Private Equity
4 min read · 20 March 2009
4 min read · 19 March 2009
4 min read · 18 March 2009
6 min read · 16 March 2009
4 min read · 09 March 2009
3 min read · 06 March 2009
Venture capitalist Pascal Levensohn this morning gave a keynote speech at the Cybersecurity Applications and Technologies Conference for Homeland Security (CATCH), delivering the message that U.S. innovation and entrepreneurship, the crucial growth engines of the U.S. economy, are at risk of stalling out. What follows is the text of his prepared remarks: I’d like to thank Doug Maughan and DHS for their gracious invitation to address this gathering of distinguished technology entrepreneurs who are focusing their talents on protecting the security of our nation’s critical infrastructure. “Crisis” seems to be the common thread in everything we see on television or read in the popular media. I do not use the words “American Innovation in Crisis” lightly. As a venture capitalist, an entrepreneur, and an American, I am very concerned about the state of innovation in our country today. I believe that we need to be proactive in addressing the innovation crisis because the consequences for the future of our country are simply unacceptable if we don’t.
10 min read · 04 March 2009
3 min read · 26 February 2009
6 min read · 25 February 2009
I love Thomas Friedman. I was first exposed to him when he was the NY Times Jerusalem bureau chief and wrote a terrific book on the Middle East, From Beirut To Jerusalem. Since then, he's become more famous and influential in economic matters through his book, The World is Flat. So I was perplexed and dismayed when I read his editorial in today's NY Times: Start Up The Risk-Takers. In it, he suggests a silly stimulus idea - "Call up the top 20 venture capital firms in America, which are short of cash today... and make them this offer: The US Treasury will give you each up to $1 billion to fund the best venture capital ideas that have come your way." There are numerous reasons this is a dumb and impractical idea. Friedman threw out another dumb idea a few weeks ago in an editorial titled The Open Door Bailout. In this article he opines: "I would have loved to have seen the stimulus package include a government-funded venture capital bank to help finance all the start-ups that are clearly not starting up today — in the clean-energy space they’re dying like flies — because of a lack of liquidity from traditional lending sources."
3 min read · 23 February 2009
