BLOG STARTUPS, VENTURE AND THE TECH BUSINESS
Author Archive
September 27 2011
by Todd Hixon
What the Political Crisis Means For Entrepreneurs
The recent downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe stem from a century-in-the-making political crisis, which is creating big economic uncertainty: inability to borrow could throw major countries into recession, and interest rates, tax rates, and government spending will see major change that is hard to predict. The crisis will ...
September 14 2011
by Todd Hixon
What the Downgrade Means for Entrepreneurs: Part 1, What’s Happening
A downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating has never happened before, so it’s worth examining what it means for entrepreneurs. This is the first of three posts, focused on what’s happening. Part 2 will look at the impact on entrepreneurs and the venture market, and Part 3 will suggest how entrepreneurs can survive and ...
August 8 2011
by Todd Hixon
Tablets Turn 18
We’re now 18 months post the iPad announcement. Like an 18 year-old, the tablet has matured a lot, but still has a way to go. Here are some key things I have learned. Tablets are a new, major segment of the mobile device market, 40-50 million units this year, a big fraction of the ~250m ...
July 4 2011
by Todd Hixon
A Tale of Three Cities
In the past month I’ve been to venture conferences in three cities: New York, San Francisco, and Boston. (I rarely go to so many; events conspired this year.) This invites a comparison. The New York conference (TechCrunch/Disrupt) stropped its edge and trumpeted media, personalities, and disrupting everything, not least venture capital (more here). There were ...
June 17 2011
by Todd Hixon
Customer-Driven Health Care
We’ve made several health care related investments recently: Qliance, Healthwarehouse, and Truveris. Customer-driven health care is the theme that unifies them. When customers (individuals and health plan payers) take charge, things change in good and important ways. And customers are taking charge because the cost of health care has become unaffordable for everyone, even the ...
June 13 2011
by Todd Hixon
Physics & Politics
I have always loved finding the non-obvious underlying truth, which is why I studied Physics and would be a sad failure in politics. My favorite part of TechCrunch New York was the presentation by EcoMotors, a company that wants to reduce oil consumption and CO2 emissions by producing a much better internal combustion (IC) engine. ...
June 6 2011
by Todd Hixon
Tech = Media?
I attended TechCrunch Disrupt New York recently. A few observations: Web/mobile advertising and “flash commerce” were sliced and diced on several panels. Google and Facebook execs advocated for their new products. Most interesting comments: from Mark Walrath/RightMedia founder: “The Meeker Gap (% time versus ad dollars spent on web media) exists because web advertisers have ...
May 20 2011
by Todd Hixon
The More Things Stay The Same
… the more they will soon change. This inversion of the famous saying applies very well to venture capital. The VC business has long, strong cycles. Everything goes in one direction for a few years, and the momentum seems inevitable, until it sharply reverses. 2011 is a time of extremes in VC. The industry has ...
April 19 2011
by Todd Hixon
How Entrepreneurs Can Help Fix Health Care
I’ve long thought that health care entrepreneurship was about finding new and better treatments for disease. Most innovations offer new therapies or diagnostics, often at very high price points: e.g., drug-eluting coronary artery stents and erythropoietin (EPO), a bio-pharmaceutical that promotes blood cell production, were expensive, breakthrough capabilities that became major businesses. There is another ...
March 29 2011
by Todd Hixon
Android Will Hold Its Own
The Verizon iPhone and recent strong success of Apple’s iOS on multiple fronts raises the question: can Android really compete with iOS? (E.g., WSJ: “Verizon iPhone: A Threat to Android?”) Although sales and installed base of Android devices have passed the iPhone, some argue that happened because carriers representing 70% of the U.S. market had ...
