More from the Stanford Summit
by KG Charles-Harris
My second day here at the Stanford Summit confirmed my initial impressions from the cocktail party last Thursday. I have found that the age trend I noted in my earlier post has strengthened after interacting with a much larger cross section of attendees.
The cocktail party last week was for the AO 250, i.e., the companies selected as the 250 hottest emerging technology companies in the world for 2008.
At the conference I interacted with CEOs and venture capitalists from about 700 companies—a significant number of them with graying hair, confirming my initial impression.
After a day filled with excellent presentations and speakers and then chatting with various participants during the evening reception, I was truly impressed by the savvy and innovative ideas being brought to life by the “old timers.”
One of the most fascinating is Wyndstorm, lead by 54 year Marian Sabety. That very innovative technology companies are founded and led by women is an anomaly. That the woman is mature is even more unusual.
In Wyndstorm’s case, Marian is a long time innovator who has brought to the market a solution to the web advertising crisis.
Understanding that at the present moment only 7% of advertising budgets are spent online, advertising agencies and corporate chieftains are desperately searching for proven solutions that reach core and targeted audiences in an interactive environment.
Wyndstorm’s social frames pull targeted customers from other sites they frequent directly into an interactive, virtual place where the marketer controls the content, reinforcing image, brand and messaging on a one to one, razor targeted basis. Very impressive.
I believe that the graying of the executive suite in startups has everything to do with the need for execution, reliability and monetization in addition to innovation of technology. Companies need people who are not new to the game to succeed in this market.
Younger people may have many ideas, but they lack the experience to execute in a manner that allows ideas to be monetized rapidly in a variety of economic situations and enables the industry to execute from a strategic perspective.
Thinking about it, even the Google guys needed to bring in seasoned executives to grow the company from an idea to industry power player.
KG Charles-Harris is CEO of Emanio and a special contributor to MAPping Company Success.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
You mean you actually need people who know how to run a business to run a business?
I always wondered when I was in high school, and watching the net bubble grow, just what was being used to fund it. Money has to come from somewhere…and even the government has to keep track of what they owe people.
Now that I’m a little older and have hindsight in my favor; just what were people thinking sinking tons of cash into the area without it holding any sort of long term value?
I can see needing an “older” crowd to steer and grow a company, but I also see the need for young, unbridled enthusiasm…but as I’m getting older I’m seeing that just as often from older people as well. It just depends on your MAP.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:26 am
Luke, you just hit the nail on the head—’young’ and ‘unbridled enthusiasm’ are definitely NOT joined at the hip.