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I interviewed Quinn Li, VP Managing Director Qualcomm Ventures @GLAZED. Qualcomm Ventures focuses on the mobile ecosystem from application softwares to key technologies for mobile devices as well as the mobile infrastructure, also digital mobile health. Quinn was an engineer & has been in the wireless mobile industry for 15+ years & been with Qualcomm Ventures for 8 years. Qualcomm Ventures worldwide has about 25 to 30 partners – they invest globally out of 7 different regions: Nth America, Europe, China, India, Israel, Korea & Brazil. Quinn is based in San Diego but he has colleagues here in the Bay area. He gave his opinion on the note that Corporate Venture Capitalists are often not paid what they are worth. “In traditional venture firms they have carry structure, so you basically get to share profits on investment returns. In most corporations you don’t have this carry structure & this is probably what this comes from. A lot of the time the investment entities is not a separate fund (some corporates have separate funds). So we’re corporate employees.” He spoke about his view on the changes that are happening in the venture capital industry. “One of the key driving factors for early stage companies is that it costs a lot less money to get a startup going, you can use a lot of the infrastructure & services that are already going. There are a lot of early stage firms & angels who can fund these very early stage companies. The very large traditional firms are still around & investing. “The venture business at the end of the day is a very hits driven business. You need to invest in multi million dollar companies & there are only so many of those.” He doesnt think that crowdfunding will affect the venture industry. Its a way for folks to get money initially & get their name out there. Its a good way to get initial capital but to scale a business you still need venture capital. Its also a good way to validate your model.
