Steve Jurvetson - Steve Jurvetson is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading venture capital firm with affiliate offices around the world. He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail (MSFT), Interwoven (IWOV), and Kana (KANA). He also led the firm's investments in Tradex and Cyras, acquired for $8 billion. Current Board positions include Synthetic Genomics, SpaceX, NeoPhotonics, and Wowd. Previously, Steve was an R&D Engineer at Hewlett-Packard, where seven of his communications chip designs were fabricated. His prior technical experience also includes programming, materials science research (TEM atomic imaging of GaAs), and computer design at HP's PC Division, the Center for Materials Research, and Mostek. He has also worked in product marketing at Apple and NeXT Software. As a Consultant with Bain & Company, Steve developed executive marketing, sales, engineering and business strategies for a wide range of companies in the software, networking and semiconductor industries. At Stanford University, he finished his BSEE in 2.5 years and graduated #1 in his class, as the Henry Ford Scholar. Steve also holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. He received his MBA from the Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also serves on the Boards of SRI International, STVP, and SEVF and is Co-Chair of the NanoBusiness Alliance. He was honored as "The Valley's Sharpest VC" on the cover of Business 2.0 and chosen by the SF Chronicle and SF Examiner as one of "the ten people expected to have the greatest impact on the Bay Area in the early part of the 21st Century." He was profiled in the New York Times Magazine and featured on the covers of Worth, Red Herring, and Fortune magazines. Steve was chosen by Forbes as one of "Tech's Best Venture Investors", by the VC Journal as one of the "Ten Most Influential VCs", and by Fortune as part of their "Brain Trust of Top Ten Minds." In 2005, Steve was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and a Distinguished Alumnus by St. Mark's.
Vinod Khosla - Vinod Khosla is the president and CEO of Khosla Ventures. In 1986, he became a general partner Kleiner Perkins, where he took on Intel's monopoly with Nexgen/AMD.
In 2004, Khosla started Khoslaventures in order to create technologies that can have a beneficial effect and economic impact on society. Khosla assists or serves on the boards of a number of technology based companies.
He is also a charter member of TIE, a non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, and a founding board member for the Indian School of Business.
Tony Perkins - Tony Perkins is a Venture Partner with DFJ Frontier. He is the creator and former editor-in-chief of Red Herring magazine and the CEO of AlwaysOn, an interactive online network for technology insiders.
Perkins co-authored The Internet Bubble: Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks (HarperBusiness, 1999), a book that foretold the dot-com bust. It became an international bestseller; a sequel was published in 2001. As a result of his prolific editorial output, he is consistently ranked as one of the top ten technology business journalists by Adweek's Technology Marketing magazine.
Perkins served on President George W. Bush's Information Technology Advisory Council and he was the founding chairman of the Churchill Club in Palo Alto, California, for which he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
He has been a member of the World Economic Forum's Media Leaders group since 1996. Perkins was also founder and CEO of Upside Publishing and Vice President of Business Development at Silicon Valley Bank.
Perkins continues to chronicle the technology world in a regular column for the Wall Street Journal and as television commentator for MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, CNN, CNBC, BBC, and Bloomberg Television.
Tony Perkins graduated from UC Davis with a BA in Western European History/Political Science.
Jason Pontin - As editor in chief, Jason Pontin is responsible for the editorial direction of the award-winning magazine Technology Review and TechnologyReview.com. Pontin took on the role of publisher in September 2005, overseeing all aspects of the company's growth strategy, which includes a rapidly expanding website, specialty e-newsletters, an aggressive international expansion, and signature events, such as the annual Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT.
From 1996 to 2002, Pontin the was the editor of the technology business magazine Red Herring. Most recently, he was editor in chief of the Acumen Journal, covering the business, economic, and policy implications of discoveries in biotechnology and the life sciences. He has written for many national and international publications, including The New York Times, The Economist, The Financial Times, Wired, and The Believer. He is a frequent guest on television and radio shows, including ABC News, CNN, and National Public Radio.
Joe Schoendorf - Joe Schoendorf has been active in high technology industries for nearly forty years.
