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Last week’s sessions and networking opportunities at the Red Herring Global Conference were certainly newsworthy. Over the course of three days in Seattle I met many top Venture Capitalists and Israeli entrepreneurs, several of whom met with VC Cafe for exclusive interviews. To give you a glimpse into the Red Herring Global Conference I’ll be summarizing my notes in the next few posts. In this post I’ve included key takeaways from the opening keynote session as well as the Top 100 Global Award Winners.
Red Herring Global: Keynote Session
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The opening keynote was a Q&A session with Bruce Jaffe, VP of Corporate Development at Microsoft and Alex Vieux, Red Herring’s CEO. For those who don’t know Bruce, he’s one of the top four officers in any M&A deal done by MSFT – if it was a bank that required all managers to be present at the opening of the safe, Bruce Jaffe would be one of four, along with Bill, Steve and the CFO.
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Global Aspect:There are approximately 180 countries listed in the U.N. Microsoft is present as number 102. Bruce said that people underestimate the power of the global market and that he expects more companies to *really* expand outside of the US and European markets. I also learned that in the past year alone, Microsoft bought three Israeli companies.
- According to recent statistics, 40% of M&A deals don’t live up to their expectations. When asked about deals that turned out to be a mistake, Mr. Jaffe mentioned that it’s important to learn from mistakes and named Israel-based Peach Networks as an example of a premature acquisition. To make sure lessons are learned, Microsoft does a post-mortem analysis of its investments a year after completing the deal.
- If you are a startup looking to make an exit through industry giants like Microsoft, here’s what Bruce Jaffe describes as the kind of company Microsoft is looking to acquire:
it all starts with technology and people. The company needs to have an engineering culture and be product driven…
It’s worth paying attention: Microsoft bought about 50 companies and spent approximately $10 Billion.
- Prediction: in the next ten years we are going to see a paradigm shift in both search and advertising.
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Do’s and don’ts for companies approaching Microsoft:
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Do’s
- Be upfront and realistic about who you are and what you are doing.
- Get to the point very early. Companies tend to write long descriptions of their team, products, strategy and plans of expansion but forget to mention what is it that they want from Microsoft.
- Be brief
- Be clear
- Be sincere
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Don’ts
- Don’t oversell anything. Bruce pointed out that during the due diligence process, Microsoft is likely to “turn over every stone” and emphasized the importance of trust.
- Don’t use industry jargon. It doesn’t make you look better. (for those who are curious: here’s a web 2.o glossary to avoid this pitfall)
Winners of the Red Herring Top 100 Global Award
The Top 100 Global Award Winners were announced on December 4th at the Red Herring Global 2007 Awards Ceremony in Seattle, WA. I marked the Israeli companies in Red.
- A123Systems
- AcanetTV
- Actimagine
- AeroScout
- Agnitio
- Alfresco Software
- Alien Technology
- Apexone Microelectronics
- Artificial Muscle
- Asset4
- Atlantium
- Azureus
- Babelgum
- Bay Microsystems
- Bazaarvoice
- Beijing Kaitone Information Technology
- Big Fish Games
- bigtec
- Bill Me Later
- BitRock
- Bivio Networks
- Blade Network Technologies
- BrainsGate
- Cambridge Broadband Networks
- ClairMail
- CoalTek
- CollabNet
- CoreValve
- Covergence
- Dailymotion
- Dash Navigation
- DayJet
- DiBcom
- Digital Chocolate
- Dust Networks
- Ellacoya Networks
- ENT Quest
- Experticity
- Frontier Silicon
- Gameshastra Solutions
- Green Tomato
- Greenplum
- Greystripe
- GridPoint
- HelioVolt
- Icera
- Imperva
- Ingenia Technology
- InnerWireless
- Innovalight
- ip.access
- IPLocks
- iVolta
- Jaduka
- Joost
- Kaspersky Lab
- LifeLock
- Lighthouse Technologies
- LimeLife
- Matisse Networks
- Maxscend Technologies
- Meru Networks
- Mobile Healthcare
- Move Networks
- Mozilla
- Nanoident Technologies
- NetAlter Software
- Oak Pacific Interactive
- Oddcast
- Omnifone
- Pandora TV
- Persistent Systems
- picoChip Designs
- Picsel Technologies
- Polar Rose
- Qualys
- Red Oxygen
- Revision3
- Ring2
- Roamware
- Saora
- Scansafe
- Sequans Communications
- Simply Hired
- Small Bone Innovations
- SolFocus
- Spot Runner
- Sylvan Source
- Tejas Networks India
- Telibrahma Convergent Communications
- Teruten
- TransPharma Medical
- Truphone
- Ultra Motor Company
- VanceInfo (formerly Worksoft)
- Veredus Laboratories
- VideoEgg
- Wikia
- Xcome Technology
- ZoomInfo
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I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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