A Blog from Gerbsman Partners Board of Intellectual Capital on “Maximizing Enterprise Value” for technology, life science, medical device and cleantech companies and their Intellectual Property
If there is good news to be had in private equity these days, it is that limited partners seem to want to put new money to work.
Several recent studies have pointed in this direction, including one from Preqin, which found that a large number of endowments, public pensions, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and foundations want to invest in the coming year.
The top area of interest is buyouts. Second on the list is venture capital. Almost half of potential investors name venture as an asset class they will consider, Preqin says in a report issued this month.
This is welcome news to the industry. That’s because there is no shortage of funds out looking for cash. Preqin, in its study, finds 372 venture capital funds on the road, or nearly a fifth of all private equity funds on the fundraising trail. Together they seek $47.2 billion in commitments.
Many GPs will argue that consistency is their forte. But only some can truly make that claim, the study finds. Preqin assembled a list of the most consistent performers in venture based on IRR, fund year, strategy and geography. Only active managers that have three or more funds with a similar strategy are included and still formative 2010, 2011 and 2012 funds are not included.
Tied at the top of the list are Benchmark Capital, GGV Capital, Pittsford Ventures Management and Sequoia Capital, with the strongest record of top quartile funds. The list from the report is reprinted below.
(Editors note: The average quartile rank in the table is determined by scoring each fund. A top quartile fund gets a “1” and a second quartile fund gets a “2,” etc. The ranking is an average. Photo above courtesy of Shutterstock.)
Durante la cobertura del Google I/O en San Francisco pude descubrir que, a pesar de su naturaleza, Internet no es tan libre ni se comporta de la misma forma en todo el mundo. Cuando accedía a la Red desde el Wi-Fi del hotel, sitios como Facebook detectaban mi ubicación geográfica y me obligaban (por razones de seguridad) a verificar el nombre de mis amigos mediante fotos para comprobar si efectivamente era yo, en Estados Unidos, quien accedía a mi perfil argentino en esa red social. No soy el único: todos hemos sufrido, alguna situación similar, desde la comprobación de la cuenta de correo hasta la imposibilidad de acceder a un videoclip, canción o película on line por limitaciones de licencias regionales.
¿Cómo puede ser posible esto? Con un mayor o menor grado de sofisticación, nuestra localización queda delatada por el número IP , el identificador único que cada usuario recibe cuando se conecta a Internet que, asociado a la ubicación geográfica, permite que determinados servicios detecten nuestra ubicación y limiten su servicio en función de las licencias que tienen en cada país.
Esto ocurre a menudo en YouTube, y en particular con los contenidos de Vevo. Por ejemplo, el perfil oficial de Jason Aldean , un solista estadounidense de música country, no ofrece lo mismo según la ubicación geográfica. Por supuesto, tal vez no haya un público demasiado interesado en ver el videclip oficial de Amarillo Sky en la Argentina, pero ese no es el punto. (Si se quedaron con la duda, pueden ver el clip por aquí , hasta que Content ID lo remueva)
De a poco, en este y otros ejemplos, se advierte la paulatina segmentación que vive Internet en cuanto a los contenidos, en donde no todos pueden ver o acceder a lo mismo. No es algo que nos sorprenda, ni será la primera vez que ocurra.¿Qué hubiera pasado si un ignoto cantante coreano llamado Psy hubiese puesto sus limitaciones geográficas al famoso videoclip del paso del caballo? ¿O si los hijos del Tano Pasman hubiesen restringido la reproducción de los insultos en otras partes del mundo?
Por fortuna, la fuerza de Internet trasciende mucho más allá de estos límites irritantes que imponen los dueños de los contenidos en Internet.
Hombre grande, ¿era necesario? 🙂
Un atajo para evitar las restricciones geográficas
Esto se replica en plataformas online de videojuegos y tiendas de aplicaciones. ¿Acaso mi dinero no vale? Depende de dónde viva , sería la respuesta del cantinero imaginario.
IntoNow , considerada una excelente aplicación para identificar series (algo así como el Shazam de la TV) sólo se encuentra disponible en Estados Unidos.
Lo mismo pasa con Hulu, una plataforma online gratuita de películas sustentada en avisos publicitarios o Pandora, una radio online que configura las estaciones de acuerdo a nuestras preferencias.
