inSPiration Summit THE GREAT DISRUPTION

This discussion focused on three big trends in technology

investing: Mobile, big data, and cloud computing. How are these trends driving the investment decisions of leading venture capitalists? These themes emerged during the discussion:

Monetization of Mobile

• Mobile carriers realized late in the game that monetization lies not in the devices but in the apps, says Hernandez.

• The app space became much larger than anyone predicted, including Apple, says Keoppel.

• Most advertising models are built as web-based tools, such as pop-ups and recommendation engines. The next wave will be more unique to mobile and will provide just-in-time supply to

targeted consumers, says Visvanathan. One example is Hotels Tonight, which sells off last minute hotel rooms at discount prices.

beyond Mobile

• One of the new areas of focus for Verizon Ventures is microlocation: geolocation inside of buildings, says Koeppel.

• “Big data” are just words that reflect the output of other technology trends, says Visvanathan. More interesting are the underlying technologies that have developed to support big data.

• Verizon has shifted its focus from investing in companies with direct commercial support for their business units to thinking ahead and seeing where business units can go in the future, says Keoppel. Many carriers have great service but still need to grow in the area of creating new services on that network for customers to use.

Juniper inSPiration Summit barcelona:

the Great disruptionleading venture capitalists on how technology is changing business models

eVent HoSt: Vincent Molinaro, SVP, Service Provider Sector, Juniper Networks

Panel ModeRatoR: Ludwig Siegele, Online business and finance editor, The Economist

Panel PaRtiCiPantS: Krishna Visvanathan, Partner, Encore Ventures

Bernardo Hernandez, Advisor, Google Ventures Daniel Keoppel, Executive director, Verizon Ventures

VenUe:Hotel Arts BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain

inSPiration Summit THE GREAT DISRUPTION

PlatfoRM CReation iS CRitiCal foR attRaCtinG innoVatoRS

• Google’s API gives developers what they want: free, fast, and open. This strategy attracts thousands of developers to the platform, says Hernandez—and it enabled Google create a new business model for advertising.

• Verizion is allocating resources to create a platform to work with developers more effectively, recognizing that the only way to make the platform attractive is to provide things to developers that they can’t get anywhere else, says Keoppel.

bUSineSS ModelS MUSt eVolVe

• The panel agreed—many new startups are still focused on web-only thinking, and consider mobile to be just a small-screen

version of the web. • For every web-only service or

site, Keoppel predicts, there will be a “mobile pure play” that will take its place. Most mobile web companies are too slow to adapt. In some cases it makes sense for big companies to purchase existing apps, like chat apps in Asia that mimic Facebook, to evolve faster, especially if they support strategic objectives, he says.

• Many who fail at new business models are those seeing them from a position of strength—blind to real opportunities and real threats, said Hernandez.

HaRdwaRe iS tHe new SoftwaRe

• Verizon has three innovation centers: software, networking and hardware. The most intense focus is on hardware, says Keoppel.

• The next wave of innovation

will focus on offline problems like moving people and goods; hardware can help with that, says Hernandez.

• Seeing that there are many vertical opportunities at the moment, Verizon is looking into machine-to-machine solutions, says Keoppel.

a CHallenGe to teleCoMS

• It’s difficult for large carriers with brands based on perfect delivery to innovate as quickly as start-ups—to quickly release incomplete products to attract customers and then quickly iterate improvements without loss of brand value, notes Keoppel.

• Consumers view carriers as a utility, says Visvanathan. So carriers need to adopt new mindsets that follow actual consumer mobile habits, like focusing social.

Krishna Visvanathan, Partner, Encore Ventures

Bernardo Hernandez, Advisor, Google Ventures

inSPiration Summit THE GREAT DISRUPTION

“The value of a bit is in the eyes of the beholder.” - Pradeep Sindhu, Vice Chairman & Chief technology officer, Juniper Networks

Daniel Keoppel, Executive director, Verizon Ventures

• Often the technology is way ahead of adoption by consumers because carriers have slow pipelines and too much of a focus on controlling the market, says Hernandez. Technologies explode when more players have access. It’s not about owning the utility relationship; it’s about building on top of mobile.

• On the contrary, capital needed to create new carrier networks is so massive that they are singularly positioned for some innovations, like 4G and FiOs, says Keoppel.

tHe teleCoM PeRSPeCtiVe Following the venture capital roundtable, we featured reactions from chief technologists from the telecom industry. Here are two highlights

“The industry...needs a two-sided business model that says, ‘if I want to send some data that’s of value to me, I will pay for it’. And I think that’s achievable. But we’ve got to get firstly to the economic rationalisation that a resource costs something.” - Mike Wright, Executive director, Networks & Access Technologies, Telstra

“I think the new generation are quite conscious of what is the value of connectivity… 70% of our traffic is coming through WiFi.” - Cayetano Carbajo, Chief technology officer, Telefonica Deutschland