Thursday AM: Wrap-up

“Trends in Global Investing”: Panel discussion with Kamran Elahian, Co-Founder and Chairman, Global Catalyst Partners; Steve Brotman, Managing Director, Greenhill SAVP; Tara Lemmey, Chairman, LENS Ventures, and CEO, Net Power & Light; and Victor Perton, Commissioner to the Americas, State Government of Victoria (Australia); hosted by Bruce Dines, Managing Director of Technology Investing, Liberty Global Ventures

Victor Perton;

Why is Australia so successful? Melbourne is a city that draws innovation and investment follows innovation.

Every other recession, Australia has followed the US. Not this time– because of its diverse economy.

Kamron Elahian;

The number of people in VC has reduced from 10,000 to 5,000, because of the non-existence of the IPO market. Luckily, it is now coming back. There are now over 15 IPOs.

Investing in 4G. It has taken 7 years and 140 million collectively to keep it going. He has also been investing in mobility and communications.

“Have confidence, see where the future is going, put money into it and take risks,” says Kamron. Lately, risk-taking though, has been under pressure.

Steve Brotman, Managing Director, Greenhill SAVP

Today, you must be more efficient with your capital.

IP protections are eroding, which creates problems for investing and shifts dollars towards models that are not IP dependent.

Instead, he focuses on industries that are in major flux, particularly through the internet, using existing IP.

This will unleash a huge tidal wave of VC capital.

Tara Lemmey

We’re not spending the real dollars on go-big-or-go-home technologies. We’re spending all of our money on IT. Let’s put the venture back into venture capital.