(public).sospep.subjects ~ view article ~ A-VCs-predictions-for-2015

<h1 style="text-align: center;">A VCs predictions for 2015</h1>
<h2>[WHAT]</h2>
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<li>]&nbsp;Robert Hof - @Forbes contributor scoped out a recent Silicon Valley conference, hosted by legal advisory Orrick, and reported the following what&rsquo;s hot predictions and what&rsquo;s not from the VC discussion panel. The early stage venture panellists were Kent Goldman, Founder, Upside Partnership, Ullas Naik, Founder, Streamlined Ventures, <a href="/view/person?id=314" target="_blank">Sergio Monsalve</a>, Partner, Norwest Venture Partners, Scott Raney, Partner, Redpoint Ventures and George Zachary, Partner, Charles River Ventures</li>
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<h2>[WHY]</h2>
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<li>] We (sospep) are going to build a <a href="/view/article?id=4161" target="_blank">compiled list of predictions</a> 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 our startup companies portfolio.</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>] PLAY &nbsp;"Hunting Unicorns"-&nbsp;&nbsp;for fun &amp; profit </li>
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<li>] see the "how to" section below for details on joining</li>
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<li>]&nbsp;FUN - tracking&nbsp;some of the most&nbsp;interesting startup companies in the world today</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>]&nbsp;FUN - discovery</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>] PROFIT</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 .... my top 3 tips on how you can win this game!!</li>
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<h2>[WHERE]</h2>
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<li>] READ THE FULL ARTICLE</li>
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<li>] <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2014/12/09/heres-what-venture-capitalists-want-to-fund-in-2015-and-what-they-dont/2/" target="_blank">http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2014/12/09/heres-what-venture-capitalists-want-to-fund-in-2015-and-what-they-dont/2/</a></li>
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<h2>[WHEN]</h2>
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<li>] 2014-12-09</li>
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<h2>[EXAMPLE]</h2>
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<li>[whats hot]</li>
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<li>[BITCOIN] Bitcoin (note that it is also on the &ldquo;out&rdquo; list below)</li>
<li>[EDUCATION] Education business directly targeting students, example Udemy</li>
<li>[MARKETPLACES] Marketplaces &ndash; specialized and undeveloped niches ] example udemy, example lendingclub</li>
<li>[MOBILE] Apps that are &ldquo;deeply linked&rdquo;,</li>
<li>[SaaS-ent] BIG DATA + Associated SaaS companies - ] example tachyus.com - which uses sensors and other technology to help oil and gas producers improve production, ] exampe - Infer - SAAS companies realize they&rsquo;re sitting on a treasure trove of data that they can leverage, Infer is one company doing this, helping to improve sales productivity.</li>
<li>[?] Who knows &ndash; ] &ldquo;Sectors are an illusion. My only algorithm is &lsquo;Would I want to join these people as a founder?&rsquo; It&rsquo;s more than investing your money, it&rsquo;s investing your life.&rdquo;&nbsp; example cotap&nbsp;] If you want to do seed-stage right, you have to be in a place where you can&rsquo;t see a market yet,&rdquo; said Goldman. &ldquo;I look for people who can tell me a story on why the company they&rsquo;re building now is the exact right one to build right now and why they&rsquo;re the ones to build it.&rdquo;</li>
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<li class="last-child">[whats not]</li>
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<li class="last-child">[Bitcoin] </li>
<li class="last-child">[Energy] I do believe the opportunity exists, but I have not figured out how to solve the capital intensity problem.&rdquo; Neither has anyone else. &ldquo;We have one renewable energy company, Terra Power,&rdquo; said Zachary. &ldquo;It was a seed investment of $20 million.&nbsp;Bill Gates&nbsp;put in $19 million, we put in $1 million. I have no idea how it works. (Some in the audience answer him: &ldquo;It burns cash.&rdquo;) Bill has agreed to buy us out at an astronomical valuation, so we said, Why not?</li>
<li class="last-child">[] Logistics &ldquo;A lot of companies think they&rsquo;re logistics companies, and they&rsquo;re not. Sorry, Uber imitators.&rdquo;</li>
<li class="last-child">[MARKETING] Ad tech - The public market believes&nbsp;Google,&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;and&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;will dominate online advertising,&rdquo; said Zachary. &ldquo;Every ad tech company faces the same circling-the-drain problem.&nbsp;Rocket Fuel&nbsp;ran out of fuel. There is no tech in ad tech, it&rsquo;s mostly ad networks. We advise ad tech companies to sell out.&rdquo;</li>
