Speaker: Bob Conn
Enterprise Partners Venture Capital
Monday, March 13, 2006
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
EBU3b 1202

ABSTRACT
Life in venture capital, perhaps because I was in academia for many years, has striking similarities to live in academia. The pace and intensity is similar (e.g., a Professor may take on perhaps 2 new grad students a year and this compares well with the average of an individual venture capitalist baking about 2 new companies each year), and the parallels continue even into the work of every day activities. Diligence activity is very hands on, much like the personal research work that we've all done, especially early in our academic careers. On the other hand, Board responsibilities of a VC parallel the role of Ph.D. advisor (or being a Dean working to help departments succeed). In these roles, one is more mentor and coach than research professor. In both businesses, selecting people to work with is, in the end, a true key to success.

Enabling the future is likewise common to both endeavors - in one through research and discovery, in the other through recognizing the commercial opportunities in discoveries. Where the two areas meet - where academia and venture capital intersect - and become intertwined is at the translational fence where basic discovery and innovation is translated into commercial products and services.

There are of course significant differences, and I'll discuss these as well. One is certainly the financial stakes involved. The metric of success as a VC is simple - return on capital invested. That's true of one's firm as well. And in this regard, being a General Partner (or a Managing Director) is much like being a CEO - you get the credit and reward for success - and take the blame and the consequences of failure.

These and other observations of a lapsed academic now in venture capital will lead me to a discussion of the status, trends, opportunities and outlook in the VC world. The funding of new companies has returned in 2005 to a stable level of about $20 billion per year. The object remains to find and support innovative developments and teams of people thath ave the abilitiy to disrupt or change markets, a team of people that can execute on the opportunity, a clear busines plan for capturing the value of the innovation or discovery, and a targeted market that is large. Universities are often the source of such innovation and of people that start such businesses. For the past 30 years, universities and venture capital have been synergistic in creating and sustaining U.S. leadership in cutting edge technologies and markets. I'll discuss all this and discuss the outlook today for succeeding as a start-up company with venture capital backing - in essence, what does it take to succeed today.

BIO
Dr. Robert Conn joined Enterprise Partners Venture Capital as Managing Director in July 2002 after nine years as Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He has led investments by EPVC in companies in the semiconductor, displays, computing, energy, communications and consumer electronics markets. He is on the Board of Directors of eight EPVC companies where he led EPVC's investment, including 3Leaf Networks, Ascendent Systems, Pivotal Systems, NEXX Systems, Quorum Systems, Nuelight, Inc., Tarari and Pathscale. It was announced last month that Pathscale would be aquired by QLogic (QLGC) for a total value of approximately $130M and last Friday, it was announced that Ascendent Systems would be acquired by RIM (Research in Motion).

At UCSD Dr. Conn led the school through a period of unprecedented growth from 1994 to 2002, establishing major research centers in fields ranging from wireless communications and nanotechnology to networking and bioengineering, and establishing institutes such as the Von Liebig Institute for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, the Whitaker Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal IT2). In the process, he helped the Jacobs School rise in the national rankings to become one of the Nation's top 10 engineering schools. In 1998, he was the co-founder of Plasma & Materials Technologies, a VC backed semiconductor etch and deposition equipment company that went public in 1995. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Nuclear Society.