So little time, so much...

Thank you Steve Jobs...

2011-10-05T20:59:00.002-04:00

For reminding us to stay hungry and foolish
For enriching our lives
For truly changing our world

Beijing Entrepreneurs

2011-07-03T09:33:00.001-04:00

It was a terrific evening in Beijing, thanks to hosts Eric and Olivia of China Entrepreneurs, and an enthusiastic and passionate team lead by Tony An. Wayne Shaiyong of Bertelesmann Investments Asia, and a Core Advisor to SLP also attended, as did interestingly, several women investment bankers with technical degrees. There were entrepreneurs and hackers from leading multinationals. Didn't see anyone in lifesciences or cleantech, but I know they're out there.

This is an interesting time to bring SLP to China since nothing like this exists, and the program will connect Chinese entrepreneurs to the rest of the world. I am keen to see what sort of collaborations and new startups these relationships create, especially along the Bangalore-Beijing and Silicon Valley-Beijing corridors. The Beijing consumer internet scene is very vibrant, but from my conversations, they seem to be following US innovation, rather than the other way around.

The Beijing program will run in Chinese, though there is a requirement that everyone in the program understand English. Its the only way to keep the network global and vibrant. Since SLP runs on google assets, and most of these assets are blocked in China (though there is a way some of them can get around it), the program is impacted by Google leaving China. We're having to recreate everything in a parallel universe that is acceptable to China. That's twice the work and half the fun, but its worth the trouble.

Its going to be a lot of fun seeing the Program develop in Beijing.

Happy Mothers Day

2011-05-08T12:32:00.001-04:00

@KateSpade

When digital disrupts print

2011-04-27T16:38:00.000-04:00

This sign in the magazine section of the library is a sign of the times. What will your library look like in 12 months ? 10 percent of our magazines are gone.

Pinkberry comes to Boston

2011-04-22T13:40:00.001-04:00

My prayers have been answered.

Sachin, Dhoni and the Team. Thank You

2011-04-03T09:38:00.002-04:00

iPad 2 launch

2011-03-11T15:09:00.002-05:00

Today Apple is serving coffee to the early adopters. Way to go !

And then there were three...!

2011-02-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

Never seen a Star Alliance plane before. This is the first I've seen @ Newark, and its run by Continental (see logo on bottom right). But if the airlines consolidate at this rate, it might be the way to go.

Ten interesting nuggets from Jeff Bussgang book “Mastering the VC Game”

2011-01-27T11:34:00.000-05:00

I read Jeff Bussgang’s book on a cross-country flight – an interesting read, so it made sense to share some highlights with all of you. There’s a lot more but you’ll have to read it yourself). Hopefully I won’t get a nasty letter from the publishers for telling bits of the story. Here they are.

1. Digital Electronic Corporation was the first venture backed startup (started in 1959 with $70K in investment)
2. Christoph Westphal, founder of Sirtris, a biotech company (sold to GSK for $750MM) tested biological six formulations on himself which saved 6 months on development time (and money), and helped raise the Series B round
3. Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) wrote dispatch software to see if couriers would work out in St. Louis as a teenager. In college, he found a company in New York doing the same, so he transferred to NYU simply to work at the company
4. The first tweet was “just setting up my twttr” from Jack on March 21, 2006
5. Kleiner Perkins instructs its support staff to treat entrepreneurs like superstars when they walk in the door
6. Entrepreneurs may want to pause 15 minutes into a presentation to see if the pitch is going anywhere (by which time VCs have often made up their minds, says Jeff)
7. Gail Goodman of Constant Contact was rejected by 40 VCs before finding her first round and 60 before finding her second round of funding. Market cap is $600MM.
8. Eric Paley turned down a final meeting with a VC firm that was looking to fund them a few days before the meeting, then rewrote his business plan because he hated his first idea, and then when he came back 8 weeks later to the firm, they turned him down. The company was later sold for $95 million.
9. There are three types of VCs in the Board room – Randy Jackson (domain expert), Paula Abdul (cheerleader) and Simon Cowell (the truth teller, who’ll tell it like it is). [The truth is most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time with Randy, love but ignore Paula, and dread talking to Simon]
10. Terry McGuire, well known biotech investor has his biggest success in Akamai, and used to code software for a living.

Google Fiber: Who will win ?

2010-07-14T07:54:00.001-04:00

This is a very interesting time. Google Fiber, a chance to win an ultra highspeed network from Google resulted in an outpouring of excitement from small towns and cities across America. Here is an inspiring video.

