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  • Announcing the 2010 AlwaysOn Global 250

    AlwaysOn is excited to announce the 2010 AlwaysOn Global 250 Top Private Companies. The AO Global 250 comprises domestic and international companies pioneering in on-demand computing, digital media and entertainment, and greentech.
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    It's with great excitement that we introduce the eighth annual AlwaysOn Global 250 top  private companies. The AlwaysOn Global 250 represent the top emerging companies in the Global Silicon Valley that are demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technologies in on-demand computing, digital media, and greentech.

    The AlwaysOn editorial team, along with partners at Manatt, Morgan Stanley, the Blackstone Group, KPMG, Silicon Valley Bank, Sonnenschein, and Bridge Bank, as well as industry experts across the globe, scoured the entrepreneurial community to identify the top 250 private companies that are taking old notions of doing things and forging solutions that will lead to industry shake-up and huge value-creation opportunities.

  • The Future of Books

    What is a book? The concept of ebooks and the new platforms to view them on have forever changed the publishing industry. See what Stanford Professor Tina Seelig and a panel of authors and publishers think about the future of books.
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    Even though books have been around for well over 500 years, we're still dealing with a working definition for the word book. Tina Seeling (Executive Director of STVP, author, and Stanford professor) threw out the following definition: "A committment to a deep-dive on a topic using the written word." The panel took a deep dive (with the spoken word) on what a book is and what the future of the written word is, but only after Tina showed off some of her favorite students and their exploration of the future of the book publishing industry. Apple's iPad, the Nook, Amazon's Kindle, and the entire concept of ebooks have forever changed an industry that fell asleep at the wheel.

  • The State of IPO, M&A, and Secondary Markets

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    "IPOs are extremely important, they're just not relevant," says panelist Sam Schwerin. Are IPOs dead forever? Currently, with an average of 10.4 years from founding to IPO (for the few companies that make it), IPOs don't work for anyone - Angels, VCs, LPs, or Entrepreneurs. Secondary sales (done by panelist Barry Silbert and his company SecondMarket) are giving stakeholders stuck in no man's land a way out. This talk really gets into the nitty gritty of how things might shape up for the future of exit markets - both new and old.

  • Keynote: The Future of the Mobile Cloud

    HP’s Phil McKinney looks at how the future of technology innovation has its roots in the past. And how the mobile cloud is all about the experiences users have with their devices and with each other.
    cell-phones.jpg Communication is about the experiences we create, the devices we use, and the services are enabled. As the shift occurs from a few big players in the 70s to literally hundreds of choices, we are discovering that it’s really all about how you match service to devices to create the communication experience. Hard on the heels of HP’s acquisition of Palm, Phil talks about how the three fundamental building blocks of communication can all come together in the mobile cloud.  
  • Established Players Competing In Cloud 2.0?

    What does it mean to move from Cloud 1.0 to Cloud 2.0? Find out in this Summit at Stanford Panel.

    Key players have proven there's value in the cloud. But Cloud 2.0 is more about moving the fringe benefits of the cloud to the core of enterprise (and even consumer) applications. The discussions that potential cloud users are having is shifting from technical feasibility to business and economic discussions.

  • The 2010 Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch

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    AlwaysOn is proud to announce its inaugural Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch list, presented by Accenture. These pioneers have been involved in creating innovative technology companies and securing venture capital deals, creating jobs and strengthening the Global Silicon Valley marketplace.

    As the tech and VC industries recover from the recent credit crunch, these women are continuing to score big wins in terms of revenue, reach, innovation, and return on their stakeholders' investments. The AlwaysOn Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch is a collection of the most prominent and influential women in the global technology industries.

    This is the inaugural year for the list, which was hand-selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team. The team looked at data from across the entrepreneur universe, examining contributions from hundreds of talented women who are changing the technology landscape. The AO team used five criteria for choosing this year's list: overall innovation, the ability to identify new market opportunities, commercialization of new products and services, creation of stakeholder value, and media buzz and awareness in the tech community.

  • Hot Private SaaS Cloud Companies Shifting to Cloud 2.0

    This panel got a bit heated and is definitely a must-watch. Find out what the hottest start-ups in the cloud are plotting.
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    What's going on with the infamous cloud? Is it actually catching on or it held up for security reasons? We start this great panel off with a debate about how secure the cloud is and get to the other key issues that have slowed the projected adoption of the cloud. Are the barriers psychological or technical? Is Amazon's AWS dead?

