25,000 LEDs Illuminate The San Francisco Bay Bridge
The Bay Lights project on the San Francisco Bay Bridge is the world’s largest LED sculpture thanks to artist Leo Villareal and his custom algorithms that ensure the patterns won’t repeat for two years.
To be in Silicon Valley or New York
Sarah Lacy talks to executives from Birchbox, Thrillist, One Kings Lane, and Warby Parker about whether not it is difficult to start an ecommerce company outside of Silicon Valley.
California start-up brings deft touch to virtual reality
Silicon Valley start-up, zSpace, has produced a virtual 3D display its founders say will revolutionize the way people interact with computers. The system gives three-dimensional form to virtual objects and allows users to manipulate those objects as if they were real.
ECNlive and Tech City Partnership
Prime Minister David Cameron backs ECNlive partnership with Tech City, as he announces plan for £50M regeneration of Silicon Roundabout
Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO), the body tasked with promoting British technology companies based in the East London tech cluster, is joining forces with digital news network ECNlive, in a partnership that will connect Tech City with investors in the City of London.
The partnership was announced this morning at a Tech City event attended by Prime Minister David Cameron, who praised the success of innovative British technology businesses such as ECNlive and announced a £50 million plan to regenerate the Old Street Roundabout at the heart of East London-based Tech City business cluster.
News of the Prime Minister’s announcement was broken on the ECNlive network, as the first step in a content partnership that will see ECNlive’s digital network carry live news and real time information from companies within Tech City, to financial institutions, media groups and technology companies across the capital.
Tech City will use ECNlive’s digital network, which reaches more than 400,000 business people across the capital, to carry real-time up-dates on company initiatives, tech sector data and trends. ECNlive is present in more than 100 landmark offices buildings in London, including the offices of the City’s most influential investors from the technology and financial services industry.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The UK is in a global race and I am determined that we as a Government continue doing everything we can to equip the UK to compete and thrive in that race.
“As well as backing the businesses of today, we are creating an aspiration nation and also backing the innovative, high-growth businesses of the future. That’s why we’re investing in creating the largest civic space in Europe - a place for start‐up companies and the local community to come together and become the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
Antony Ceravolo, CEO of ECNlive commented: “ECNlive will give Tech City companies a consistent presence in the heart of the City of London informing potential investors of the latest developments within the dynamic technology sector based in East London.
“ECNlive is itself a great example of how an innovative British technology-based business can establish itself and thrive. Now we’re helping to take Tech City to the City.”
Based in East London, ECNlive is backed by Octopus Ventures and an international consortium of private investors in the media and technology sectors and is led by Chief Executive Antony Ceravolo, a founding director of LOVEFiLM.COM.
ECNlive delivers a mix of live content and digital full-motion display advertising. Content is up-dated in real-time and includes global and national news, financial and sports up-dates, weather and travel information, as well as localised information relevant to audiences within individual buildings.
TCIO was established by UK Trade and Investment to promote the growth of companies based in the tech cluster centred in Shoreditch. In October Joanna Shields formerly Facebook’s, Vice-President and Managing Director Europe, Middle East and Africa, to be Chief Executive of TCIO.
A venture capitalist’s view of stewardship development
Roland Van Der Meer, Chairman of Bio-Logical Capital, explains why investment in development that has respect and sensitivity to resources will not only produce good current yields and long term capital appreciation but also environmental returns. Bio-Logical Capital is the leader of stewardship development, and Van Der Meer brings financial accumen and a passion for environmental issues to his role as Chairman.
Van Der Meer is the author of www.Sustainable-Path.com blog, where he shares insights, ideas and thought leadership about creating impact at scale, using his 25 year successful career as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist to guide the future of sustainable ventures.
Genesys Works Welcomed by San Francisco Education Leaders
Recently, before a gathering of education and technology supporters at City Hall, San Francisco leaders, AT&T and the leaders of Genesys Works announced the launch of the nationally recognized non-profit in the Bay Area. Genesys Works received a $1 million contribution from AT&T to launch a socially innovative program that will connect underrepresented high school seniors with local high-tech and corporate internship opportunities.
