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Demystifying the VCs' Investment Selection Process - through the eyes of a seasoned VC
Abstract
With the correction of the Nasdaq, dotcoms have seemingly lost their lustre to investors. Have the dotcoms really been consigned to their dot-gone fates? The market's fixation with B-to-C and B-to-B has fizzled with the spectacular melt-down of technology-heavy Nasdaq. Moving forward, the emphasis for investors and venture capitalists alike is on P-to-P, path to profitability. How do the budding technowannabes and start-ups attract the attention of the VCs who are now more selective and particular about their investee companies? What are the attributes and qualities a VC would look for when investing in a high-tech start-up team? What are the key challenges faced in bringing such early-stage companies to their IPO stages? This talk will give an overview on the VC funding environment in the US and the latest trend in preferred areas of investments by VCs in the US. Singaporean technopreneurs and the aspiring 'Sim Wong Hoo' would benefit tremendously from the speaker's experiences as a VC in the hotbed of technology exploitation - in Silicon Valley.
About the Speaker
Tony is currently a managing general partner of Venrock Associates, a venture capital partnership representing the Rockefeller Family in New York City. He has been a general partner since 1979 and is currently in charge of their California office in Menlo Park. Recently, the partnership accepted seven major universities as investors in Venrock, including MIT and Stanford University. In his current capacity, Tony sits on the board of directors of over a dozen high tech companies, including six publicly traded companies, most of which are located in Silicon Valley. Tony received his SBEE and SMEE in 1974 and an Engineer's degree in 1975 from MIT. He later received an MBA from the Harvard Business School. For the last eight years Tony has been a Commissioner at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, a public non-profit museum of the city. Previously he has held positions of Vice-Chairman of the Museum and Chairman of the Nominating Committee. In addition, Tony currently serves as a trustee of MIT as a member of the Corporation. He also serves on three other committees at MIT: the Visiting Committee for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Visiting Committee for the Department of Materials Science, and the Investment Committee. He has also recently joined the Steering Committee of the California Research Center of the Harvard Business School, and the Capital Campaign Committee for the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at Stanford University.
We are pleased to invite you and your colleagues to attend the talk.
As there are limited number of seats available, please register for the talk
via email to Joanne (cmtsimbh@nus.edu.sg) or Fax: 873 7809,
with your name, designation and company/institution (and email if via fax),
by 1 September 2000.
Admission is free.
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