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<h1 style="text-align: center;">A VC's 5 predictions for 2015</h1>
<h2>[WHAT]</h2>
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<li>]&nbsp;by <a href="/view/person?id=314" target="_blank">Boris Wertz</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp; partner&nbsp;@ version one ventures - one of the top tech early-stage investors in North-America and the founding partner of version one ventures. His portfolio encompasses over 40 early-stage consumer internet and enterprise companies, including Edmodo, Flurry, Frank &amp; Oak, Indiegogo, Julep, Top Hat, and Wattpad. He sits on the boards of Clio and Indochino among others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
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<h2>[WHY]</h2>
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<li>] We (sospep) are going to build a <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>compiled list of predictions</strong></span> for 2015 from some of the industry leaders in the Venture Capital market.</li>
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<li>] We (can/may) then use that list for&nbsp;guidance/direction in selecting companies for <strong>our startup companies portfolio</strong>.</li>
<li>] We may also&nbsp;track these "predictors" to see how accurate they&nbsp;turn out to be&nbsp;with their predictions.(for future reference FFR)</li>
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<li><strong>] PLAY &nbsp;"the startup game"-&nbsp;&nbsp;for fun &amp; profit </strong></li>
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<li>] see the "how to" section below for details on joining</li>
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<li><strong>] fun - tracking&nbsp;- some of the most&nbsp;interesting startup companies in the world today</strong></li>
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<li>] who will be the next google?&nbsp;how will that companies product(s) change our lives, your life?</li>
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<li><strong>] fun - discovery</strong></li>
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<li>] the next important / interesting app,&nbsp; the next must have gadget, gizmo or trinket. The company making it is going to surface here long before you see it in the app store or read about it on theVerge.</li>
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<li><strong>] profit</strong></li>
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<li>] We (sospep) are offering&nbsp;real money ( $ xxx.xx - canadian dollars) - in a winner takes all contest. Pick a team of startup companies&nbsp;to create&nbsp;your portfolio and&nbsp;then compare the&nbsp;performance of your portfolio to the rest of the players in the startup game.</li>
<li>] pssssssssst .... <span style="text-decoration: underline;">my top 3 tips</span> on how <strong>you</strong> can win this game!!</li>
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<h2>[WHERE]</h2>
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<li><strong>] READ THE&nbsp;FULL ARTICLE</strong></li>
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<li>] <a href="http://www.techvibes.com/blog/boris-wertz-2015-predictions-2014-12-12" target="_blank">http://www.techvibes.com/blog/boris-wertz-2015-predictions-2014-12-12</a>&nbsp;</li>
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<h2>[WHEN]</h2>
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<li>] 2014-12-29</li>
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<h2>[EXAMPLE]</h2>
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<li><strong>[BITCOIN] killer app</strong></li>
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<li>We&rsquo;ve seen Bitcoin adoption by major retailers like Overstock.com and Dell, but there&rsquo;s still <span style="background-color: #ffff00;">too much volatility and regulatory uncertainty for Bitcoin to be used as a mainstream currency in North America anytime soon.</span></li>
<li>I have long believed that Bitcoin is a beautiful and powerful technology, with great developer adoption&mdash;but&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/bwertz/status/511678396364247040" target="_blank">where are the apps</a> that solve real problems? We shouldn&rsquo;t look for much traction with the current use case (payments in North America), as<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"> most consumers in North America don&rsquo;t view the current payment system as broken</span> and in need of a fix. Instead, <span style="background-color: #00ff00;">look for a killer Bitcoin app to emerge elsewhere, like in international money transfers or remittances.</span></li>
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<li><strong>[SaaS-Ent] driven by Big Data and Mobile </strong></li>
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<li>]&nbsp;There are always a ton of new enterprise apps ever year, each hoping to be "the next big thing" that changes the way we work. The common theme has been making apps more accessible (i.e. mobile) and smarter (i.e. machine learning and big data). Good examples are Slack for the first category and RelateIQ for the second.<span style="background-color: #00ff00;"> Expect both of these trends to take off in a big way in 2015.</span></li>
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<li><strong>[VR] beyond gaming</strong></li>
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<li>] The game industry has been the first to really embrace the potential of VR; that&rsquo;s why Oculus first launched its public prototype of Rift at a gaming convention. However, VR is an incredibly exciting area that can reach far beyond gaming. This&nbsp;<a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/10/beyond-oculus-the-vr-boom-is-everywhere-from-classrooms-to-therapy-couches/" target="_blank"><em>Ars Technica </em>article</a> article describes a few examples from trauma treatment and classroom learning to marketing and film. <span style="background-color: #00ff00;">In 2015, we will see the first major applications of VR outside the game industry.</span></li>
<li>*] + EXAMPLE - the province of BC produced a VR video to promote its tourism industry. The video is available to freely download for those who have the VR hardware, and the province will be taking the video and VR hardware on tour. ref CTVvancouver news story,</li>
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<li><strong>[CAPITAL] winner takes all </strong></li>
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<li>] This past year has brought <span style="background-color: #00ff00;">accelerated funding rounds for emerging category leaders</span>. As summarized <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/02/fundraising-acceleration-is-the-new-vc-investment-thesis/" target="_blank">in this TechCrunch article</a>: &rdquo;the biggest winners win by staggering amounts compared to their competitors. What used to be perceived as a 5x or 10x gap in valuation between the winner and a runner-up is now more widely seen as between 100x or even possibly 1000x.&rdquo; In a startup environment that&rsquo;s noisier than ever, <span style="background-color: #00ff00;">break-out companies have an increasingly easy job of raising tons of money at high valuations</span> while the <span style="background-color: #ffff00;">second and third runs in a category often struggle.</span> This dynamic has just started to emerge and will accelerate through 2015.</li>
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<h2>[HOW-TO]</h2>
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<li>]</li>
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<h2>[REFERENCE]</h2>
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<li>] <a href="/view/article?id=4158" target="_blank">Predictions-2015</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp; a new sospep&nbsp;project. I am creating a portfolio of startup companies (you can too). The goal is to discover the next uber, before it becomes the next uber.</li>
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<li>] A compiled listing of VC predictions for 2015.</li>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</h1>

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