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Month: May 2019

Can The Current AI Boom Scale To AGI? Reid Hoffman & Open AI’s Greg Brockman | Greymatter

by Greylock Partners
This post is by Greylock Partners from Greymatter

From the 2019 Startup Grind Conference, Greylock's Reid Hoffman and OpenAI Co-Founder and CTO Greg Brockman on the prospects of building beneficial AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). AI systems have achieved impressive capabilities that may one day reach human levels of intelligence. Autonomous systems with this intelligence and capability are referred to as artificial general intelligence (AGI). The future impact human-level AI will have on society is challenging to comprehend. Yet, it's broadly understood that prioritization of building beneficial and ethical autonomous systems today are vital for positive human impact. In this episode of Greymatter, OpenAI co-founder and CTO Greg Brockman and Greylock partner and OpenAI investor Reid Hoffman discuss the implications of today’s AI progress. Greg and Reid deep dive into the transformative potential of AGI on organizations of all kinds, the policy changes required of international governments, and ways to build and scale ethical AI and AGI systems. Founded in 2015, OpenAI is an AI research company discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence. Prior to co-founding OpenAI, Greg previously was CTO at Stripe, which he helped scale from 4 to 250 employees. An accomplished entrepreneur and executive, Reid has played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses, including LinkedIn and PayPal. As a Greylock investor, he currently serves on the boards of Airbnb, Apollo Fusion, Aurora, Coda, Convoy, Entrepreneur First, Gixo, Microsoft, Nauto, Xapo and a few early stage companies still in stealth. Reid is the co-author of Blitzscaling and (Read more...)

Can The Current AI Boom Scale To AGI? Reid Hoffman & Open AI’s Greg Brockman | Greymatter

by Greylock Partners
This post is by Greylock Partners from Greymatter

From the 2019 Startup Grind Conference, Greylock's Reid Hoffman and OpenAI Co-Founder and CTO Greg Brockman on the prospects of building beneficial AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). AI systems have achieved impressive capabilities that may one day reach human levels of intelligence. Autonomous systems with this intelligence and capability are referred to as artificial general intelligence (AGI). The future impact human-level AI will have on society is challenging to comprehend. Yet, it's broadly understood that prioritization of building beneficial and ethical autonomous systems today are vital for positive human impact. In this episode of Greymatter, OpenAI co-founder and CTO Greg Brockman and Greylock partner and OpenAI investor Reid Hoffman discuss the implications of today’s AI progress. Greg and Reid deep dive into the transformative potential of AGI on organizations of all kinds, the policy changes required of international governments, and ways to build and scale ethical AI and AGI systems. Founded in 2015, OpenAI is an AI research company discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence. Prior to co-founding OpenAI, Greg previously was CTO at Stripe, which he helped scale from 4 to 250 employees. An accomplished entrepreneur and executive, Reid has played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses, including LinkedIn and PayPal. As a Greylock investor, he currently serves on the boards of Airbnb, Apollo Fusion, Aurora, Coda, Convoy, Entrepreneur First, Gixo, Microsoft, Nauto, Xapo and a few early stage companies still in stealth. Reid is the co-author of Blitzscaling and (Read more...)

B2B vs. B2C IPOs

by Michael Gorman

For the past dozen years, Top Tier Capital Partners has believed that using data wisely can potentially help us to “see around corners”. Venture capital is an industry enshrouded in secrecy, making it difficult to determine what is happening in the world of private companies. The intersection between this part of the market and the public markets makes for interesting hypotheses.

With the recent onslaught of IPOs, we started to see a trend emerge. It appeared that business to business (“B2B”) companies enjoyed stock price increases post-IPO, while business to consumer (“B2C”) companies were facing head winds.  We went to the data and found that not only does this appear to be true, but the B2C companies actually revert back to the valuation of their last private round.

The data set is small, with only 32 technology IPOs in 2018 and 2019, but we found that while B2C companies enjoy higher valuations, the multiple between the last private round and the market cap at the end of the lock-up is 0.7x. This means the company valuation decreased 30%.  The same methodology for B2B companies shows a multiple of 1.8x. As the below graphic shows, B2C companies bounce back a bit after the lock-up, but only to a valuation around that last private round.

There are a few reasons why this might be true. B2B companies typically have more stable revenues while B2C companies are more subject to consumer trends. Consumers are known to change their minds more often than businesses. (Read more...)

Investor Stories 113: Lessons Learned (Tananbaum, Ascher, Nahm)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

  • Jim Tananbaum
  • Brian Ascher
  • Tae Hea Nahm

Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

 

Investor Stories 113: Lessons Learned (Tananbaum, Ascher, Nahm)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

  • Jim Tananbaum
  • Brian Ascher
  • Tae Hea Nahm

Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

 

Scaling tips from John Chambers: Part 1 – Spotlight on culture and talent

by Philippe Botteri
This post is by Philippe Botteri from Cracking The Code


For the leader of any fast-growing company, every day brings a new challenge. A CEO has to manage issues of strategy, culture, talent, customer service and reputation – often all at once.

