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Missed the hype part of the cycle??don?t miss the execution phase!

 Mark As Read    

Surely many of us have seen the famous Gartner Hype Cycle. It is reproduced every year by the IT research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc. We typically see the following version of it shared around which lists emerging technologies along the curve?to illustrate what is hot and what is not. While it is interesting to […]

Google vs Apple/Facebook/Uber: utilitarian vs aspirational products

 Mark As Read    

I routinely invest in companies a the intersection of hardware, software and?data. From CyPhy Works (drones) and Evolv (security) to Orbital Insights (satellite data analytics) and LensBricks (computational imaging). We were discussing design ethos and data related features at a portfolio company yesterday when an int'g conversation emerged around ...

Satellites/UAVs, computational imaging, artificial intelligence: Lux continues our partnership with Orbital Insight

 Mark As Read    

Last year Lux Capital?helped seed?Orbital Insight, a geospatial big data company?that leverages rapidly growing availability of satellite, UAV and other geospatial data sources to understand and characterize socioeconomic trends at global, regional, and hyperlocal scales. We're excited to?continue our partnership?with them as they announce today a?...

An investor?s perspective on the proposed drone regulations

 Mark As Read    

It?was an exciting Sunday morning on a holiday weekend in the world of small commercial drones (small Unmanned Aerial Systems as FAA calls them). We had heard last week that FAA was close to announcing their regulatory framework, and it has arrived. Finally, after nearly a decade of persuasion from everyone, from the drone community […]

VC due diligence. Important, and helpful for everyone involved.

 Mark As Read    

VC diligence is not a scientific process. I like to think every investor does some level of diligence even though there are some signs in today's ‘hot' market that some are willing to write big checks based on just a hunch.?That should not be the case as due diligence is a good thing. It helps […]

?Twas the year of the Drones. Did you get to fly one?

 Mark As Read    

What an amazing year 2014 was for the drone industry. Amazing highs and frustrating lows. Lots of new companies, new startups, many kickstarter success stories, and an ecosystem of technology companies developing to service the new industry. It is safe to assume most people probably heard about drones this past year (even those who planned […...

My answer to Peter Thiel?s question.

 Mark As Read    

In his book Zero to One, successful entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel writes that he asks every interviewee the following question: Q: What important truth do very few people agree with you on? Here is how I think I may have answered it: A: Most people believe they?benefit by learning from their mistakes. That may […]

Lemelson Foundation: Inspiring and enabling the next generation of inventors and invention-based enterprises

 Mark As Read    

What do the following people have in common? William Hewlett & David Packard (founders of HP) Douglas Engelbart (inventor of the computer mouse) Robert Langer (prolific bioscience inventor & entrepreneur) Raymond Damadian (inventor of the MRI machine) Thomas Fogarty (inventor of the?embolectomy catheter) Dean Kamen (prolific inventor –...

Time for sensors, networked devices, automation and IoT to come to our offices.

 Mark As Read    

Our homes are?increasingly internet connected. Of course our computers, mobile phones and tablets are, but quickly our TVs, stereos, thermostats, doorlocks, fire-alarms. lightbulbs, and baby-cams are also internet connected. There are nifty services like IFTTT, Revolv, SmartThings etc to help us automate our lives. We can practically control a lot ...

I am in a people and relationships business

 Mark As Read    

?The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.??– Ralph Waldo Emerson I wake up every morning thankful for how fortunate I am to be doing something for a living that […]

What is a ?pitch?? Do some entrepreneurs view it differently than investors?

 Mark As Read    

A 1-hour coffee last night with a first-time entrepreneur/founder turned into a 3+ hour discussion on many topics related to technologies, startups, founder issues, CEO responsibilities, team dynamics, investor/Board management and so on and so forth. (We were eventually kicked out by Coupa Cafe or it would have gone longer). During this conversati...

