Next Wave of Innovations

At SVASE main event “Where the Hot Money Will Be Going in 2006,” the panelists from Onset Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson talked about the innovations they see that are coming to reshape the landscape of software, semiconductors, Internet, telecom, energy and bio-tech industries.

There are many things happening in mobile/wireless space, Web 2.0, digital media, enterprise automation, consumer-oriented software, energy, life-science, and bio-medical areas. Be it location-based service, clean tech, or nano-tech, the panelists expressed strong interests in backing up the ventures that have world-changing impact.

Susan Mason of Onset Ventures placed a special emphasis on business model innovation. As technologies evolve, old business models may not apply any more. A good example is enterprise software has evolved into a service-oriented business model as affected by open-source and off-shoring.

I found the comments by Warren Packard of Draper Fisher Jurvetson particularly insightful and inspiring. He warned people when they are looking at trends, keep in mind there may be opportunities in the what’s-not-so-hot areas, and likewise, there may be pitfalls and competitions in the hot areas such as VoIP, Web 2.0.

The witty and no-nonsense questions by the moderator Ed Lambert kept the whole event animated and interesting. I was intrigued by Ed’s last question: in addition to the general perception of what’s hot and cool, what are the things that should be hot – the technologies and innovations with social good. Shouldn’t these be the next wave of innovations?

innovation, venture capital, entrepreneurship, Internet, bio-tech, digital media, Web 2.0, nano-tech, wireless, clean-tech