For many years now I’ve seen my role as a venture capitalist as investing in people, not companies. I finally decided to put it in writing. 
Read my guest blog post on Forbes as to Why Entrepreneurs are the New Asset Class.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Aug
20
Entrepreneurs Are The New Asset Class
Aug
12
Driving Business Forward
Partnerships are everything in Venture Capital. Without the important relationships we develop with our limited partners, investment syndicates, portfolio companies and our own personal networks, the VC industry would not exist. And I think it would do our economy a world of good if Washington, D.C. and the business community established some of the same high value partnerships we create in the VC world. It’s time for us to put aside the partisanship, engage in meaningful policy debate and really come together for the common good.
Business Forward is an organization that is taking on this noble cause. They are bringing together key policymakers and innovative business leaders to openly discuss the important challenges and opportunities our country faces. The organization is focusing its efforts on several broad principles relating to job creation, health care, education, energy, the environment, innovation and have recently expanded their outreach to include trade and immigration.
I have attended three Business Forward events this year: a CEO Roundtable with U.S. Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu ; in early April, Ron Bloom, Senior Counselor to the U.S. President on Manufacturing Policy, met with 20 leading Silicon Valley CEO & entrepreneurs in manufacturing; and a Clean Energy Investments Roundtable with Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs, Jonathan Silver.
I observed some very refreshing differences between Business Forward’s events and similar events I have attended in the past:
- Steven Chu, Ron Bloom and Jonathan Silver all traveled to Silicon Valley to meet with us. They escaped the confines of the Beltway and were getting some real world experience with business leaders.
- These three gentlemen also showed up ready to listen and it actually seemed as if they had left their egos at the door.
- The groups were small, only 25-30 people in the room maximum, so it was a face-to-face, very intimate gathering.
- There was no censorship in these discussions. Everything was on the table. And I didn’t get the feeling that these guys were reading from a list of talking points.
- The policymakers actually got to hear firsthand what effects their policies are having on the business world.
- No lobbyists.
We need to continue these extremely valuable discussions. The business community and government need to collaborate more around what scientific breakthroughs are worth funding and let’s put our dollars there. Our government needs Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to work with D.C. policymakers to help revitalize the manufacturing sector. We need each other. With Business Forward, we are moving in the right direction.
Aug
11
What Happens in Vegas Doesn’t Necessarily Stay in Vegas
What happened in Las Vegas in late July does not appear to be staying in Las Vegas.
Sohail Ahmad, senior wireless security researcher at CMEA portfolio company AirTight Networks , recently discovered a large black hole in wireless security protocol that makes any wireless network susceptible to hacking. Ahmad demonstrated this vulnerability at Black Hat Arsenal and DEF CON 18 in late July.
The vulnerability has been dubbed “Hole196” and is named for the page of the IEEE 802.11 Standard (Revision, 2007) where Ahmad found the original reference. Hole196 involves a man-in-the-middle style attack, whereby a hacker inserts himself between a WiFi user and the network to capture all traffic to and from the user in order to compromise private data. After reading a six word sentence on page 196 of the 1200-plus page of the industry’s wireless security protocol specifications, Ahmad realized the common group key used in wireless networks was not immune to spoofing. He was able to send a broadcast packet using the group key over the air to all the wireless devices in his vicinity and redirect their traffic through his own computer. Because the network is being used against itself, there is little detectable evidence. And because the other WiFi client devices (laptops, POS systems, VOIP phones, etc.) assume the hacker’s computer is now the network gateway, the devices redirect all of their secure traffic to that computer and the network access points re-encrypt the traffic with the hacker’s own private key allowing the hacker to read the once private data without cracking the encryption. (more…)
Jul
29
Data, The Facebook Nation, And New Opportunities
My guest post on Forbes Velocity Blog on Data, The Facebook Nation, And New Opportunities was published today. In it I talk about how the sophistication in data and computing power available is producing the next generation of technology companies.
Jul
21
Introducing…Mint
Coming soon to a television station near you, the Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner. It is an exciting time at CMEA portfolio company Evolution Robotics as they have recently launched the first Mint commercials in the Bakersfield and Oakland television markets. But maybe you’ve already seen the Mint on The Martha Stewart Show or The Rachael Ray Show or in SkyMall. Mint is designed to clean hard surfaces and uses the advanced NorthStar Navigation system to map floors so it doesn’t miss any spots and knows where it’s been. It works with popular cleaning cloths such as Swiffer and Pledge.
Did I mention that the Mint just won the International Design Excellence Award or the Popular Mechanics’ Editor’s Choice Award at CES 2010? I know it’s just July, but the holidays will be here before we know it. Click here to reserve your Mint.
Jul
21
Washington, D.C. Needs More Entrepreneurs
My guest blog post for Forbes Velocity was published today. In it, I write about how neither the Legislative Body or the Executive Branch seem to understand that focusing on making funding more easily available to entrepreneurs will ultimately drive economic growth and job creation. There just aren’t enough entrepreneurs in D.C.!
Jul
17
Jobvite our next CEO of WorkingPoint
This week I wrote a guest post for our portfolio company Jobvite called Jobvite our next CEO of WorkingPoint. In it I talk about how as we embark on our quest to find a new CEO at WorkingPoint another CMEA portfolio company, we have decided to enter into unchartered territory by using Jobvite’s social recruiting technology. Read about why we think using our collective personal networks may actually be the best way to find the next Aaron Patzer or Mark Zuckerberg to run your company. Oh, and did I mention there is a finders fee involved?
Jun
09
Looking Beyond the Oil Spill
My guest post blog for Forbes.com was published today: Looking Beyond the Oil Spill. As heartbreaking as the unfolding disaster in the Gulf is, all will not be in vain if this event drives home the true cost of our dependence on fossil fuels, and we take advantage of this opportunity to pass a Clean Energy Bill that lays the foundation for a renewable energy future by finally putting a price on carbon.
Apr
05
Salute to the Chinese Entrepreneur
- Michael Melnick
China’s rapid rise as an economic power has given rise to a lot of mixed feelings about a country that should be a close ally. One of the factors behind their extreme competitiveness is clearly a unique public-private partnership that for all its faults can turn on a dime and rapidly advance the country in strategic areas like alternative energy. Another critical factor has been the unleashing of one of the most entrepreneurial cultures in the world.
In the past in thinking about Asian competition, we in the US have often fallen back on the idea that while Asia has an advantage in terms of low cost manufacturing, the US still has the best scientific minds and a unique entrepreneurial culture. That idea increasingly seems like a luxury we can no longer take for granted . Clearly the Chinese are investing heavily in a first class R&D base, and have brilliant scientists, first rate engineers and an entrepreneurial culture second to none. Fire in the belly doesn’t begin to describe them; the Chinese phrase “chi ku” or ability to “eat bitterness” comes closer in terms of how badly they want success and what they are willing to go through to achieve it. And if they are willing to work that hard for it, they deserve it. (more…)