Sin embargo, quien se lleva toda la atención es Spotify , que se convirtió en la opción predilecta para los amantes de la música. En su versión gratis, la plataforma sueca que arribó al mercado estadounidense permite establecer un acceso ilimitado en streaming a un amplio catálogo de artistas de todo el mundo, patrocinado con eventuales avisos publicitarios, que se pueden evitar si uno se suscribe a un plan mensual.
No obstante, todo esto es posible si uno se encuentra conectado a Internet desde Estados Unidos. En la Argentina Sonora apunta a ofrecer un servicio similar , lo mismo que Taringa y otras alternativas gratis como Grooveshark , pero todas más limitadas en su catálogo. Por fortuna, existen atajos que permiten estar fuera de Estados Unidos y aún así usar Spotify, apelando a una VPN, un servicio de conexión a redes privadas que permite el acceso a estos servicios.
Si bien hay una gran cantidad de alternativas sin costo que permiten emular en Internet nuestra presencia en otro país, sus limitaciones (otra vez) hacen que pagar por este tipo de prestaciones sea la mejor alternativa.
Por mencionar sólo algunos servicios, StrongVPN y Hide My Ass! (curioso nombre para un servicio de Internet) permiten disfrutar de Spotify, Pandora o Hulu, entre otros, sin mayores problemas. Como ocurre con la mayoría de los casos, lograrlo requiere tener una comprensión básica de inglés y algo de maña al momento de realizar la configuración de la conexión de VPN, que es muy flexible y que se puede aprovechar incluso en tabletas, smartphones y hasta en routers Wi-Fi.
Si esta alternativa es muy compleja, también existe la posibilidad de probar Spotflux , un software muy simple (que por ahora es freeware ya que todavía está en desarrollo), disponible para PC y Mac. Prometen futuras versiones para dispositivos móviles.
Por supuesto, las prestaciones de las VPN van más allá del consumo de contenidos. Son servicios muy útiles para establecer una navegación Web segura en entornos como cafés u hoteles con conexiones públicas de Wi-Fi.Incluso en servicios globales que ya se encuentran disponibles en la Argentina, tales como la plataforma de descargas iTunes de Apple o el videoclub online Netflix, ofrecen un catálogo diferente (en algunos casos más actualizado, pero sin subtítulos en español en el caso de las películas) si se accede a allos a través de una VPN.
A pesar de sus prestaciones, la VPN no nos puede resolver la posibilidad de tener un servicio pago mensual de Spotify en la modalidad móvil.
¿Se imaginan llevar un servicio de streaming ilimitado de canciones en el celular? Bueno, por más que quisieran pagar los diez dólares mensuales que insume este excelente plan, las limitaciones de contenidos vuelven a estar presentes: sólo se puede abonar con tarjetas de crédito, débito o cuentas de PayPal radicadas en el país en donde Spotify se encuentra habilitado por las discográficas a ofrecer su catálogo musical.
Al final, y a contramano del espíritu libre que tenía Internet en sus comienzos, el dinero sólo vale según de dónde venga, más allá de la buena predisposición que puedan llegar a tener los consumidores..
Founded by Chris and Dean, they claimed that Softflux is not another VPN or Proxy service; but it offers a real time internet privacy service. Spotflux internet privacy application is dedicated to securing your digital data on any device in any location. Apart from encrypting your internet traffic, this application cleans tracking cookies and viruses with your system not slowing down.
Here are the functions of Spotflux internet privacy application
Encrypted and Secure Connection
No matter where you are browsing, travelling, home, public Wi-Fi, Spotflux gives you the best of protection and keeps your privacy while you browse.
Malware and Virus Protection
So much threat are loaded on the internet, Spotflux internet privacy application scans your connection continually and secure your connection from malware and viruses.
Open and Unrestricted Access
Spotflux internet privacy application opens you to restricted contents, the language of” this service is not available in your area” is never found when you have installed Spotflux.
Private, Ad-free Browsing Experience
You location and IP is kept private. Spotflux saves bandwidth and gives you an ad-free surfing experience. No ads pop up will ever disturb you.
How to get Spotflux internet privacy application
The application is available for download at Spotflux.com, run the software, enable it and enjoy an unlimited browsing experience.
How is Spotflux internet privacy application different from other VPN and Proxy service?
The geek is behind the mechanism in which Spotflux employs, and it was explained by Chris and Dean who happens to be the author.