  • How To Source Deals from Silicon Valley's Gay Mafia

    The Snappy Guy knows what it means to play both sides of the fence and come out a winner.
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    I have a confession.

    I'm in Silicon Valley's gay mafia.

    No, I'm not gay. I just love sourcing deals where other VCs can't go, won't go, and don't even know about.

    The gay mafia here has its fingers in EVERYTHING. Yes, some of them are mad that I'm the only straight guy, but I add value into the societies that I infiltrate.

    For the record, I love gay entrepreneurs.

  • Mobile Monetization - Billions for the Taking

    The tidal wave of mobile monetization is finally hitting the VC-backed innovation community. Don't miss this panel with four experts from the world of mobile that are making every micro-moment count.
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    After watching the carriers rake in the cash, venture-backed companies are finally navigating this complex world, bringing value to consumers and positive returns on investments. These four panelists represent a wide range of perspectives in the mobile world, from monetizing apps through advertising to keeping the carriers in the game to smoothing the network path amongst myriad competitors to social networking on the small screen.

  • Qualcomm's Matt Grob On Augmented Reality

    Qualcomm's Matt Grob discusses the future of Augmented Reality.
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    Two great videos here. One is a taste of Qualcomm's new game (with Mattel), a 3D augmented reality "rockem sockem robots" that we saw live during Matt Grob's talk, the second link below in red. Qualcomm is leading the way to bring pretty sophisticated augmented reality to your cell phone. They've developed a way to scan, compare, position, and render images 30 times a second to produce the "rockem sockem robots" game in the video below. Enjoy! Matt Grob is the Senior VP of Engineering and the Head of Corporate Research and Development at Qualcomm.

  • Here Come the Super Angels!

    One of the best panels of the conference. Sam Angus, Partner at Fenwick & West, leads the mildly controversial panel on Super Angels.
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    Everyone has an opinion about them. Many love them. Some hate them. Regardless of your opinion, Super Angels have really become a force recently. Most focus on consumer internet because the start-up costs are low (compared to green energy, semiconductors, and healthcare), but when you want to scale a company, when you need millions of users, then you need big capital...Except when sometimes you don't.

    So how do the early stage VCs feel? Well there's one key thing to keep in mind: Big funds need big exits. Small funds don't. Enjoy the video, and online discussion!

  • Co-Innovation In The Cloud

    Cloud computing is coming but it's still new to most of the enterprise world. SAP Executive Vice President Doug Merritt discusses the future of the cloud.
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    We kicked off day 2 of the STVP/AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford with a keynote from Doug Merritt, EVP at SAP. The message from Doug about cloud computing was clear: Change will be constant, the OnDemand model will continue to perform, this is just the beginning, and SAP will be there for the longhaul. This talk starts off with Tony Perkins' intro for the day and rolls right into Doug's talk.

  • The Anatomy of a Successful Startup in 2010

    This awesome panel of the AlwaysOn Global 250 Category winners discussed what it takes to be the best start-up. Check out the archived video, slides, and online discussion here!
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    The Anatomy of a Successful Startup in 2010. This awesome panel, moderated by Guy Kawasaki, was all about the AlwaysOn Global 250 for 2010. We kicked things off by talking about how 2008-09 treated these start-ups. Generally, these CEOs saw only the upside and opportunities of the past 18 months. The panel moved on to discuss some of the details of how they got to be the best start-ups in their respective industries.

    The Anatomy of a Successful Startup in 2010
  • HP Unveils Fashionable Clutch Mini Netbook

    Vivienne Tam and HP reveal another hot mini-netbook computer that's finally making technology fashionable.
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    Tuesday's Stanford Technology Ventures Program & AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford 2010: Satjiv Chahil and  Vivienne Tam unveil HP's newest sexy netbook. Satjiv, Global Marketing Whiz at HP, was Tony Perkins' first surprise. Vivienne Tam was Satjiv's surprise guest. If you want mobility, power, and fashion you'll find it here.

    HP and Vivienne came together to make this hot mini netbook. Check out the video, slide deck, and live group discussion here.

