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The MIT Venture Capital Conference on 8th of December featured a couple of top notch keynote speakers, talent packed panels, start-up presentations and plenty of networking time.
Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital kicked off the day by describing the type of criteria that Sequoia uses to make investment decisions and then made some recommendations to start-up teams.? Starting with ?Everything has changed and nothing has changed?, Doug described how computing power continues to accelerate, providing the fuel to build completely new industries.? Mobile is the latest sector to see exponential growth with over 10B mobile phones expected worldwide by 2020.? Sequoia likes to invest in founders and teams that are misfits with a bit of an ego and arrogance.? They want the teams to be passionate and drive in their vision but not so blind as to not recognize a need to pvot.? They also like to underfund their companies in order to keep them working harder and not get too comfortable.? For the start-up teams, he recommended that they get comfortable living on the blade of a knife vs. a more comfortable lower risk approach.? They really should focus on the unit economics of their business ? both the costs and revenue sides.? He also suggested that they be ruthless about giving up equity in their companies during investment negotiations.? For choosing investors, Doug recommended that teams look for VCs or angels that are true partners and have operating experience which can actually aid their growth.
Tom Stamberg talked about his experience in starting and growing Staples before becoming a venture capitalist with Highland Partners.? Tom highly focused on identifying what his customers needed and then provided that product and service.? He attributed his Staple?s success to hiring and managing a great team of people.? His hiring success was largely due to aggressively recruiting good candidates.? ?They also trimmed out managers that were not fitting as soon as possible.
The Enterprise panel focused on the impact of big data and machine learning solutions on the business execution.
The mobile panel largely discussed the impact of mobile in the commerce and enterprise market.? Most of the panelists believe that the consumer wants a hybrid of physical and virtual shopping experiences.
The IP panel talked about the advantage of establishing an IP portfolio for defensive and offensive purposes.
Start-up companies that presented their solutions in pitches and at tables were:
- BRIGHTdriver
- Buska
- Common Sensing
- CONTINUUS Pharmaceuticals
- Delightfully
- GeriJoy
- Gradeable
- Sociometric Solutions
- Sodium Energy
- Timbre
by Kevin Wiant, MITEF Marketing Chair and Board Member
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