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November 08 关于风险投资的一些考古1938: The phrase "venture capital" first used by DuPont
1945: A group of Boston civic leaders formed the first nonfamily venture capital organization, American Research and Development (ARD)
1956: HP went public, which demonstrated the viability of the VC model
1968: In their founding of Intel, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore worked with WSGR to devise a stock ownership plan for entrepreneurs
1972: Kleiner and Perkins began operation. So did Donald Valentine (Sequoia)
1972 on wards: VC firms started to relocate to Sand Hill Rd after KP's move to 3000 Sand Hill Rd.
1980: The Venture Capital Journal began publication
Mid 1980s: VC contracts became routinized
1980-present: Growth of a hierarchy of venture funds - "mega funds" - further professionalize venture investing.
今天的VC们在想什么呢？看NYT的这则关于capital-efficient start-ups报道(IHT link) November 07 a little changeI was invited to judge a business plan pitching competition two weeks ago at Stanford, and walked away truly impressed by the skills and breadth of knowledge from the students. The event was organized by a student group called ASES. I was involved with running its Shanghai Summit back in 2002, and was happy to re-connect. Five teams were assigned an Internet company (see list below), and were given about 20min to research and develop strategy to enter the Mainland China market, and pitch to VC (me and another Stanford alum from Lehman Brothers) for funding. I structured my feedback as food for further thoughts, rather than critic their presentation. I guess maybe only half a year ago I would react more like poking holes in front of them, and reminding them the real world across the Pacific is tough and unpredictable. But now I have learned to be more encouraging and supportive, thanks for all the people who have been treating me like that these days, from top tier VC to just another entrepreneur I run into on a networking event. Just a little change on myself that I would love to cherish and keep.
List of companies that students worked on: www.Doostand.com a job referral networking site www.prosper.com micro-finance platform www.ODEO.com podcasting www.touchstone.com feeds service provider www.openDNS.com service to improve the safety and speed of the Domain Name System. Leadership and making choices周末翻了翻前惠普CEO Carly Fiorina的回忆录Tough Choices. Below are few talking points from this tough woman. Leadership is not about title, position, size of your budget or size of your stuff. It is about a choice to make a positive difference, seeing leadership potential in other people and unlocking it, taking risk and overcoming resistance (which is the nature of change) and get a group of people to accomplish something that they think is impossible. Success is about doing things make you happy and proud, knowing your soul and keeping it. You cannot sell your soul. If you do no one will ever pay you back. October 02 What kept me busy these two weeks...September 20 VLAB mobile phone panel: Convergence is driven by consumersCan't believe it has been another two months since the last post. I will try to update more regularly on what I see and think here in the Valley.
Went back to Stanford for a MIT/Stanford VLAB panel discussion tonight. The talk is on "Television Breaks Out of the Box: The Mad Rush to go Mobile". Event description is here, my takeaway below:
1. On the idea of "convergence": the business philosophy of MobiTV. The company claims to be the first and only global TV network for cell phones. - To solve the question - how can consumer get what they want from where they are on a unified platform, MobiTV went from providing technology, to application, to finally an infrastructure that carries all.
- Because technology itself doesn't sell, if there is no content. And the company succeed by making it easier for both carriers and wireless operators to work together.
- Convergence is driven by consumers: I want it, and I get it from my personal device. Service should be seamless, and painless. Access should be simple. Those who can meet the consumer needs and execute fast wins the game.
2. On the trillion-dollar ads market.
- Different ads model on TV, Web and mobile devices.
- TV in the living-room is shared with the family. Cell phone is my personal phone, and hence more intimacy and is hugely important to marketers.
- Cell phone also provide possibility for more targeted audience, from analyzing the cell phone owner's behavior profile, marketers can get demographic info, location info, whereabouts, etc usage patterns, and feed ads relevant to the individual's life (e.g. coupon for local service)
- The 30sec ads spot on TV is too long for mobile devices. Should be 5-10 sec, and interactive, and actionable.
A side point. After dealing extensively with two volunteer-driven professional organizations on their annual conferences lately, VLAB gave me a fresh look at how such group can recognize its volunteers' hard work thru event materials. And, the msg is consistence, operation is smooth and professional, audience is also quite focused and drive the discussion with good questions. July 21 CNNIC发布第18次互联网报告By June 30, 2006. China has 123 million Internet users, a 19.4% rise from previous year. 30 million are elementary or high school students. Average hours spent online is 16.5hrs, a historic new high. According to the online survey: Report released July 19, 2006. Comment 1: 123million, VC们又可以好好炒作中国的互联网市场有多大了。。。 Comment 2: QQ 号称超过 200 million 的 unique registered users (mostly on the internet), 比CNNIC公布的网民总数还多。到底应该相信哪家的数据呢? July 13 推荐几本老外写的关于中国的书毕业后在旧金山实习，每天上下班要在Caltrain上花费近一个小时。这到给我了极其难得的阅读时间。读研的时候课业太忙，积累了好几本闲书想看，终于有时间了! 书名叫One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, 作者是90年代华尔街日报驻北京的记者James McGregor。我才看了两章，但是爱不释手。 第一章Grand Bargain用不到20页的篇幅，回顾了从中国从清朝末期被列强叩开大门到2001年加入WTO两百多年的逐步开放融入世界市场的历史。在处理如何对付洋人的问题上，已经步入21世纪的中国商人也许依然是李鸿章灵魂附体，既有泱泱大国的优越感，又深知自己产品和管理技不如人。 第二章名为同床异梦，通过中金国际组建过程中Morgan Stanley和建行的角力一案，阐述中西文化的差异。谈判桌上讨价还价，中国人一直是高手。其中对王岐山，方风雷，朱镕基等人物的描述和评价实在叫绝。 喜欢这本书的原因是，作者尊重中国的历史，并且试图去把握所谓的”Chinese essence”。McGregor现在已是成功的商人，他讲中国的故事也是希望更多人学会如何和中国人打交道做生意。 在和朋友交流这本书时又得到了另外一些推荐: China Shakes the World : A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future -- and the Challenge for America，作者是前英国金融时报北京分社社长。 也许是以前工作的关系，总是有点迷信外媒驻中国记者看问题的视角。金融时报是我最喜欢的欧洲报纸，报道全面深入客观，也不像美国主流媒体那样难免带点霸气。 GSB的朋友推荐了这本书，作者并不是什么腕级人物，但据说GSB的很多对中国感兴趣的学生都看过Mr. China。我还是相信口碑传播的。
来美国之前还读过 Ted Fishman的China Inc，不过并不推荐。作者并没有在中国生活很长时间，实地采访不是很扎实，留于一些宏观数据的堆砌，而且有些结论下得过于牵强，比如从长三角或珠三角的某个加工厂的兴起联系到美国中部一个制造业小镇的没落。 到是一种全球化视野，但难免有以偏概全之嫌。 还有其它什么好书，欢迎大家推荐！ December 01 Go for the pictures!I hope I will be updating my flickr more regularly than I used to. But right now, there is already a lot to see! July 07 Please visit my blog atHi, Welcome!
Ycul is Fudanese's blogsphere, and for the kind of attachment I couldn't just leave the old host! so I'd just happily forward all you guys there. :-)
Meanwhile http://magnolia.yculblog.com |
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