The Internet is so passé
“Executives are switching in droves from the computer industry to clean-technology firms.”
“There is an unbelievable migration of talent from traditional technology to clean technology (…) They have had their social conscience energized, and they believe there is a lot of money to be made. So you get to exercise your capitalist desires while feeling self-righteous at the same time.”
“Many of these techies are being recruited by the same Silicon Valley venture firms that were behind successive generations of tech companies.”
From geeks to greens. The Economist, March 1st, 2008 issue.
Last year I wrote a few posts about what’s next. Some of the subjects involved Web 3.0, innovative user interfaces, virtual environments, the relentless rise of wireless, mobile ad-hoc networks, and new user experiences to list some. Innovative clean technologies is the one topic, which I also thought of blogging about but, so far, I haven’t written much about it with the exception of sharing that I enjoy driving my Toyota Prius.
The article I quote at the top of this post is a very interesting one. Venture capitalists are accustomed to dealing with business risk and a growing number are now supporting start-ups developing environmentally friendly technologies as traditional energy companies have been slow to react.
“Pleople in venture and IT are used to operating in a context when you don’t know if a technology will work, and we start building before the design is finalized and fix it as we go along (…) They are also used to a high failure rate, which they balance against the prospect of rich rewards when things go well.”
Kleiner Perkins, General Atlantic, Foundation Capital, and Khosla Ventures are some of the leading venture firms now investing in green enterprises. Other examples mentioned by The Economist are:
| Executive | Formerly | Currently | |
| Shai Agassi | SAP | Better Place | Electric cars |
| Elon Musk | PayPal | Tesla Motors | Electric cars |
| David Cope | IBM, BizGenics | Purfresh | Solutions for food and water |
| Scott Lang | Perot Systems | Silver Sprint Networks | IP networks for utilities |
| Mitch Mandich | Apple | Range Fuels | Ethanol |
| J. de Francisco |  |
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| Chicago, 7 March 08 |  |
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