Entrepreneurs can change the world

2010-06-30T14:40:00.000-04:00

An incredible story of poor young girls....who are ranked at the top of their class

2010-06-28T17:39:00.000-04:00

Lines @ the Apple Store

2010-06-24T14:30:00.000-04:00

4G goes on sale today. What's cool is that the employees handed out umbrellas, sunblock and mint to those in line. Something to learn about being thankful and taking care of your customers.

Wonder if the Immigration and Naturalization Service would ever do that...

Google's 40 angels

2010-06-23T20:01:00.000-04:00

This photo is an interesting map of ex-Google employees who have financed 200 new startups at last count. the most prolific

Aydin Ankut, 40, Founder Felicis Ventures
Chris Sacca, 34, Founder, Lowercase Capital
Paul Buccheit, 33, Entrepreneur
Andrea Zurek, 39, Co-Founder, XG Ventures
Joshua Schachter, 36, Google Engineer

These entrepreneurs have funded Mint.com, Facebook, Foursquare, Tapulous, Bit.ly, Posterous, VentureBeat...and a lot of other companies.

IPAD lines @ the Boston Apple Store

2010-04-30T16:54:00.000-04:00

IPAD Lines @ the Boston Apple Store

2010-04-30T16:52:00.000-04:00

How a movement begins: Great simple learnings about the first followers

2010-04-15T20:59:00.001-04:00

Smart Medical Devices Panel

2010-04-11T21:27:00.003-04:00

The Smart Medical Devices panel on April 1 turned out to be a content-and-learning rich event, thanks to the efforts of all the panelists to provide 5-7 minute learnings on various matters, demo-ing products, providing guidance on regulatory, reimbursement, areas that are growing, and following up with an interactive panel discussion.

Panelists
John Brooks, Founder, Prism Ventureworks &, CEO, Reflectance Medical
Robert Farra, Vice President, Research & Development, MicroCHIPS Inc
Sridhar Iyengar, CTO, Agamatrix, Inc
Cory Kidd, CEO & Founder, Intuitive Automata Inc
Tom O Dwyer, Director, Healthcare, Analog Devices Inc
Rahul Sarpeshkar, Innovator & Associate Professor, MIT

Startup Showcase: Yogendra Jain, Senticare

Moderator
Anupendra Sharma, Investment Partner, Siemens Venture Capital

Presentations

Overview of Smart Medical Devices

Anupendra Smart Medical Devices Examples

View more presentations from Anupendra Sharma.

Regulation of Smart Medical Devices

Regulations Of Smart Devices

View more presentations from Anupendra Sharma.

Takeaways

1. Spend a lot of time with your customers. They will tell you about features you don’t even know you want (e.g. Sentillian - People like to remind you to feed their dogs)
2. It takes a long time to get insurance companies to reimburse for things.
3. Follow the money. Doctors need to see the advantage or get paid to try new things that are different or difficult.
4. Adoption presents challenges. It takes time to change behavior
5. Patients are not compliant. Find creative ways to make them (Microchips, Sentillian)
6. You can design it here, and build it in Asia
7. Some other countries will provide subsidies and tax credits (Hong Kong)

Opportunities
8. Obesity (Diabetes) and Aging (Elderly) are big themes
9. Cameras ($2), motors and accelerometers ($2.50) are very inexpensive basic components of many companies. You can find all these easily here in Boston (Analog)
10. Miniaturization is going to be a big opportunity
11. Mobile phones are more widespread and interesting than PCs; build on this platform
12. There are opportunities to develop smart algorithms to flag data
13. We’re going to be flooded with data. This could be a n opportunity

Technology
14. Getting iphone applications through Apple isn’t easy. They’re scrutiny can be tougher than the FDA
15. Perfect A/C current needed even with ultra low power in the body. DC is poison according to the FDA
16. Long-life, low-power batteries are going to be critical for invasive devices (lasting 25-30 years)

FDA/Regulatory
17. FDA is uncertain. There will be changes to the 510K process
18. 510Ks take 3 months; PMAs can take years. Acceptance rate is high but not 67%- 80%. Means companies will fail and investors will lose money. The risk is only increasing
19. Investors now want to know where you will fall from a classification standpoint (since the FDA is reassessing the 510k process today). Get a regulatory expert early and get an informal meeting with the FDA, walking them through the plan
20. To get approvals, first get it in South Africa. Then get a European CE Mark – it makes you more interesting to strategics. Finally go for the FDA

Marketing
21. If you get a clinician on board, think about compensation. If you give them equity, they cannot do trials in their facilities
22. When talking to doctors, overemphasize the clinical benefits, underemphasize the technology.
23. Reimbursement strategy is the way to go.
24. Try to avoid outcomes data if you can. However, its going to be tough. In the old days you could. Every hospital wants to see it in their own format. 45 patients could be sufficient.
25. With relationships these trials could be done here inexpensively. Someone in the audience is spending $10K to do such a trial

Funding
26. VCs won’t pay to get data. Get money from the Army, NASA, grants, SBIRs. Leave things in the university labs as long as possible

And finally

27. Everything Tom does is measured in terms of the price of Guinness in Ireland!

Siemens Equipment !

