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I interviewed Robert Coneybeer, Managing Director Shasta Ventures @GLAZED. Shasta Ventures invest in early stage technology companies. About half the investments they make are enterprise focused & the other half are consumer focused. Robert is most interested in the intersection between the real world that we all live in everyday that we know & the Internet. There’s a very clear separation between the internet & services that we are familiar with. Hes fascinated by wearables that connect to & interact with the internet & are completely outside the old paradigm of how we communicate with the Cloud & use those services. Example Google Glasses, Nest who they have invested in, where the internet is connected directly into the thermostat itself – automatically upgrades the thermostat & learns from your behavior & improves itself. Shasta were early investors in Nest Labs & the founders came from Apple & working out of a garage in Palo Alto. He spoke about his views on the changes in the venture industry. He has been in the venture industry for almost 10 years & he finds it strange that many vcs say that entrepreneurs should embrace disruption. It is interesting to see how many either embrace disruption in their own industry or dismiss it & think its not happening. Rob’s view is that anything that creates better opportunities for entrepreneurs to start businesses people in the venture industry should embrace. So wherever those entrepreneurs are in the world & whatever services they have that can help? Shasta is a boutique firm, they are not intending to be a full service firm but in certain areas like enterprise software & consumer hardware & the areas that they focus on, they dive very deeply into that area. They get to where they find they can connect the entrepreneurs to the right people. Its a very different strategy! They help people understand about crowdfunding, international expansion & promote their businesses. it’s a very partnering expertise focus as opposed to a full service model. Shasta is open to international startups as they believe that great businesses can be built anywhere in the world. But as part of their boutique strategy they are particularly focused on the US. He goes on international trips every year for Business Tourism. He goes to parts of the world where he hasn’t had a lot of exposure like India, Ireland, Turkey. He went to the Dublin Web Summit. He has visited Dublin & feels that it is very suitable for startup culture. The pub culture is positive. There is curiosity, inquisitiveness & friendliness that leads in his view to a strong entrepreneurial culture.