Schoendorf is a member and strategic partner of the World Economic Forum and has served as a consultant to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in Japan. He is able to help our portfolio management establish significant strategic global relationships in the US, Europe and Asia with a strong focus on China and Japan. Joe has participated as a Board member in industry pioneers such as Macromedia (Authorware).
Schoendorf joined Accel in 1988. Previously he was the Vice President of Marketing for Apple Computer. Before that he was Executive Vice President for Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Ungermann-Bass and a member of the Office of the President. Prior to that he was the CEO of Industrial Networking, a joint venture of Ungermann-Bass and General Electric.
Schoendorf came to Silicon Valley in 1966. During an eighteen year career at Hewlett Packard he held numerous computer marketing and sales positions including Group Marketing Manager, General Manager of Business Development and General Manager of the Corporate Account Division overseeing all worldwide large accounts.
Schoendorf holds a B.S.E.E. degree from Purdue University and has served on the Dean's Advisory Council at Purdue's Krannert School of Business.
Schoendorf and his wife Nancy, also a venture capitalist, live in Palo Alto with their daughter Megan. Their other daughter Kathryn is living in Washington, D.C. and works for NPR.
Ram Shriram - Mr. K. Ram Shriram is the Founder and Managing Partner at Sherpalo Ventures. He started the firm in January, 2000. Mr. Shriram is an active angel investor and has been a technology industry insider for over 25 years.
He works closely with founding teams on the challenging issues that confront and confound early stage ventures. Mr. Shriram's knowledge of and advice on issues ranging from raising venture capital, key management hiring, making the right product choices, and defining and adapting the business model to changing market conditions can help for securing early customer wins, build momentum from a standing start, and generate international growth.
Immediately prior to this, he served as an Officer and Vice President of Business Development at Amazon.com. Mr. Shriram came to Amazon.com in August, 1998, when Amazon acquired Junglee, where he was the President. While at Amazon, he helped grow the customer base during its early high growth phase in 1998/1999. At Junglee, Mr. Shriram served as the President and Chief Operating Officer. Before this, he was a Member of the Netscape Executive Team, joining them in 1994, where he initiated and built relationships with a targeted set of partner's worldwide, building market share, and revenue momentum before they shipped products or posted revenue.
Mr. Shriram drove the many partnerships and channels that Netscape employed to get massive distribution for its browser and server products. Previously, he also served as a Vice President at Netscape Communications Corporation from February 1994 to February 1998. Mr. Shriram served as Netscape's Director of Channel Sales of Network Computing Devices from October 1990 to November 1994. He also took on added responsibility in 1996 for building Netscape's indirect channels of distribution worldwide and also managed several hundred people with 16 direct reports across three continents. Mr. Shriram drove the many partnerships and channels that Netscape employed to get massive distribution for its browser and server products. He has been a Director of Onhealth Network Co. since February 1998 and Zazzle.com, Inc. since July 18, 2005. Mr. Shriram also serves on the Boards of Yodlee, PodShow, and Plaxo, Inc. He serves as an Industry Advisor of Diamondhead Ventures. Mr. Shriram has been very active in building Google Inc. and currently serves as a Founding Board Member. He is a Founding Board Member of 247customer.com and Frontline Wireless.
Mr. Shriram serves on the Advisory Board of Naukri.com. He has served as a Director of Elance, Inc. Mr. Shriram is a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). He was named number four on the top tech dealmakers by Forbes and number five on top ten kingmakers in tech by Business 2.0 magazine.
Ann Winblad - Ann Winblad is a Partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. She began her career as a systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank. In 1976 Winblad co-founded Open Systems, Inc., a top selling accounting software company, with a $500 investment.
Winblad operated Open Systems profitably for six years and then sold it for over $15 million. Prior to co-founding Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Winblad served as a strategy consultant for prestigious clients such as IBM, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse, and numerous start-ups.
Winblad received a BA in mathematics and in business administration from the College of St. Catherine, as well as an MA in education and international economics from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.
This Round-table discussion has a lot of valid points to make and is general quite interesting, however it takes a long time to say it, some liberal editing is needed to tighten it up.