2010-04-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

Rich Roberts and Phil Sharp (Nobel Laureate Panel)

2010-03-31T14:06:00.002-04:00

Smart Medical Devices: Apri 1 in Waltham

2010-03-30T22:54:00.009-04:00

From 600-830PM on April 1 in Waltham, we promise to have a very interactive and entertaining session with short 5-6 minute presentations, and very cool product demos that include iphone apps, robots, sensors and even bionic ears. We will tell you how these devices and software are changing healthcare, and give you useful, actionable information and ideas about the things that should matter - technology, clinical trials, regulatory, marketing and reimbursement. For this we have an extraordinary panel of entrepreneurs, innovators, technologists, device experts and investors.

Panelists
John Brooks, Founder, Prism Ventureworks &, CEO, Reflectance Medical
Robert Farra, Vice President, Research & Development, MicroCHIPS Inc
Sridhar Iyengar, CTO, Agamatrix, Inc
Cory Kidd, CEO & Founder, Intuitive Automata Inc
Tom O Dwyer, Director, Healthcare, Analog Devices Inc
Rahul Sarpeshkar, Innovator & Associate Professor, MIT

Moderator
Anupendra Sharma, Partner, Siemens Venture Capital

You'll even learn how to find components, get them built, get them tested. If we have people with ideas in the audience, hey, maybe we can even build a startup at the event.

The event

The sign-up

PopSignal Mixer, HBS high fashion startups, and women entrepreneurs in Boston

2010-03-24T08:12:00.004-04:00

I was at the PopSignal Alumni Mixer last night. Great party and met several interesting people I have been meaning to meet for some time. Scott Friend (Bain and Founder, Profit Logic), Rich Miner (Google Ventures), Sim Simeonov (FastIGNITE and formerly of Polaris), Chris Sheehan (CommonAngels) (who I first met at Techstars last year - didn't realize they have an Angel group and two co-investment funds alongside it). They do 2-5 investments a year. Also met Scott Kirsner (Globe). Rob Go (Spark Ventures) was there, but I didn't get a chance to get introduced to him.

The party was organized by Jay Meattle (2010 Fellow and Founder of Shareaholic). Also met up with two Fellows, Vishy (VC at Longworth Ventures by day and Founder of Lamhe by night) and Siddh Goyal (Founder, Assured Labor), a Founder of a Techstars company from Syracuse, and TJ, founder of FlipKey, which is now controlled by Expedia/Tripadvisor.

Scott / Bain invested in RentTheRunway, an HBS startup that is the netflix for fashion dresses, and doing very well. Its interesting that a similar concept - the netflix for handbags never worked out as well. There were three reasons that that business didn't work out well. Firstly, people kept handbags for a long time, and there was a lot of wear and tear. Secondly, people rented the originals and returned the fakes, and it was hard to figure out one from the other. But dresses are harder to recreate in 4 days, and there's no wear and tear, so this should be a very interesting business. Thirdly, they were buying these purses retail - and these things cost $3-5000.

PopSignal is a great event, and I look forward to attending more in the future. Its amazing - these parties didn't exist four years ago. How long have we come in Boston....

One observation from this event. Not having been to a tech mixer event like this one before, where people simply meet up to talk about startups (though I go to pitches, competitions and talks all the time), I was surprised at how completely male dominated the event was. I think in a party of a 100, there may have been two women who showed up. I hope it was just happenstance. Lifesciences events have a much better gender balance. I wonder if women not interested in tech startups in Boston (this cannot be true), or do they simply not attend these events (and if so, why)? Since we spend so much time and effort at TLP on finding diversity, I found it a little surprising that the Boston tech community didn't reflect my presumed gender diversity in this town.

March Madness: Cornell in the last 16 !

2010-03-21T22:15:00.002-04:00

Cornell became the lowest seed to advance to the round of 16 in this year's tournament and the first Ivy League team to get that far since Penn 31 years ago. Go Big Red !

We can't wait

2010-03-12T04:51:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you have to forego what's popular...

2010-03-08T05:08:00.001-05:00

...in order to do what's right.

A simple but powerful sentence from the acceptance speech of Monique, winner of Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars yesterday. This is the stuff of revolutions...