Investing in Dynamic Markets: Venture Capital in the Digital Age

Description

Without venture capital, many of the companies whose technical innovations sparked the digital revolution would not exist. Venture investments funded these firms to develop their bright ideas into commercial products that created new business models and established whole new markets. In Investing in Dynamic Markets, Henry Kressel, a partner at multi-billion-dollar global investing company Warburg Pincus, takes you behind the scenes of the private equity process. He draws on his extensive experience to show how venture capital works, why venture capitalists fund certain companies and not others, and what factors influence the success or failure of their high-risk, high-reward investments. He also discusses venture capital's future, now that the commercialization of technology requires larger investments and global market access. Written in clear, non-technical language, the book features informative case studies of venture capital funding in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, software and services, semiconductors, and the internet.

Henry Kressel is a partner of Warburg Pincus, LLC where he has been responsible for investments in technology companies. He began his career at RCA Laboratories where he pioneered the first practical semiconductor lasers. He was the founding president of the IEEE Photonics Society and co-founded the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the IEEE, was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering and is the holder of thirty-one issued US patents for electronic and optoelectronic devices. He is the co-author of two previous books, Semiconductor Lasers and Heterojunction LEDs with J. K. Butler (1977) and Competing for the Future: How Digital Innovations are Changing the World with Thomas V. Lento (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Thomas V. Lento is founder and President of Intercomm, Inc., a corporate communications consultancy specializing in technology companies. He has been a university professor, an ad agency executive, and director of communications for Sarnoff Corporation. In addition to collaborating with Henry Kressel on Competing for the Future: How Digital Innovations are Changing the World, he was editor of Inventing the Future: 60 Years of Innovation at Sarnoff, and co-authored the forthcoming By Any Means Necessary: An Entrepreneur's Journey Into Space.

'Henry Kressel leads us through the pain and pleasure of investing in rapidly developing markets, using his insights from nearly a quarter of a century of investment experience, following a brilliant career in industrial research. This gives the reader an invaluable and essential insight into the art and science of venture investing from the rarely combined vantage points of the entrepreneur and investor; it should be required reading for either group.' Peter Scovell, President, Newlyn Technologies Ltd 'This book fulfils a distinct gap in the business literature. What do venture capitalists actually do? How do they spend their time evaluating investment opportunities that are intended to provide significant returns for their investors? Most importantly, it explains how venture capitalists tolerate failure: lots of lemons and a few pearls, but the pearls pay for all the rest many times over. The role of chance, how important people are in commercial success, is highlighted here in thirteen in-depth case studies, which reveal what is actually involved in venture capital investing in the real world. This book should be on the bookshelf of any aspiring practitioner, and others should be challenged to contribute to the real knowledge base of venture capital investment methodology.' Bart Stuck, Managing Director, Signal Lake 'I hope that policy makers, students, and practitioners alike will read Investing in Dynamic Markets. It tells the story of the long-term nature and impact of innovation and shows that good investment is a disciplined (not mysterious) process that requires finding the right management for the right stage of the company. It even makes a case for when venture capital works and why and gives us a glimpse of the silver lining from the bubble burst. Importantly it encourages us to apply these lessons of the last 20-30 years in considering investments in green technology and alternative energy. A data driven story written in a style that is satisfying to read and absorb.' Teri Wiley, Chief Executive, Cambridge Enterprise Limited, University of Cambridge 'Henry Kressel offers a unique perspective as both inventor and investor over the decades through which semis, software, systems, and services emerged from the garage to permeate everyday life. Timeless lessons are illustrated through anecdotes of companies that became household names or trivia answers. The book captures the rigor, personalities, and chance that determine success and failure of the companies and their investment returns.' Michael S. Wishart, Advisory Director, Goldman, Sachs and Co