Looking for the next billion dollar opportunities

This it the title of the session at TiECon that I’m in right now.

In this Panel discussion we take a look at current technology investing trends from a panel of blue chip VCs. If you are thinking of starting your company then this is a must attend seminar for you.

Come and hear VCs from Silicon Valley’s premier firms provided their insight on hot areas of investment both locally and globally.

Key Discussion points:

- What are the Hot trends?
- Cleantech - Lasting trend or passing fad?
- Virtualization - What is next?
- Web2.0 and beyond: Will the next killer social application have to be built on Facebook or Google?
- Software - SAAS or Enterprise?
- Wireless - What is a bigger disruptor iPhone or WiMax??

TiE Host(s):
Waheed Qureshi, Zenprise

Moderator(s):
Packy Kelly, KPMG LLP

Panelist(s):
Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures
Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund
Ken Elefant, Opus Capital
Deepak Kamra, Canaan Partners
Mark Sherman, Battery Ventures

Hot investments right now: Green tech, Software as a Service, Financial technologies, computer services, digital media & software, virtualization, gaming.

$17bn gaming market is now bigger than Hollywood! Navin Chaddha from the Mayfield Fund made the point that about 1,500 companies year are getting funded - how many of these will succeed?

Enterprise 2.0 best practice, according to Navin, is to look at the new generation needs of Internet 500 companies and start catering your produce to companies that have large amounts of scale. Companies need to start focusing on countries outside the USA. The mindset has to change to earn lower ARPU (Average Revenue per User) but with large scale.

Focus on SEO so that you don’t have to spend money with Google on CPC’s - especially as a startup - great advice! He used Fixya, as an example.

Nice piece from Navin.

Deepak is looking at social networks and video, enterprise software & sofware aka platform as a service.

Shawn sees opportunity in the premium sms market for mobile and the iPhone as a big area of innovation with the new iPhone SDK. Skeptical of consumer oriented mobile plays in the US - but sees huge opportunity in India and other emerging markets.

Navin outlines that India only has 2m broadband users - and 300m mobile users!! Mobile payments in India will be big - but not locally in the US. 10 million SME’s in India that will not purchase a payment terminal - and 300m Indians who will not get a credit card. The mobile phone will become the new transaction terminal (as a South Africa - I’ve heard this all before - so it’s nothing new. We have companies like Fundamo & MTN who have been doing this for years).

Question: When is the right time for an Entrepreneur to approach a Venture Capital firm?

Right approach: Experienced team, big markets, enough details to support, competitive analysis and research, all venture bets are contrarian bets (there’s that contrarian approach again).

Understand your strengths and weaknesses before approaching. If they’re a seed firm - it’s fine to be two guys with an idea - if they are a bigger firm, you need to be a bit more established. Founders of previous companies who are getting involved with new companies in a space where they have some expertise receive bonus points for domain expertise.

Question: Are Facebook apps hot or not?

Ken Elefant: Not hot. Facebook related companies that provide an infrastructure (pick axes to gold miners are good thought).
Deepak: Some are hot, other are not. Huge volumes - not supportable by advertising. Sponsorship will probably work. Subscription models are interesting - but the vast majority of Facebook apps will not be financially viable.

SaaS is the biggest theme among the venture capital community at the moment, according to Mark.

Question : Will server virtualization lead to desktop virtualization? What is the future?

Ken: Desktop virtualization is an interesting space. Ken recently had a company in that space acquired by Microsoft. Security around these environments is a concern - the question is how much value can be extracted.

That’s pretty much the end of the session.

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