Startup sausage-making: from idea to company

 Mark As Read    

Great companies are built around brilliant ideas, great people and strong execution. It takes a lot of work to take a brilliant idea and turn it into a fundable company, and we are proud to invest in founders who put their blood, sweat and tears into doing so. At Lux Capital we invest in seed, […]

Dial-for-dollar calls from some VC associates

 Mark As Read    

This will likely get classified as a rant. So be it. I love VC associates. I love VC Principals. I was myself one until not too long ago. I don't believe VC firms need to be just partners. Associates do play an important role at VC firms, and for companies VCs end up investing in. […]

Proud of Helen Greiner, Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship

 Mark As Read    

I could not be more proud today that Helen Greiner, my friend and founder/CEO of Lux Capital portfolio company CyPhy Works, has been named a Presidential Ambassador for Global?Entrepreneurship (PAGE) by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and?U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker. The U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency ...

A short note from a VC to executive search firms.

 Mark As Read    

I tend to be a non-passive investor that works very closely with my portfolio companies to support them in any which way I can. Check out my blog post on "Friends Don?t Let Friends Have a Lazy VC/CEO Relationship". Lately several of my portfolio companies have had a reason to hire executive search firms for […]

A new kind of cleantech. A new wave of hardware innovation enabling sustainability.

 Mark As Read    

I spoke with two different people on phone yesterday that asked what ‘new' cleantech innovations I was most excited about. One of them runs a very large national advocacy group for clean energy, and the other works to support energy policy matters inside the White House. They were expecting me to respond with some thoughts […]

Some thoughts on energy/cleantech VC

 Mark As Read    

I had a chance to join an interesting round table conversation at Stanford University on financing strategies for energy/cleantech. There were a lot of interesting ideas shared, from PACE financing efforts in California to bond structures, tax credits, REITs, MLPs and green bank concepts. It was interesting, however, to note that pretty much every ...

Let?s connect at @SxSW. And talk hardware, robotics, drones, satellites, imaging, data?

 Mark As Read    

I will be joining a whole bunch of Boston/MIT SxSW attendees today on an early morning JetBlue flight to Austin. I will be there from Friday through Tuesday. I am looking forward to this year's SxSW, especially because there is going to be a lot of focus on hardware, robotics, satellites, drones, artificial intelligence, data […]

Twitter is eating the world.

 Mark As Read    

This past week I noticed at least three times my wife asked me to look up something on Twitter as she tried to follow a developing story. This was surprising to me. She is not a big user of Twitter (or much of social media), and in the past she would have just googled the […]

Build something that is hard to build, but amazing and enthralling!

 Mark As Read    

One of Lux Capital's early stage portfolio companies was thinking of its products in the context of B2B or B2C applications/customers. That terminology felt a bit outdated, and while possibly helpful, just didn't click with us. My partner Josh shared an alternative view which I have tried to illustrate in the image below. We advised […]...

A Technology Revolution in the Making: New Frontiers in Imaging.

 Mark As Read    

Who hasn't grown up fascinated by cameras and photography? After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. I got my first camera when I was a child. It was a polaroid camera and I could barely afford to take 10 photos with it in a single year (film was quite expensive). In high school […]

Capital intensity and cost of capital for ?big idea? startups

 Mark As Read    

My firm Lux Capital?frequently invests in entrepreneurs that aim to change the world with bold, daring, big ideas. We are investors in 3D printing (Shapeways, Sols), flying robots/drones (CyPhy Works) and satellite technologies (Planet Labs, Kymeta) to nuclear waste management (Kurion), drugs & vaccines (Genocea, Visterra, Cerulean), power elec...

Unpitch me. I am eager to learn and share new ideas!

 Mark As Read    

On December 11th an awesome event took place in Boston. Dozens of VCs, angels and entrepreneurs came together for an event called Unpitch Boston. It wasn't a biz plan competition, a demo day, or a chance to meet your favorite investor for 15 seconds while he stepped off-stage after giving a celebrity talk. It was […]

Amazon PrimeAir ? Flying robots are real and will change our lives.

