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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: H James Morris who wrote (9562)	11/18/2002 4:27:21 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

<<...I'm In Las Vegas attending COMDEX using my Dell lap with Wi-Fi...>> Kewl...Have fun, explore and say hi to Michael Dell for me...;-) Please post some of your thoughts about emerging new technologies or companies that impress you...We could use a Comdex 'report from the field' out on the porch. regards, -Scott btw, I'm using my DELL Latitude right now (at a client site in Illinois).

To: H James Morris who wrote (9562)	11/18/2002 4:48:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

A Shift In Enterprise Software Deals By Laura Kreutzer and Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam Private Equity Analyst Newsletter Volume VII/Issue 10 ovp.com Enterprise Software, a mature area that posed few technology risks, continues to be a popular destination for venture dollars. But not surprisingly, given how corporations have slashed IT spending budgets, venture firms have been very wary about backing companies developing striking new applications. More typically, they are backing developers of data mining and storage software, which go after proven, if still largely untapped markets. Five of the eight companies that Battery Ventures, Wellesley, Mass., has backed so far this year are developing software to serve large corporate clients, including two data mining companies whose software can comb and analyze large databases. In one of the deals, Battery Ventures invested $20 million, along with Charles River Ventures and Matrix Partners, both of Waltham, in Netezza. The Framingham, Mass., company designed software to enable banks to crunch large amounts of financial data. In the other deal, Battery Ventures backed San Francisco-based Addamark, whose software is designed to analyze Web logs, in-bound cal center data, and other complex sets of information to help telecom companies identify useful trends and patterns. Many venture firms believe that most data mining start-ups backed recently have the capacity to go through much larger chunks of data than their counterparts started two or three years ago, and at much greater speeds. “These new companies have 20 times performance at half the price,” says Oliver Curme, a Battery Ventures general partner. But while there is little doubt that corporations will eventually start spending money on software again, many of these start-ups are competing against established players. Companies like IBM and Oracle Corp. have been in the data mining business for several years now. OVP Venture Partners, Kirkland, Wash., recently backed a company called Intelligent Results, whose software is designed to help corporations identify trends suggested by data received through e-mail and other documents. William Miller, a general partner at OVP Venture Partners, believes that large competitors like Oracle do not have the competing products to those offered by Intelligent Results. While Oracle has products that can analyze structured data – data that is arranged in rows and columns – Intelligent Results can crunch numbers that are unstructured, and not arranged in any fashion. “Over time, the big guys will try to get into that business, but by that time, these start-ups will be of a sufficient size to ward them off,” Mr. Miller says. Venture firms had better hope so – in data mining and many other established fields in which they are investing today. Very few investment dollars seem headed for the next Apple Computer or eBay. “People are certainly moving to less risk on the risk-return spectrum,” say Battery Venture’s Mr. Curme.

To: H James Morris who wrote (9562)	11/18/2002 5:01:22 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

VC pioneers share words of wisdom By Matt Marshall Mercury News Posted on Thu, Oct. 10, 2002 The founders of West Coast venture capital reunited last week in Mountain View to reflect on lessons learned. Problem is, many of their lessons weren't valid for today's VCs. Before the end of the panel, some of the young turks listening from the back rows got up and left. It was highly unusual to have all of the VC elders in one place, as they were at the Computer History Museum: Bill Draper, who launched the first venture fund here in 1958; Pitch Johnson, who joined him four years later; Burt McMurty, who arrived in 1969 and founded Institutional Venture Partners; Tom Perkins, who founded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with an $8 million fund, a record at the time; Don Valentine, who worked at Fairchild Semiconductor and then founded Sequoia to back companies such as Atari, Apple Computer and Cisco; and Arthur Rock, who backed Fairchild and Intel. They imparted important lessons. Humility: All of them admitted to mistakes. Patience: McMurty toiled for six years and two months until he realized a gain from his investments. Personal connections: Rock, Perkins and Johnson all attended Harvard University's MBA program, and so if you hooked up with one of them, or attended Harvard MBA, you were set. Connections explained a lot: Draper got into the business, he said, because he had the ``right father.'' His father, William H. Draper Jr., became the first VC on the West Coast after directing the Marshall Plan's economic component in Europe. Perkins started his first company by getting financing from Bill Draper. Valentine went to work at Fairchild, the company started by Rock, and got to know innovator Bob Noyce. The VC network still exists, but it is bigger and looser. When a moderator asked the panel what lessons had been learned that no longer apply, McMurty put his finger on it: The collegiality among venture firms has disappeared; the large number of players has made things much more competitive. The old rule: ``We were in a capital-starved climate,'' he explained. ``If a company got funded, it was very likely that it would be the only company in that business.'' There was more room to make mistakes. Each VC mentioned a famous company they had failed to back -- Apple, Sun Microsystems, Tandem -- that still got backing from another member of the VC gang. That gang was so small that each VC firm ended up with at least one home-run company -- despite their bungling. When the notoriously difficult founders of Cisco Systems, Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack, were looking for money, their lawyer reportedly told Valentine he was the only person who could ``handle'' the founders. Valentine is known as one of gruffest VCs in the valley, and his firm was the only one interested. VC was an oligopoly. Johnson attributed his entry into VC to an invitation by Draper to come visit him in Palo Alto. ``He said, `I can tell you how to make money without actually doing anything.' '' Since the Internet bubble burst, to say VC is a competitive business is an understatement. Last year, VC returns were negative for the first time. Hundreds of VC firms are pumping money into scores of companies in each sector, many of them chipping away at tiny niches. McMurty says the founding of Sun Microsystems signified a different era. Sun had to learn how to survive in a competitive space, and it became stronger for it. It can be argued that John Doerr, of Kleiner Perkins, who backed Sun, embodied the emergence of a new generation of VCs: aggressive, promotional, ready to mix and match entrepreneurs, technology and marketing strategy to come up with the winning combination. siliconvalley.com

To: H James Morris who wrote (9562)	11/18/2002 5:06:38 PM
From: elpolvo	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 89467

stockman_scott wrote: Please post some of your thoughts about emerging new technologies or companies that impress you...We could use a Comdex 'report from the field' out on the porch. i'll second that. -elpolvo

To: H James Morris who wrote (9562)	11/19/2002 1:39:10 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

NEWS 19-NOV-02 Max-Viz receives $7.8M Aircraft Tech Firm Max-Viz Gets $7.8 Million Second Round PORTLAND, Ore. - Max-Viz Inc., provider of vision systems for commercial aircraft, has received $7.8 million in second round financing. OVP Venture Partners led the current round with Alexander Hutton Venture Partners, Buerk Craig Victor LLC, Flir Systems and other angel investors participating. Funding will be used for development. VC Firms: Alexander Hutton Venture Partners Buerk Craig Victor Flir Systems OVP Venture Partners Max-Viz 16165 S.W. 72nd Avenue Portland OR 97224 United States Phone: 503-968-3036 FAX: 503-968-7615 max-viz.com