that era that are relevant to the AI boom today. The lessons from the Internet and how they might inform the AI revolution are starting to become clear. Transformative technologies often take time to mature, but when the right conditions align, adoption can accelerate at an astonishing pace. Policymakers must strike a delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring responsible oversight, as premature or excessive regulation can stifle progress. Meanwhile, market dynamics usually favor early adopters, but industry concentration in AI risks limiting opportunities for young startups. Finally, hype cycles are inevitable—overinvestment leads to corrections, but true breakthroughs endure. Together, these insights reinforce the need for strategic and surgical regulation, open access, and a steady hand in shaping AI's future. First, technology adoption takes time—but when it clicks, it moves fast. While AI may feel like an overnight success, its roots go back more than 70 years. The Internet too, has been in development for more than two decades when AOL became the first Internet company to go public, in 1992. AI has arguably taken longer to fully develop than the internet did, but because the world is now more interconnected, when ChatGPT launched it was able to get 100 million downloads in just three months. By comparison, it took AOL nine years to reach 1 million subscribers. AOL's first funding round in 1985 was just $1 million; today, some AI startups are raising $1 billion, with not much more than an intriguing idea and an experienced team. Second, AI's rapid adoption is forcing policymakers to engage earlier than they did with the Internet. Yes, the government played a critical role in enabling the Internet to flourish. Key decisions—such as the breakup of Ma Bell, which spurred competition in telecommunications, and Congress' decision to open access to the internet to everyone—helped unleash the digital age. But because consumer adoption of the Internet was relatively gradual, the government could initially adopt a 'wait and see' attitude, and a 'light touch' in terms of regulations, while they monitored how it evolved and impacted our lives. But now, there is pressure to move quickly, especially given the 'doomsday' scenarios that AI experts are understandably concerned about. So coming to agreement sooner on appropriate guardrails is important. At the same time, we can't let concerns about what might go wrong lead to stifling regulations that could hobble the many societal benefits of AI, or put at risk U.S. leadership of this highly strategic technology. It will be tricky, but we need to strike the right balance between responsible oversight and fostering continued rapid innovation. Third, during the internet boom, major corporations experimented with the nascent technology, but few took it seriously at first. Many of America's largest and most valuable companies at the time—like GE and AT&T—dabbled in online strategies, but were not sure it would have broad appeal. Their decision to largely stay on the sidelines created an amazing opportunity for a new generation of companies to emerge, including AOL, Yahoo, and many others. But AI is different. The biggest tech companies, Microsoft, Google, Meta. Amazon, and others—are all in, and there's now an arms race to dominate AI. This raises concerns for startups. Unlike during the early days of the Internet, the development of foundational AI platforms is largely concentrated in the hands of a few dominant firms. Open-source AI could help increase the likelihood of broader access and innovation. Without it, we risk AI enabling Big Tech to get bigger, and a new generation of disruptive startups could be left behind. Fourth, hype and FOMO will inevitably lead to market corrections. In the late 1990s, the belief that "the Internet will change everything" drove sky-high valuations. That belief wasn't wrong—the Internet did change everything. But not overnight, and not for every company. When the bubble burst, many concluded that the Internet was a passing fad. Even within AOL Time Warner there were skeptics. In reality, the shakeout led to hundreds of companies falling by the wayside, but the strongest companies—Google and Amazon among them—really thrived. AI is experiencing a similar hop and hype cycle. There's a frenzy to invest early, reminiscent of the dotcom era, as investors don't want to miss out on what is undoubtedly the next big thing. But as with the Internet, not every AI startup will thrive; indeed, most won't even survive. Still, the technological mega trend is real. The Internet led to a paradigm shift which changed all of our lives. AI will, as well. But fasten your seat belt, because if the dotcom bust is any indication, it will undoubtedly be a wild roller coaster ride. Contact us at letters@
