As one of the original seed investors in Carbonite, I often worry about data backup. As we move toward a nearly 100% digital life it becomes extremely important that we backup our digital data, because the digital data has become our lives. As we move toward cloud computing, backup becomes more nebulous. Certainly the online […]
An important theme that we’ve heard in talking to investors recently has been the challenge of making commitments over the next two years. On the one hand, some investors feel that 2010 and 2011 are likely to be years with good opportunities to invest – prices are down from their pre-crash highs, and many good managers […]
It’s 2nd down and about 10 yards to go, and Harry Reid decided he might as well punt. With today’s news that any upcoming energy bill won’t include climate legislation or even a renewable portfolio standard, cleantech entrepreneurs and investors are left scratching their heads. Yet more uncertainty. I continue to see pitches from companies […]
General partners in private equity funds claim that a variety of global regulations -- Basel III, Solvency II, the "Volcker rule" and the European Alternative Investments Fund Manager Directive -- will severely restrict available fund capital, thus decreasing the amount of financing available to non-listed businesses. Not a good thing for economic growth, particularly when small businesses already are having trouble securing bank loans. However, the situation is not as obvious as general partners describe it. First, funds are the emerged part of the iceberg in terms of private equity: Family offices, corporations (listed or not), sovereign wealth funds, individuals... a significant group of economic actors are indeed doing non-listed investments. This does not necessarily get into the figures reported by the professional associations (such as the NVCA, EVCA and others). In fact, they only gather statistics from their members, who are general partners in private equity funds.
I and a couple other ad agency people attended the AOL Ventures and Betaworks-sponsored VC Demo Day last night, where prominent VCs had four minutes to communicate/market their respective companies. It was intriguing to benchmark another industry and experience VC community interaction. None of the agency people could imagine an advertiser coalition coming together to pitch advertising agencies to potentially work with one another. But that's exactly what the spirit of this event intended and succeeded in doing. What struck us is that no matter what the industry, there tend to be core fundamentals that yield more engaging, positive presentations that go a long way in winning over a target audience:
Let’s focus on the word “Conscious” to continue our exploration of Conscious Capitalism. My ego originally found the word vaguely threatening. It made me feel uncomfortable. Because I didn’t understand what it meant, my ignorance created resistance. I feared there was an implied value judgment directed at me. Did this mean that I was not conscious? Did this imply that there were others who were more conscious than me? Determining whether or not there was a “there” there in Conscious Capitalism required me to get comfortable with this word.
After I posted the recent map of Silicon Alley’s early-stage venture ecosystem, a healthy number of people found it to be very helpful and several suggested I do the same for Boston. Well, here’s my first stab at capturing what is just a massive early stage venture ecosystem! Until you lay it out on a […]
There’s a famous moment in 1970s television sitcom lore when the super-popular “Happy Days” lost its mojo. That moment is when the main character and hero, Arthur Fonzarelli (“The Fonze”), performs the improbable water-ski trick of jumping over a shark. Now, I’m an avid water-skiier, and I’ve been known to jump a Loon or two, […]
For more than a year, I’ve been writing that the U.S. financial ecosystem for venture capital-backed startups is crumbling and placing the U.S economy in jeopardy at a time when countries such as China and India are producing far more sophisticated startups than ever. For so long, it seemed that these concerns fell on deaf ears. I’m heartened to say that this message, at long last, may finally be getting heard in Congress.
I’ve taken a break from writing peHUB posts to explore Conscious Capitalism, which is emerging as the next big thing in business. Briefly, Conscious Capitalism has three key principles that set it apart from the current variant of capitalism practiced around the globe. First, a company has a deeper meta-purpose in addition to maximizing profits. Second, a company recognizes this it is a complex ecosystem comprised of numerous interdependent stakeholders and not just the traditional limited duality of management and stockholders, and delivers value to all stakeholders. Third, the CEO is the steward of his company and its ecosystem working for the benefit of all the stakeholders, not just for his own enrichment. The deeper I got into the world of Conscious Capitalism, the more I realized that it was strangely familiar. The progenitors of the venture capital industry like General Georges Doriot practiced venture capital by intuitively using these principles. To make money in venture capital, their focus was on building great businesses. Entrepreneurs like David Packard and Walter Hewlett understood that building a great business inherently required following the principles of what is now called Conscious Capitalism.