You need not to trouble yourself on browser’s settings to redirect IP as proxy service providers will tell you to do. Just enable the Spotflux internet privacy application application, and enjoy your internet.
Spotflux internet privacy application encrypts and forwards your internet traffic through it own cloud.
Millions on calculations runs on Spotflux cloud, removing cookies, ads and other internet parasites that follow your connectivity around.
Other threats such as viruses and malwares are taken out of the way.
Spotflux conceals the identity and location of your device, making you browse into any server anywhere.
To crown it all, you enjoy unrestricted, safer and confidential internet browsing.
Spotflux internet privacy application is a new product that just got introduced around March 2012 and the makers are New York based. They have a goal in providing tools that can work to give privacy and security without limiting access to full information not minding the location.
My Personal Experience with Spotflux internet privacy application
The product website was sent to me from the author who got to know about me through the web, before I downloaded the product, I carefully went through the website and I feel if all the recipes provided on the website were true, this product is worth trying out.
Experiencing no difficulty, I downloaded the software, which was redirected from CNET download.com, I installed and guess what, and the experience has been great so far.
My other internet provider usually has a difficulty in visiting some web at afternoon hours, the power of Spotflux has worked wonders, and the product is just great. Unlike the VPN and Proxy which redirects, Spotflux is something totally different.
What amazes me so much is that this service is free; I guess these guys are running a philantropy organization because I know how much I pay to get a VPN service. I have tried so much of them anyway; none has really pleased me to an extent.
About Spotflux internet privacy application developers
Chris Naegelin and Dean Mekkawy are co-founders of Spotflux, they were tech addicts around the 1990′s during their high school days. Around 2011, Chris and Dean came together in the same dream of creating some tools that will bring sanity to the world of internet to offer people an online privacy they desire, they began with just a few serves around Chris’s basement, that was what brought about Spotflux internet privacy application, and within few months, the product has hit over 100, 000 users who got amazed about the magic.
Today, Spotflux is exponentially growing as people can now comfortably sit down to enjoy their online privacy.
Some of the investors who has found interest in the good work includes; New Atlantic, Kima and some other ventures who has really been of help in the funding of the Spotflux internet privacy application project.
Spotflux is presently available for free, but the authors are really working to add new features which they will later offer for purchase by the general internet users.
The Spotflux internet privacy application guys are really sure of their product as they publish their street address their website, as well as their Facebook and Twitter page. The six member team working on this project has their mini profile on the Spotflux website.
Download this product, enable it, and tell us what your experiences looks like.
While we often think of small nimble startups as the true innovators in technology, that hasn’t necessarily been the case in network infrastructure for the last few years. A study of venture capital funding from Ovum shows that while overall tech investment has recovered since the dark days of the recession, the vast majority of that spending went to services and applications startups like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Spotify.
Meanwhile, the startup companies that make the gear over which those services traverse have seen investment fall from $796 million in 2009 annually to just $270 million in the 12 months ending in June, Ovum found. According to Ovum principal analyst Matt Walker:
“A funding disconnect has thereby emerged between network builders and network users. Lots of innovation and venture capital is targeting the network users, such as mobile apps and OTT platforms. However, little of it is directly helping the network builders. With a weak start-up pipeline, the industry relies more on incumbent vendors to generate new ideas and products. Their budgets are bigger, but VCs are often better at funding ‘game changing’ ideas ignored by established vendors.”
Admittedly, investing in the next big social network or an app that could generate millions of downloads is a lot sexier than, say, envelope tracking technology or cell site radio frequency filters. But those infrastructure innovations are just as important. The capabilities of many apps and services have already far exceeded the ability of our mobile networks to deliver those apps and services at a reasonable cost (think Netflix on 4G tablet). If we let network innovation slip, we could wind up with a bunch of very powerful services that have nowhere to go.
As Walker points out, the onus for innovation thus falls on the big established telecom vendors, and it’s quite the burden. Ovum estimates that with the falloff in startup investment, big network infrastructure makers’ R&D budgets are now 90 times larger than the investment going into networking startups –- that’s up from 30X two years ago.
Don’t get me wrong — the Ciscos, Ericssons and Huaweis of the world are responsible for some amazing science and innovation. And today they’re building the small cell and heterogeneous networks of the future. But there are limits to what the big vendors can accomplish. The R&D budgets of the big industrial labs have shrunk immensely in the last two decades, and there’s only so much talent and so many resources those vendors can devote to innovation. The biggest issue, though, is that the big equipment makers innovate in much different ways than small startups.
