It's too early to know whether history will treat the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s as another tulip scandal or as the first phase of an economic transformation as powerful as that created by steam power. But there's much evidence that the technologies and companies that will become emblematic of the internet era are those with which we'll become familiar over the next ten years, not those of the last ten. In fact, while counter-intuitive and ironic, it is nonetheless always the case that stock market speculation and free capital are impediments, not contributors, to long-term innovation. So, with the dot-com boom having shown the transformative potential of information technologies, and the bust having created an economic climate conducive to real innovation, we have now entered what is certain to be a golden age for technology, technology companies, and technologists. This talk will explore the underlying mechanisms that make this the case; the areas where long-term value is most likely to be created; and how smart technologists and entrepreneurs can escape the malaise of recent short-term dislocations and capitalize on the opportunities now before us all.
About the speaker:
Andy Rappaport is a partner at August Capital, a leading information technology venture capital firm based in Menlo Park. Before joining August Capital in 1996, Andy spent 13 years as president of the Technology Research Group, a strategy consulting firm he founded. Andy began participating in the formation of venture-financed start-ups in 1985. He has now been a founder, director and/or investor in scores of companies, including Actel, Atheros Communications, Genoa Corp, MMC networks, Silicon Architects, Silicon Image, and Transmeta. For the past 20 years, Andy has lectured and written extensively on the economics of changing technology. His article, The Computerless Computer Company, won the McKinsey award for Harvard Business Review article of the year in 1991. In the intervening 10 years, largely because of that article, Andy has been blamed for everything from making inevitable the global economic dominance of Japan to making possible the Enron scandal. When not investing in technology companies, Andy is guitarist in and songwriter for the bay area rock band Woodside.
Contact information:
Andy Rappaport
August Capital
2480 Sand Hill Rd.
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650-234-9900
650-234-9910
Andyr@augustcap.com