SVCwireless Annual Conference today was a successful one.
Jeff Hawkins, the inventor and founder of Palm, gave the morning keynote speach. During the break, I introduced the Digital Vision program to him and talked about possibility of inviting him to give a talk. He certainly expressed interest as he said that he would like more and more people in developing countries to use PDAs.
On the hall way, I met Mark T. Dempster of Sequoia Capital – the legenary Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Mark is a marketing person for Sequoia Capital. Apparently, he was looking for “entrepreneurs.” I gave him my business card and briefly introduced my project. Mark was very interested and said Sequoia Capital only invests in the companies that 1) incorporated in the U.S. (operation can be overseas); 2) not too early in technology – in another words, the technology should show some sign of maturing.
On the VC panel, Andy Yan from the Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund said that three portals in China – sina.com, sohu.com, netease.com received 70 % profit from SMS via 9.8 kbps. It was a big surprise that SMS became a billion dollar business.
Gaurav Garg of Sequoia Capital said they are looking for the following in the companies they want to invest:
- Clear purpose
- Spetacular market
- Alleviate customers’ pain
- Team DNA
- Incredible product focus
- Real operating margins
- Frugality
- Inferno with a single match
He also said carriers have four major problems: revenue, profit, ARPU (average revenue per user), and subscribers. Is someone can solve these problems, he would like to talk to them!