 Mark As Read    

Earlier this summer Helen Greiner, founder and CEO of Lux Capital portfolio company CyPhy Works, gave a TEDxBoston talk on the future of robots. Specifically she talked about unmanned aircraft, or drones. You can watch her talk here, and if you forward to time stamp 8:06, you can hear her talk about flying robots delivering […]

The Dawn of ?Flying Robots? ? Our investment in CyPhy Works

 Mark As Read    

Over the past half decade, it has been my privilege to get to know a pioneer in the field of robotics: Helen Greiner. She is the founder & CEO of CyPhy Works, and previously was a co-founder, President and Chair of iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT). Helen is a hard-core engineer entrepreneur and a visionary in the […]

Friends Don?t Let Friends Have a Lazy VC/CEO Relationship

 Mark As Read    

A few days ago Vinod Khosla commented that in his opinion, the vast majority of VCs did not add value to their portfolio companies ? and in fact most added negative value. I don?t know if he exaggerated purposely for a provocative talk (seems like it), but there is certainly a message in there that […]

Metamaterials and Computational Imaging: Our latest investment in Evolv Technologies

 Mark As Read    

At Lux Capital we pride ourselves in backing great entrepreneurs working on important and relevant problems. I've written before that great entrepreneurs pursue problems they can relate to, and build great companies in those spaces. Security and safety have become an increasingly important consideration in our daily lives. Against formidable foes, ...

How big is your market? Is it big enough?

 Mark As Read    

One of my partners and I were discussing our need to invest time and money in companies building solutions for large market opportunities. He paraphrased someone important: "Are we sitting at the right poker table?". How do we know a particular industry or space is large enough that if our hard work eventually leads to […]

10 Things Impressive Entrepreneurs Tend To Be

 Mark As Read    

Reading Paul Graham's wonderful post on How to Convince Investors prompted me think back over my last 5 years in venture capital and what traits stood out among entrepreneurs that I was most impressed by. Of course this is a subjective view, and based on a cohort of a few thousand people. There will always […]

Impressive Entrepreneurs

 Mark As Read    

Reading Paul Graham's wonderful post on How to Convince Investors prompted me think back over my last 5 years in venture capital and what traits stood out among entrepreneurs that I was most impressed by. Of course this is a subjective view, and based on a cohort of a few thousand people. There will always […]

The Hardware Tsunami Is Here. Know What It Takes To Build A Great Hardware Company.

 Mark As Read    

One of my partners often quotes Henry Truman: "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." And this quote is more true in the history of venture capital?than perhaps anywhere else. The year is 2013?and hardware is cool again. Software might be eating the world, but its finishing dessert. […]

Some thoughts on VCs hiring journalists/PR/media staffers on their teams

 Mark As Read    

Dan Primack wrote an int'g article yesterday on Fortune titled "VCs and entrepreneurial ego", to discuss his views on why a growing numbers of VCs are getting so active in the media/PR/journalism game, and in fact spending millions of dollars (over the life of a fund) to bring on-board specialists hired to do the same […]

A new chapter in my life ? investing in our future.

 Mark As Read    

I spent much of the day yesterday with Salman Khan of Khan Academy, walking around the MIT campus and at events geared towards raising awareness and funds for his amazing effort to democratize education for all people of the world.? It was nice for both of us to walk around the campus where we not

RoughDraft.vc students make their first investment in a student startup

 Mark As Read    

RoughDraft.vc is an initiative that my partners Nitesh Banta, Peter Boyce and I started last year to provide the kind of unhindered financial and other support to student entrepreneurs that we would have wanted when we were students. RoughDraft.vc is a student partnership that invests in brilliant student entrepreneurs in the Greater Boston area co...

Roughdraft.vc ? Students catalyzing student startups

 Mark As Read    

Boston is a very special place with approximately 60+ colleges and universities, 300,000+ students, and a long history of significant companies started by students or student drop-outs from Boston area universities. If there is one thing everyone agrees on is the sheer wealth of student talent that comes from across the country to reside in

MIT Startup Bootcamp: story of a student-led effort that kicks ass!

 Mark As Read    

I attended the annual Startup Bootcamp at MIT yesterday. It was the best thing I could possibly have done on the Columbus Day holiday. Kudos to the amazing group of students at StartLabs who put on the show. If you missed it, visit their website and you can watch the recording. I have been attending

The EnergyMakers Show

 Mark As Read    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R59VGA5z4U&feature=plcp Gene

Why I still focus on cleantech?

