Despite seemingly endless financial turmoil in Europe and gridlock in Washington, venture investors and entrepreneurs found reason to be optimistic Friday at MIT’s annual venture capital conference.
- Associated Press
North Face founder Kenneth “Hap” Klopp told the Cambridge, Mass., audience that “the economy is turning around” and “the next 10 years will be the best of your life.”
The country is paralyzed, he said, and “when everyone is going slowly, if you go fast, you can make a difference.”
“I’ve never seem a more healthy time for innovation than right now,” said David Skok, a general partner at Matrix Partners, as he led a panel on emerging technologies. “This is a fabulous time to be an entrepreneur.”
It’s no secret that social media, mobile technology and an exploding amount of data are creating huge opportunities in information technology. Markets matter, and in dynamic ones like IT, being in the right place at the right time is crucial, said keynoter Chris Gabrieli, a senior partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and a Bay State civic leader.
But other areas that need attention are “in a resting state,” he said, specifically energy, health-care service delivery and education. “How do you change these lethargic markets?” he asked.
He advised government to stay out of entrepreneurs’ way, sticking to financing basic research and setting policy, while avoiding trying to pick winning companies, as it did in the case of bankrupt solar company Solyndra.
But he suggested that government can play a role in creating markets, such as by promoting changes in the education system like innovative charter schools and programs such as Florida’s virtual high school.
In health care, speakers said, there are huge opportunities to apply information technology. “The big problem we have now in medicine is the overload of data,” said Elazer Edelman, a physician and professor at a joint Harvard-MIT program. He also advises the Food and Drug Adminstration, where he said submissions for new products “come in on pallets” – a recent one consisted of 29 boxes.
Organizing, analyzing and presenting data generated from research, patient monitoring and genomic sequencing are critical, Edelman said. “How do I communicate your genome to you?” he said.
Brad Feld, co-founder of venture firm Foundry Group, who said he agreed with Skok about the incredible acceleration of innovation, offered advice on creating sustainable entrepreneurial communities, something he’s writing a book about. They have to be led by entrepreneurs, have a 20-year vision, be easy for newcomers to access and do things “that engage the entrepreneurial stack from top to bottom,” such as TechStars, which Feld co-founded.
He said the availability of capital is “irrelevant,” noting that Boulder, Colo., where Foundry Group is based, has plenty of entrepreneurs but few investment firms.
