The first sentence could better be said: "What's so great about Dalton being there?"
Yes, I am dismissing this company, and I know it's risky to publicly state something like that, but I really feel that the product does not warrant the investment of 5million in any way. It's a good product, and it will surely be successful and have a number of users, but I doubt it will become any kind of force.
Take a look at the download numbers, according to techcrunch they have had 100.000 downloads since MAY. So between may and october, they have 100k downloads (http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/13/picplz-launches-revamped-mo...).
With my crap apps, I have 15k downloads a day. So in a week, I'd have that number of downloads. It's not hard to do that. That guy Kreci had 200k+ downloads on some weird apps on the android store also in a couple of months.
The product is not right. Even smart guys can have bad products, and from what I read, those twitter dudes gave back the investment money on their original product, so the investment is not just in the people, it's also in the product.
So I feel that there is a bit of a bubble there, where people are just being handed money based off reputation without proper diligence being paid to the product.
I've heard Dalton speak twice. The first was at "WorkataStartup". I had never met him, or heard of him, but after hearing his pitch that day, I said to myself, "I'd almost be willing to sign up with PicPlz just to work along side Dalton". But, I have my own startup.
I heard Dalton speak at startup school, and what impressed me was his command over the financial and legal ramifications of music startups. I've come across a number of people doing music startups via Hackers and Founders, and I've never met anyone so well versed or educated about the business end of music, licensing, etc...
The, I met Dalton at this party at Andreesen Horowitz last month[1], and I made a point of talking with Dalton for 15-20 minutes. Once again came away quite impressed by the man. And, in the Q&A with Michael Ovitz[2], Dalton made one of the best points about the future of the music industry and media business that I've heard in a long time.
I think I have a halfway decent nose for founder talent. I run one of the largest startup/tech meetups in Silicon Valley[3], and I've seen a lot of founders come and go over the last 3 years. If I were a VC, I'd be tripping over myself to have Dalton take money from me. If it's not photo sharing, it will be something else, but either way, I'd lay money on Dalton having a good exit on one of his startups.
ref:
[1] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_46/b42030000...