It would not surprise me if you had recently stumbled across the term "collaborative consumption" while roaming the World Wide Web. The Peer-to-peer movement seems to be making waves of technological revolution, harnessing the power of local communities in ways and in a scale never before possible.
Back in May this year, the Kauffman Foundation published a very interesting paper titled “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY… AND HE IS US” - Lessons from Twenty Years of the Kauffman Foundation’s Investments in Venture Capital Funds and The Triumph of Hope over Experience.
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the Cities Summit Tel Aviv, in a session moderated by Mr Yossi Vardi. The topic was the "Innovative code" of cities. My talk focused on London and its ability to become a startup center in Europe. In a nutshell, London has all the components it needs to succeed.
Remember the ad for the "Best job in the world" campaign in 2009? That was for an environmental job in Hamilton Island... now comes the tech equivalent for an Intern if you ask me. The team is called the "Google Five", a select group of interns with a very special mission. Here's a flavor of what a previous batch did.
As every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. For the Invest in Israel archive, click here. With the news on the 33% in Q3 decline of Israeli venture capital, we hear about the announcement of Sequoia dedicating $200 million and ICQ Ventures allocating $150 million for investments in Israel. Will the startup nation weather its funding "Sandy" storm? See the headlines below.
Over the last few months many people have asked me for advice regarding their ideas and if they should go ahead and do anything with them.
After hearing their ideas I always repeat the same answer (regardless of the quality of the idea). "There are lots of good ideas, however, the gap between a good idea and making it into a business, is huge. If you don't feel like it's the only thing you want to do and the only way you can live your life, my advice to you is “Don't do it".
Globes ranked the top 10 Israeli startups for 2012, and social marketplace Fiverr has taken the top spot. Fiverr has not only created a new marketplace, but also established a whole category, which attracted quite a lot of copycats (make Purple cows people!). Some of these include: Smalljob, 20s, and Gigim as well as Fourerr, Sixerr, and Eighterr...
Last week PWC released its quarterly moneytree report on the state of the venture capital industry in Israel. The top line figures indicate a 33% decline in VC investments in Q3, reaching $171 million compared to $255 million in the previous year. The main reason stated is the decline in availability of local VC funding. Overall in the first 3 quarters of 2012, Israeli companies raised $591 million, compared to $904 million in the equivalent period in 2011.
Remember ICQ? The poster-child of Israeli startups which was sold to AOL in 1998 for $287 million (ancient link!) and later on to DST for $187 million in 2010, Yuri Milner's holding corp, is now operating under Mail.ru, Russia's primary email provider. ICQ is making a slight change in tac, as the company announced it will allocate $150 million to invest and acquire Israeli startups.
Felda Hardymon is a highly successful venture capitalist and popular Harvard Business School professor, where he teaches “Venture Capital and Private Equity”. Sharing research and examples from the 2012 edition of his textbook, Hardymon spoke at last week’s Journey conference in Tel Aviv about “Venture Investment- Trends, Cycles and Opportunities”.
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