 Mark As Read    

Somebody I know well recently asked me why I still focused on cleantech investments? Had I not been dissuaded by all the rather public failures of cleantech startups? Was the political climate not anti-cleantech almost everywhere, and was this really solving the biggest problem faced by humanity today? These were well meaning questions and came...

[Blog post] Thinking about student entrepreneurship?Boston can do better!

 Mark As Read    

Below is a terribly written note, but I hope it conveys the point I am trying to make… — May is a special time in Boston. With finals & graduation around the corner, students make their push to complete the semester and finalize their summer/next year plans. This is typically also when student projects either

The Entrepreneur: A Masterpiece of Dexterity, Grace and Risk | New England Clean Energy Council | Blog

 Mark As Read    

Thank you to Kimberly from NECEC for rather eloquently summarizing some of the thoughts I shared at a workshop on "Resourceful Entrepreneurs" at URES 2012. Bilal Zuberi led the 2012 University Research & Entrepreneurship Symposium (URES, pronounced by those in the know as U-Rez) breakout session titled ?Resourceful Entrepreneurs.? An innocent t...

Over-simplification of hard problems and nuanced technological innovations doesn?t really help.

 Mark As Read    

Just saw this tweet and was left quite confused: I thought we were done making speeches like this in 2008! My assumption is that Vinod's description of the technology got a bit too simplified in somebody's attempt reduce it to quotable 140 characters. Of all investors, Vinod probably knows best how difficult it is to

Tradition of Presenting Scientific Innovation at URES

 Mark As Read    

Every year I look forward to one special event that is held in Cambridge, MA ? the annual?University Research & Entrepreneurship Symposium?(URES). This year it will be held on April 18th at the Microsoft NERD. Where else would you get approximately 30 universities presenting their most exciting research & innovation in the fields of Energy,...

What are Resourceful Entrepreneurs (for University spinouts)?

 Mark As Read    

Starting a company from scratch is not easy, especially a university startup. I have had hundreds, if not thousands, of conversations with people who have interest in university spinouts and they all point to all the difficulties that they have had to face. The risks stack up high in the face of success. Technology is

Advice maybe cheap. But take it even if you don?t act on it.

 Mark As Read    

Until only a few years ago, I was a first-time entrepreneur struggling to get attention & advice from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. I did not need funding from them (we were well funded by angels – to the tune of $23m), but I was looking for people who knew the startup world and could give

The Second Cycle of Cleantech Startups

 Mark As Read    

Cleantech industry is still in its nascent days and an ecosystem that promotes sustainable production, distribution and consumption of energy is still developing, especially the entrepreneurial and managerial talent that will lead us hopefully into a new era of job creation, economic growth, and global competitiveness. Startups play an outsized rol...

[New blog post] Investing in People. What defines a ?backable? entrepreneur?

 Mark As Read    

I attended a startup conference in NYC last week. Some amazing entrepreneurs and very successful startup CEOs on stage. Lots of interesting issues discussed, but the most interesting conversation that stayed with me was a discussion among some panelists if people or ideas were more important in determining an investment decision? One very successfu...

URES 2011: Preview of the Cleantech/Energy finalists

 Mark As Read    

Next week, 30 university spin-out projects from around the country (~17 universities) will converge in Cambridge, MA to present their breakthrough technologies and new business opportunities at the annual University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium (URES 2011). It is one of my favorite events of the year because it brings some of the best un...

What?s going on when investors say ?no, but we want to track??

 Mark As Read    

When you, as an entrepreneur, are in discussions with an investor and they tell you their decision is that its not a good fit right now but they want to stay close and track the company, what is really going on? Should you call on them periodically and give them updates? Should you wait until

Some things I learned about cleantech and venture capital in 2010?.

 Mark As Read    

For the past couple of years I wrote end of year notes as predictions in the cleantech space for the next year. (cleantech predictions for 2010). But this year I have already read too many cleantech predictions for 2011. Some make sense, some are self-serving, some seem out there, and some just too generic to

University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium: showcasing commercializable university research

 Mark As Read    

University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium 2011 (URES) will be held on March 31, 2011 in Cambridge, MA. It is an honor for me to have been involved with this annual event since its founding. It is a unique event, possibly the only one of its kind, to present high quality university research & innovation projects

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