Big vendors have big ingrained investments
Look around. A lot of the wired and wireline networks we use on a daily basis have been with us for a while. The first 2G networks in the US went up in the late 1990s and they’re largely still in use. A good part of the big vendors’ businesses is maintaining, upgrading and iterating on the networks they’ve already built.
That doesn’t mean the big vendors are merely redesigning the same old equipment, but they’re definitely looking for continuity with their older networks. Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio and Nokia Siemens’ Liquid Radio architectures, for instance, are truly mind-blowing approaches to the new heterogeneous network, but they’re still fundamentally the cellular technologies that have been these vendors’ bread and butter since the birth of wireless.
When Wi-Fi came along as a mobile data alternative to cellular, these vendors were resistant if not outright hostile. It took two startups, BelAir Networks and Ruckus Wireless to make the business case to carriers for large-scale outdoor Wi-Fi networks to supplement 3G and 4G networks.
The lightRadio Cube, Alcatel-Lucent’s vision for the small cell.
The big vendors are working largely within global standards frameworks. That’s by no means a bad thing. It’s why an iPhone can communicate with a Nokia-built base station, and a Cisco router can be plugged into an Ericsson core network. But standards work is painfully slow. A lot of the innovation work in networking technology works goes on outside of the standards bodies, and if that work proves successful it wind up shaping the standards themselves.
There’s probably no better example in wireless than CDMA. Qualcomm’s upstart cellular interface was initially adopted by a single US carrier, AirTouch, but it eventually became the basis for all global 3G networks.
Innovating between the lines
While the big vendors have focused on the overarching evolution of networks it’s up to infrastructure core technology startups to fill in technology gaps. Companies like NSN and Ericsson will most certainly handle the large-scale rollout of small cells and hetnets in the future, just like Apple and Samsung will be designing our future 4G smartphones and connected tablets.
But it will be startups like Seattle’s still under-the-radar PivotBeam that are developing the critical software defined antennas that will link these millions of small cells back to the network core. And it will be small engineering companies like Nujira and Quantance supplying the power envelope tracking technology giving those 4G phones a tolerable battery life.
I’m not saying all of these specific companies are all going to be the next Qualcomm, and that you should go invest in them. But they’re part of a critical network infrastructure startup scene, and that scene appears to be shrinking. We’re already starting to see the consequences. The industry has started delivering speed in the form of LTE but it has so far failed to deliver us the cheap capacity critical to moving the mobile industry forward. If the investors keep neglecting network startups, that problem is only going to get worse.
In a recent video, Carmen Hernandez of Cupcake Digital discusses how story apps for kids are great educational tools when used as part of an overall approach to education in the home. She also discusses the company’s approach to app development and marketing.
Hernandez is vice president of marketing and communications for Cupcake Digital, a digital media company that develops deluxe storybook and interactive game apps for preschool and elementary age kids, based on existing entertainment properties such as the Emmy Award-winning TV series “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” and Animal Planet. These apps enable children to have fun learning while they play with tablets, smartphones or e-readers.
Hernandez explains,
“When we look at an app or the idea of an app, we look not only at the narrative and the story, but we also look at the educational components, which is why it’s been really important to us to involve experts in early childhood education so that we work as a team.”
Wubbzy Grown-Up’s Corner
She says that the company’s ultimate objective is to go beyond the app’s development. For example, every “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” app has a marketing ecosystem built around it, which is something that can be great for parents who want to take interact with their children beyond the app itself. Parents can go to iWubbzy.com and onto social media platforms like Facebook to download free activities and videos they can experience with their children.
At the end of every Wubbzy app, Cupcake Digital includes a “Grown-Up’s Corner” as a guide to help parents have meaningful conversations with their kids after reading the storybook or playing with the games. Those questions are vetted by experts in early childhood education to make certain they are capturing the conversation points that will most benefit kids.
Hernandez’s 6-year-old daughter is one of Cupcake Digital’s “quality assurance experts.” She says her daughter loves to be part of the company:
“It’s really been fun for her to be one of our quality assurance experts. These apps, at the end of the day–while parents are making the purchasing decisions–they have to entertain kids. And so if they don’t entertain our kids, they aren’t going to entertain other kids. So we get our kids involved in the process of developing the app and reading it before it ever is seen by anyone outside of our company.”
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