Last week hundreds of entrepreneurs, business executives, and influencers convened for the sixth annual Global Technology Symposium, where they discussed issues ranging from the current state of the economy to new methods of energy production. Below we’ve highlighted some of the most compelling panels, which featured exectives from companies including Facebook, Google, and a number of venture capital firms. We were also lucky enough to have the chance to sit down and talk with T. Boone Pickens, which we’ve included in video below.
During a panel titled “Founders of Silicon Valley Venture Capital”, which included Reid Dennis (Institutional Venture Partners), Bill Draper (Draper Richards L.P.), Pitch Johnson (Asset Management Company), and Ann Winblad (Hummer Winblad), the attitude reflected the global nature of the conference, highlighting the growing opportunities abroad. A number of large VC funds originally based in Silicon Valley have opened up international branches, and local organizations are growing as well. The panel noted that while we may see reductions of up to 40-50% in the number of VC funds in the United States, international funds will help offset this loss.
During a one-on-one interview, Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg spoke about concerns with the new homepage, noting that the response has actually been more positive than past updates, though Facebook will continue to iterate. She also downplayed the idea that Facebook has not yet found a business model, explaining that it is an advertising based business.
During the panel on Corporate Venture Capital, David Lawee (Google), Dan’l Lewin (Microsoft) and Claudia Fan Munce (IBM) discussed the increasing role large companies are taking in the startup space. Programs like Microsoft BizSpark help foster the startup community (Google is also getting involved with Google Ventures). Lawee said that Google was unsure if the rate of acquisitions will increase or decrease in 2009 (I’m guessing the latter), and everyone seemed to agree that there will be ongoing changes in just about everything that goes on in this space.
Prior to the conference, the GTS held a pitch competition at the Plug and Play Tech Center, during which Crystal Clear Technologies won the top prize (the company manufactures a water filter than can inexpensively remove metal contaminants).
We also had a chance to sit down and ask T. Boone Pickens about his thoughts on emerging green startups, the United State’s dependence on foreign oil, and entrepreneurship. You can watch the entire interview below.
T Boone Pickens is out for himself and himself only. He is basically a global warming and science denier.
He absolutely refuses to place any blame for the lack of progress on environmental/energy matters precisely where it belongs: on the cronyist fossil-fuel-industry-owned members of Congress over the last 15 years, nearly all of whom are Republicans. Pickens is a loyal Republican.
I wouldn’t trust anything he says and am baffled why anyone in the technology world takes him seriously…..unless he is writing you a personal check.
@J. Stanton – I agree. The guy is a dinosaur and a gasbag at it, out for himself… But nothing really wrong with that, including being a Republican.
However, he is loaded and some of his wealth could help many start-ups, green or not *if* he sees a profit potential…
Again, nothing wrong with that.You don’t have to like the guy, just remember that many other VCs, particularly in the Valley are unbearable, to the point that you might not want to be in the same room with them…
You know what I think would help ???
If they waived that damn FTB-3522 $800 LLC tax.
No matter how small or insignificant your LLC is, even if you canceled, dissolved or made little profit or had no employees. you still have to pay it.
That’s a real hurdle for starting a business. I had forgotten all about it until just this past week and realized that I still have to pay it for 2008 for the LLC I canceled.
If that overhead is waived a lot of businesses wouldn’t have to think twice about starting up.
Waive the damn tax before I organize again. Thanks.
Or make it graduated. Like $100 per 1 Million earned per year. That would be more fair.
@Chris – Good point. I don’t know how to get around it, other than paying the d**n fees.
About 10 years ago we incorporated one of our companies in Delaware – The yearly fee for the Corp was less than $300 but went up to $4,5K + $300/year when we issued 1M shares for a private placement… which never happened. We dissolved the Corp shortly after and never paid the stupid taxes…
You were extremely lucky then.
At any rate, I have to re-organize for S0eet Inc. and when I do, the instant I file for a FEIN number BAM! $800 poof gone down the toilet.
There is no guarantee that people are going to jump ship from adwords and use our service. As a matter of fact the odds are decidedly against us. Even though we have certain advantages such as being in the LA area we can hire cheap actors to create jingles and videos to lure people onto our service. Where as people else where in the country have no access to entertainers like that and film editors.
But that besides the point, there is no guarantee that our investment will pay off. Just like any startup with a business plan, the business plan is just a forecast based on an educated and researched guess.
So perhaps it would be a nice change in the future if our governments would realize that startups are VERY lean and cash strapped and made it as pain free as possible to start a company that has limited liability.
plus there is no money available from banks right now even for businesses that have good DUNS D&B partners and credit lines.
The startup I am organizing this year to challenge existing internet advertising literally has no credit line and a DUNS number will be useless for us, because our partners are the public buying from Paypal. And the public has no DUNS number to trade with us.
So credit for this type of business is very limited to begin with, now thanks to wall street it is impossible to secure the credit we need to build businesses properly.
So we have to do everything half @ssed, then we have to save that magical $800 for the franchise board.
I hate to tell everybody thinking of starting up a business this, but in addition to the $800 franchise tax, you have to pay a $595 self-employment tax.
There, now 50% of would be technology entrepreneurs will go back to Craigslist. And with good reason.
i was there! i think i was the only college student at the conference.
I was there too, also a college student. A woman took a picture of me to send to her daughter to “inspire” her. I think a picture of the panels would be more inspiring but whatever!
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This is the money moment for me that you pulled out of this interview:
“If ya can’t stand the wear and tear, get a job.”
Good job Jason. I can only imagine what it was like to sit across from Pickens.
Great ..