<li class="last-child">[Space]</li>
<li class="last-child">[SW] Artificial Intelligence</li>
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<li class="last-child">[notes]</li>
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<li>"] They aren&rsquo;t even too worried about valuations of startups like Uber, which recently got funding at a stunning $40 billion valuation. But the high valuations aren&rsquo;t across the board. &ldquo;Valuations range from high to extraordinarily high,&rdquo; said Raney. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s a real dichotomy: ridiculously high valuations in some cases, balanced by a lot of rational behavior in the public market. That will provide a dampening effect that will prevent absolutely ridiculous things from happening.&rdquo;</li>
<li>"] The year after next is another story. Most of the VCs sounded really worried that the economy, in particular their high-valuation corner of it, is headed for trouble in 2016. For one thing, it&rsquo;s an election year, which means lots of uncertainty. But even before that, there are signs of a &ldquo;plateau,&rdquo; said Zachary. &ldquo;Look at profit to sales for the entire market and divide it by the GDP of the U.S. Other than in 2000, this year is the highest number since 2007. So that says we&rsquo;re at the highest P to sales. It&rsquo;s no coincidence that&nbsp;Warren Buffett&nbsp;has $50 billion of available capital.&rdquo;</li>
<li>] There&rsquo;s not enough talent to staff the startups VCs are overfunding. &ldquo;The one limiting reagent is high-quality people,&rdquo; said Monsalve. If the IPO market continues and&nbsp;Google,&nbsp;Facebook, and Uber keep hiring, the big issue will be the ability to attract talent. That&rsquo;s been the biggest limiting growth factor for us.&rdquo; As a result, he and others are looking to New York, Los Angeles, India, China, even France and Sweden for engineering teams. There&rsquo;s also a shortage of operational talent, said Naik. &ldquo;These days I&rsquo;m finding a lot of founding teams that are drifting because they don&rsquo;t have appropriate governance and operating discipline. We&rsquo;ll see a lot of these startups fail.&rdquo;</li>
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&nbsp;
<h2>[HOW-TO]</h2>
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<li>] <a href="/Account/Register" target="_blank">Register for sospep</a></li>
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<li>] don't worry, we won't spam you, we don't track you and we won't sell your info, not now, not ever.&nbsp;sospep comes with lots of perks, but you don't have to use them if you don't want too. ps its free to join!</li>
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<li>] Pick your "team" of startup companies</li>
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<li>] i know, I know, that sounds like&nbsp;it could be a hassle, decisions to make, time consuming, but i'm going to let you in on a little secret that can have your team&nbsp;up and running in &lt; 5 minutes.</li>
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<li>] Check your status</li>
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<li>] heres the catch!, you knew it was coming didnt you? you've got to check your status at least once a month. Don't worry, we will send you an email to remind you and we will&nbsp;make it quick and easy (&lt; 1 min) to check in.</li>
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<li>] Add new companies</li>
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<li>] So you've found that 1 hot new product or exciting new startup company that you thing is going to be the next big thing, but it's NOT on our list of startup companies. No worries it's quick and easy to add any new startup company, that you want too. &nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
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<li>] Update company valuations</li>
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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">Hunting Unicorns</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 <a href="/view/article?id=4200" target="_blank">compiled listing of VC predictions for 2015.</a></li>
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<li>] this article is a summary of the forbes article, (turned up in google search higher then the original article)</li>
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<li>] <a href="http://www.dealmarketblog.com/vc-predictions-for-2015-orrick-seed-stage-panel/" target="_blank">http://www.dealmarketblog.com/vc-predictions-for-2015-orrick-seed-stage-panel/</a></li>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</h1>

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