  • How to Outmanuever Another VC

    The Snappy Guy, our very own Remington Oxley V, returns with some sage wisdom on how to get a leg up (or is it "over"?) the competition.
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    Wow. I guess I didn't need to buy Digg to get onto the home page. Yes my first post got Dugg, was fBook liked, and was StumbledUpon. Anyway.

    This new post is meant only for VCs ONLY. I'm a newish partner but I get the same deal flow as legendary VCs. I won't name drop, but I have some pretty big names with some pretty big exits under my watch. I got them because of two patented techniques...

    Here is my second Digg home page submission, "How to Outmanuever Another VC."

    (1) I talk to and woo retards.

  • Positive Results, Strong Growth

    The X Fund roars back with all companies reporting positive results and strong growth. Check out this week's best and worst performers.
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    The AlwaysOn X Fund portfolio advanced 5.3% for the week, while the NASDAQ was up 4.1%, and the S&P 500 was up 3.1%. For the year, the AO X Fund portfolio is up 5.7%, the NASDAQ is flat and the S&P 500 is down 1.1%.

    All our companies reporting last week posted positive results supported by strong growth. New Oriental Education beat expectations by 2 cents, posting 114% EPS growth and 45.8% sales growth. Apple beat expectations by 40 cents, posting 160% EPS growth and 61.3% sales growth. VmWare beat expectations by 2 cents, with Q2 EPS up 70% and sales up 48%. Management guides up for Q3. Baidu.com beat expectations by 4 cents, with EPS down 78%, while sales were up 74.4%. Management raised its Q3 guidance. F5 Networks posted 5 cents better-than-expected EPS results, up 65% YoY, and sales up 45.7%. FFIV raised its Q3 outlook.

  • 451 Group Analysis: AO250 M&A Bounces Back

    The 451 Group breaks down the AlwaysOn Global 250 and sees its companies come rushing back to the M&A exit marketplace after sitting out last year's storm.
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    After weathering one of the most dismal years in recent history, tech M&A came roaring back this year for the AlwaysOn Global 250. This year, acquirers spent $5.7 billion to acquire 37 AO250 companies, more than six times the spending and three times the number of deals as in the prior—year period—and the highest number of deals we've seen since AlwaysOn began naming companies to its top 100 and top 250 lists. Last year, amid the turmoil of the credit crisis and its aftermath, acquirers spent just under $900 million to buy only 13 AO companies.

  • Internet Sector Matured

    DFJ Esprit's Nic Brisbourne sees signs that the internet sector has reached full maturity.
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    A couple of weeks back I blogged that the increasing importance to startups of partnerships with companies like Facebook are making the internet more and more like traditional areas of tech like software and semiconductors and is a sign of the maturing of the internet sector.  This morning I have been struck by a similar thought this morning reading two articles in the FT.

    The first was a report on Domino’s Pizza UK’s first half results – Domino’s is a traditional offline business that was in existence long before the web rose to prominence and they now take fully 33% of their orders over the internet.  Moreover they cite an increase in internet orders as one of two reasons their first half results came in ahead of expectations (the other reason was a boost from the World Cup).

  • Terms, Term Sheets, and Terminal Value

    Union Square's Fred Wilson comments on keeping a term sheet simple and focusing on the right things.
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    Mark Suster has a great post on calculating valuation and the things that VCs can throw at you to make the deal better for them (I guess I should say us) than it actually looks. Go read it. It's complicated stuff but you should try to wrap your head around it. I've written a bunch about this as has Brad Feld and other VC bloggers have too. The VC world is changing. We are talking about this stuff, explaining it, and discussing it. That's progress.

  • Private Equity, The Craps Tables, & The '86 Mets

    Chris Douvos, LP, discusses his approach and attitude to beating the private equity odds.
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    So I've been working on a blog post called the Epistemology of Investing for about the past year. Now, epistemology is a ten-dollar word that those -- like me -- with five dollar brains rarely sling around, but sometimes I think investing could be called applied epistemology.

    As investors -- specifically, investors in opaque, illiquid markets -- we spend our days asking the epistemological questions: what do we know about our investments, companies, markets, people?  How do we come to know what we know?  What are the sources and limits of our knowledge?  How are our beliefs different from The Truth?  Said another way: what investing hypotheses do we form?  How do we form them?  And how do we seek out, analyze, and integrate the data we use to test those hypotheses?

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