Thank you Steve Jobs...

For reminding us to stay hungry and foolish
For enriching our lives
For truly changing our world

Beijing Entrepreneurs

It was a terrific evening in Beijing, thanks to hosts Eric and Olivia of China Entrepreneurs, and an enthusiastic and passionate team lead by Tony An. Wayne Shaiyong of Bertelesmann Investments Asia, and a Core Advisor to SLP also attended, as did interestingly, several women investment bankers with technical degrees. There were entrepreneurs and hackers from leading multinationals. Didn't see anyone in lifesciences or cleantech, but I know they're out there.

This is an interesting time to bring SLP to China since nothing like this exists, and the program will connect Chinese entrepreneurs to the rest of the world. I am keen to see what sort of collaborations and new startups these relationships create, especially along the Bangalore-Beijing and Silicon Valley-Beijing corridors. The Beijing consumer internet scene is very vibrant, but from my conversations, they seem to be following US innovation, rather than the other way around.

The Beijing program will run in Chinese, though there is a requirement that everyone in the program understand English. Its the only way to keep the network global and vibrant. Since SLP runs on google assets, and most of these assets are blocked in China (though there is a way some of them can get around it), the program is impacted by Google leaving China. We're having to recreate everything in a parallel universe that is acceptable to China. That's twice the work and half the fun, but its worth the trouble.

Its going to be a lot of fun seeing the Program develop in Beijing.

Happy Mothers Day

@KateSpade

When digital disrupts print

This sign in the magazine section of the library is a sign of the times. What will your library look like in 12 months ? 10 percent of our magazines are gone.

Pinkberry comes to Boston

My prayers have been answered.

Sachin, Dhoni and the Team. Thank You

iPad 2 launch

Today Apple is serving coffee to the early adopters. Way to go !

And then there were three...!

Never seen a Star Alliance plane before. This is the first I've seen @ Newark, and its run by Continental (see logo on bottom right). But if the airlines consolidate at this rate, it might be the way to go.

Ten interesting nuggets from Jeff Bussgang book “Mastering the VC Game”

I read Jeff Bussgang’s book on a cross-country flight – an interesting read, so it made sense to share some highlights with all of you. There’s a lot more but you’ll have to read it yourself). Hopefully I won’t get a nasty letter from the publishers for telling bits of the story. Here they are.

1. Digital Electronic Corporation was the first venture backed startup (started in 1959 with $70K in investment)
2. Christoph Westphal, founder of Sirtris, a biotech company (sold to GSK for $750MM) tested biological six formulations on himself which saved 6 months on development time (and money), and helped raise the Series B round
3. Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) wrote dispatch software to see if couriers would work out in St. Louis as a teenager. In college, he found a company in New York doing the same, so he transferred to NYU simply to work at the company
4. The first tweet was “just setting up my twttr” from Jack on March 21, 2006
5. Kleiner Perkins instructs its support staff to treat entrepreneurs like superstars when they walk in the door
6. Entrepreneurs may want to pause 15 minutes into a presentation to see if the pitch is going anywhere (by which time VCs have often made up their minds, says Jeff)
7. Gail Goodman of Constant Contact was rejected by 40 VCs before finding her first round and 60 before finding her second round of funding. Market cap is $600MM.
8. Eric Paley turned down a final meeting with a VC firm that was looking to fund them a few days before the meeting, then rewrote his business plan because he hated his first idea, and then when he came back 8 weeks later to the firm, they turned him down. The company was later sold for $95 million.
9. There are three types of VCs in the Board room – Randy Jackson (domain expert), Paula Abdul (cheerleader) and Simon Cowell (the truth teller, who’ll tell it like it is). [The truth is most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time with Randy, love but ignore Paula, and dread talking to Simon]
10. Terry McGuire, well known biotech investor has his biggest success in Akamai, and used to code software for a living.

Google Fiber: Who will win ?

This is a very interesting time. Google Fiber, a chance to win an ultra highspeed network from Google resulted in an outpouring of excitement from small towns and cities across America. Here is an inspiring video.

Entrepreneurs can change the world

An incredible story of poor young girls....who are ranked at the top of their class