Genesys Works’ innovative approach to education and employment-readiness for underserved students has received wide recognition across the globe. When President Obama launched the White House Office of Social Innovation, Genesys Works was profiled as an example of social innovation that should be replicated across America.
AT&T’s support of Genesys Works will help provide a new facility in the Bay Area. The facility will connect youth to the region’s booming technology sector, as well as program effectiveness, best practices, and other new initiatives that will help the organization scale its impact across the country. The contribution is part of AT&T Aspire, which includes a $350 million commitment to education initiatives focused on innovation and technology to address drop-out rates, college readiness, and career opportunities for high school students.
How Venture Capital Is Driving Social Change
The great banker Walter Wriston once said, “Capital goes where it’s welcome and stays where it’s well treated.” But how do you measure how well money is treated in philanthropy? Four investors, one social, three from Silicon Valley, explore how deploying capital in business and philanthropy are not all that different and how both can create lasting social impact.
The First Entrepreneur At Large on Incubating NYC Startups
Jane Pauley interviews Steve Rosenbaum, appointed by the New York City Economic Development Corporation as the city’s first Entrepreneur At Large. He speaks about his new role incubating startups and why he thinks New York’s tech sector will soon surpass Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley Is Not a Place, It’s a Movement
Silicon Valley is a flashpoint for innovation and entrepreneurialism. But, what does Silicon Valley even mean these days? Silicon Valley technically spans the area in the southern San Francisco Bay Area including Santa Clara Valley, San Jose and southern East Bay. What Silicon Valley actually refers to in terms of geography seems moot in an economy when the idea of Silicon Valley is much bigger than the square miles it covers on a map.
5 Tips To Investing in Startups in Silicon Valley
There are more seed deals than series A now then ever before. Q2 of this year was the biggest quarter in more than a decade of VC investing in the US. Geographically, Silicon Valley dominates the destination of angel funds, receiving 77% of the $8.1B funds invested in US-based companies throughout Q2 2012, 4 times as much as the total amount invested within New England, according to historical trend data.
This weekend, at the TechCrunch August Capitol summer party, Sarah Austin of Forbes spoke to two friends and investors, Ed Roman and Salil Deshpande, about their 5 tips to investing in 2012. This is their advice:
1) Have enough money to invest. It’s generally difficult to make money investing if you’re investing small amounts (less than $100k) since you dont’ have enough leverage to negotiate deal terms that are favorable to you. It’s also tough to get into the best deals without having the financial means to do so. You’re also going to want to reserve some money for follow-on investing for the startups that do well. All of this requires a substantial bankroll.
2) Have enough deal-flow. If you are a new investor, you’re going to want to see many deals before pulling the trigger on any of them. Try to learn as much as you can about the market before investing.
3) Try to stick to a sector focus. By staying in a sector, you’ll become an expert and be better-informed to make decisions by observing patterns within your industry.
4) Diversify across a set of investments. Any given startup has a very high chance of failure. By investing in a series of startups you reduce the variance of your return.
5) Look for great teams in big markets. Look for teams that are focused on customer development and who listen to clients. Those teams have a substantially higher chance of achieving product/market fit, and will likely pivot into the right idea eventually. So the specific idea isn’t necessarily as important as the team’s approach, and the size of the market.
Ed Roman is an angel investor in 8 companies. Prior to starting his investment portfolio, he was founder & CEO of Ghostfire Games, making exercise games for the Nintendo Wii. His game, Rage of the Gladiator, won critical acclaim as a top-rated Wii title. He was founder & CEO of The Middleware Company, a Java training/consulting company, which I grew over 4 years then sold to Precise Software and Salil and Ed co founded this company together.
Salil Deshpande is a General Partner at Bay, and focuses on areas in which he has operating experience and thus some intuition. Since 2006, he has invested approximately US$75M into 20 companies across two themes: (1) open source and enterprise software infrastructure, and (2) infrastructure and platforms around social graph APIs.