At VivaTech last week, we got an insight into the first-hand experience of John Chambers who was CEO and Chairman of Cisco from 1995-2017, and who now invests in early-stage tech start-ups around the world, with a particular focus on mentoring emerging leaders. John was joined in a roundtable discussion by Joe Schoendorf, a former Accel partner who has held senior roles at companies from Hewlett Packard to Apple, and who served on the board of the World Economic Forum.

In this first extract from our roundtable, they share their experiences in shaping company culture and handling negotiations with top talent. 

What is the secret to building a robust company culture?

Joe: A leader plays such an important role in setting the culture of a company and communicating it. Jack Welch used to say, “culture is nothing more than the length of the shadow of the CEO”.
In my time at HP, new recruits had a week’s training that concluded with a speech from David Packard. He would always say that, if your business gets into trouble financially, we will give you eight quarters to fix it. If you have people problems, we will give you eight seconds. That is culture from the top.   
John: As a CEO (and/or founder), you have four areas (Read more...)

Scaling tips from John Chambers: Part 1 – Spotlight on culture and talent

by Philippe Botteri
This post is by Philippe Botteri from Cracking The Code


For the leader of any fast-growing company, every day brings a new challenge. A CEO has to manage issues of strategy, culture, talent, customer service and reputation – often all at once.

At VivaTech last week, we got an insight into the first-hand experience of John Chambers who was CEO and Chairman of Cisco from 1995-2017, and who now invests in early-stage tech start-ups around the world, with a particular focus on mentoring emerging leaders. John was joined in a roundtable discussion by Joe Schoendorf, a former Accel partner who has held senior roles at companies from Hewlett Packard to Apple, and who served on the board of the World Economic Forum.

In this first extract from our roundtable, they share their experiences in shaping company culture and handling negotiations with top talent. 

What is the secret to building a robust company culture?

Joe: A leader plays such an important role in setting the culture of a company and communicating it. Jack Welch used to say, “culture is nothing more than the length of the shadow of the CEO”.
In my time at HP, new recruits had a week’s training that concluded with a speech from David Packard. He would always say that, if your business gets into trouble financially, we will give you eight quarters to fix it. If you have people problems, we will give you eight seconds. That is culture from the top.   
John: As a CEO (and/or founder), you have four areas (Read more...)

186. Seed Investing at the Intersection of Biology & Technology (Jenny Rooke)

by Nick Moran

Jenny Rooke of Genoa Ventures joins Nick to discuss Seed Investing at the Intersection of Biology & Technology. In this episode, we cover:

  • Her background in genetics, physics, computer science... and how that lead to venture.
  • How was it to work with Melinda and Bill Gates?
  • You also successfully built the largest life-sciences syndicate on Angellist that is also one of the highest performing syndicates of any sector... I just took a peek at the rankings this morning and both New Stack and Genoa are in the top 5. Of course those rankings are done based on follow-on rate... so, it's nice to see we are in good company, up there w/ you Jenny... but talk a bit about why you started with a syndicate and how you've been able to drive such high performance.
  • You launched the Genoa fund last year... Syndicate and fund now?
  • "Genoa ventures invests in early-stage companies innovating at the intersection of biology and technology"... Jenny, what does that mean to you and what types of companies are you looking for?
  • Adverse effects from Theranos?
  • How and where do you source dealflow?
  • Talk a bit about your evaluation process and some of the unique things that you do when vetting prospective portfolio companies?
  • What's your take on VCs that pick a focus area and stay distinctly in their lane vs. those VCs that may have a focus but tend to dabble in variety of other areas?
  • A position I've heard from many tech VCs is... (Read more...)

186. Seed Investing at the Intersection of Biology & Technology (Jenny Rooke)

by Nick Moran

Jenny Rooke of Genoa Ventures joins Nick to discuss Seed Investing at the Intersection of Biology & Technology. In this episode, we cover:

  • Her background in genetics, physics, computer science... and how that lead to venture.
  • How was it to work with Melinda and Bill Gates?
  • You also successfully built the largest life-sciences syndicate on Angellist that is also one of the highest performing syndicates of any sector... I just took a peek at the rankings this morning and both New Stack and Genoa are in the top 5. Of course those rankings are done based on follow-on rate... so, it's nice to see we are in good company, up there w/ you Jenny... but talk a bit about why you started with a syndicate and how you've been able to drive such high performance.
  • You launched the Genoa fund last year... Syndicate and fund now?
  • "Genoa ventures invests in early-stage companies innovating at the intersection of biology and technology"... Jenny, what does that mean to you and what types of companies are you looking for?
  • Adverse effects from Theranos?
  • How and where do you source dealflow?
  • Talk a bit about your evaluation process and some of the unique things that you do when vetting prospective portfolio companies?
  • What's your take on VCs that pick a focus area and stay distinctly in their lane vs. those VCs that may have a focus but tend to dabble in variety of other areas?
  • A position I've heard from many tech VCs is... (Read more...)