StepOne

Twilight of the Matadors in Catalonia?

The New York Times recently published an article about the potential passage of a referendum in the Catalan Parliament against bullfighting. Economic woes, combined with dwindling interest among young Catalans, has led to closures of bullrings all across Spain. Political issue? Animal rights issue? Cultural issue What do you think?

http://bit.ly/v9Qgt

The Next Youth-Magnet Cities

The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article about the “next youth-magnet cities.” San Francisco wasn’t on this list….but Washington, DC, Seattle, New York, Portland, and Austin were. Why wasn’t San Francisco on there? Aren’t we supposed to be the mecca of entrepreneurship? Or is our high cost of living “costing” us? http://bit.ly/3yavpS

Rocky ountain Institute Cleantech event

I attended the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Cleantech conference in San Francisco (Reinventing Fire) last Friday. Not only did I get to meet up with a fellow Harvard Business School grad, Lionel Bony, who works at RMI, I heard a great panel of speakers: Amory Lovins, Dan Reicher (Google.org), Paul Holland (Foundation Capital), Bill Joy (Kleiner Perkins), Aimee Christensen (Christensen Global Strategies), and Catherine Zoi (Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy).

One big takeaway for our European clients is: Catherine Zoi talked about the Obama Administration’s mandate to grant $400M to companies that can help promote and scale energy efficiency to a national level.

Social Media in Strategic Alliances

I attended my second ASAP (Association for Strategic Alliance Professionals) event last night. It was held at Cisco’s offices in San Jose, and I was very impressed by 2 things.

First, the “technology” of the event was extremely well-integrated with the speakers. For instance, audience members were able to record their responses to several polling questions that the speakers asked. The speakers then were able to integrate this real-time data into the presentation. Of course, this is not new technology — but it was the first time that I felt a presentation was actually enhanced by technology. This is especially interesting to me since part of StepOne’s value add for our European clients is to prepare them for presentations they may give or meetings they hold in the US. Anything that enhances a speaker’s message is something that I will keep an eye on for our clients.

Second, on the topic of how social media can enhance strategic alliances, the speakers referenced 2 source materials that I will definitely track down and read. The book, Groundswell (http://bit.ly/1CgLph), and the Conversation Prism (http://bit.ly/65Hnr) by Brian Solis. Have any of you out there read or used these? What do you think?

San Francisco Business Times reporter gives valuable advice

Yesterday morning I attended a talk given by Ron Leuty, the life sciences reporter for the San Francisco Business TImes. He gave valuable advice about how life sciences companies need to communicate better with their wider audience, not just with their potential equity investors. I think this advice is true for technology companies in general, not just biotech ones. Executives in tech companies need to be able to explain their technology in simple (but not dumbed down) terms.

C-YA in Palo Alto!

C-YA does not have to mean “get lost!” In fact, it simply means keeping up with good friends and alumni of Stanford. Last Thursday, you could find yours truly at Nola in Palo Alto, kicking back some suds with recent Stanford Alums.

The environment was decidedly not stuffy, and business only made up some of the conversation, but that’s what makes C-YA events so fun and inviting. There were electrical engineers, MBAs, biologists, and even some social science degrees (guilty as charged!) in attendance. Come on out to the next C-Ya event in Palo Alto or the larger Bay Area. I’ll see you there!

Successful cleantech IPO

Lithium ion battery maker, A123 Systems, has had a successful IPO — after its shares hit the market on September 24, their share price shot up more than 50%. Does this mean the IPO drought is over? Will cleantech lead the way to a general market recovery? StepOne will keep our eye on developments in the cleantech market for our clients and future clients. Full disclosure: I went to business school with one of the guys at A123 — congrats Doug!

New solar panel technology

I recently read an interesting article in the NY Times about an emerging new technology, called building-integrated photovoltaics. The current, conventional way to install solar panels is through bulky panels added to roofs or mounted on the ground.

Now, however, there are some US companies that are offering less conspicuous designs, in the form of shingles, tiles, etc, which have photovoltaic cells sealed within them. The solar cells are thus part of the actual building, versus being an “add-on.”

This market is in its very early stages, and many energy consulting firms estimate that government subsidies would need to be in place to speed adoption of building-integrated photovoltaics in the US. In Europe, where they do have government subsidies for this technology in place, building-integrated photovoltaics make up 3-4% of the solar market.

Upcoming event: MadriTech bridge trip

StepOne Ventures is excited to announce the upcoming MadriTech Bridge Trip, a four day event we’re putting on in conjunction with PromoMadrid, Enterprise Europe Network, and CEIM. You’ll be hearing a lot about it in the coming weeks, but the basic details can be found here.

In addition to the closing night networking event in San Francisco, we’ll be webcasting the highlights starting October 20th. We hope you’ll be able to join us! Stay tuned for details.

Insight into biotechnology VCs

From Andrea Chang, head of StepOne’s US office: “I attended a talk given by some titans of the biotechnology VC world. Representatives from Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, and Sanderling Ventures spoke about the current state of the biotech funding market. Message to Spanish biotech companies ready to look for funding in the US — deals are getting done for quality companies.”