Disrupt NY interview
Arrington interviews Conway and Lee at the event. Conway says he is an executive investor in SV Angel and Lee is managing the fund.
But I have a huge vested interest…I get to come in and help entrepreneurs, I get to do what I enjoy
Lee responds to Arrington’s question over rumors the fund is looking to raise $400 million, saying it is looking at investment, but declines to give details:
We are exploring all options
Denies ‘pay-for-play’
Lee denies that favoring companies backed by Conway in return for political support. He confirms that he has intervened to try to prevent a 14% tax on rentals arranged over Airbnb, and to keep city taxi regulators from banning Square. Lee:
This is less about Ron Conway and more about sf.citi and how we can help companies that are giving back to San Francisco
Bloomberg interview
Conway talks about valuations:
Right now…a typical startup is in the $3 million-$5 million range
He says valuations are creeping up to around $6 million-$7 million range but are not overvalued, and M&A is still a ‘great exit opportunity’ for the startups as Google, Microsoft and even Apple are making acquisitions.
In the next year probably 10-15% of the portfolio will get acquired
On privacy issues:
Consumers are getting used to a more open environment on the internet so the privacy issues are really a moving target…Twitter, Facebook, Google are very sensitive to the privacy issues
He says hundreds of millions of social feeds show consumers aren’t backing away.
Closes seed fund at $20m
Conway closes the fund with around 15 investments. He says oversubscription by family and friends doubled its size to $20 million. He says he has identified three megatrends where he plans to invest the money – crowd-sourcing realtime data like Twitter, Foursquare, and Quora; social media like Twitter and Facebook; and social commerce like Groupon and Gilt Groupe.
Tech Crunch interview
Conway talks with Arrington at the Tech Crunch office to talk about trends in the tech industry.
There’s two big trends that we see that are going to become billion dollar industries, one of them is real-time data which would be Twitter and what we call the real-time ecosystem, which is really any company that employs crowd-sourcing or collective wisdom to create this new corpus of real-time data on the web, which is the most valuable data on the web.
He says Foursquare and Quora are also examples of real-time data, and clarifies SV Angel isn’t invested in Quora. Growth in Facebook and Twitter alone is enough to confirm a second trend:
The other mega-trend is that the web is becoming more social…the phenomenon is that consumers are willing to share more about themselves…this phenomenon is growing to create huge commerce opportunities on the web
Fortune feature
0 CommentsConway talks with the magazine about his network:
Entrepreneurs, because they need money, they are willing to share their crystal ball with someone like me. That’s the best thing ever.
SOPA demonstration
Conway joins a protest at City Hall in San Francisco. He proposes having the advocacy groups TechNet and Net Coalition innovate a solution:
I have a constructive idea that I would like to propose publicly to Congress and to our neighbors to the south, why don’t we try to innovate a solution to the piracy issue…let’s do what we’ve always done before, which is solve problems with technology, not against technology
SF.citi initiative launched
Mayor Lee announces the series of initiatives, known as San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology & Innovation and supported by Conway and Tech Crunch‘s Heather Harde. Lee:
Last year with our Mid-Market payroll tax and stock option exemptions, as well as during my campaign and our administration’s priorities, we have worked hard to attract and recruit high-tech companies and jobs to San Francisco
Startup School 2011
Conway talks about the defining qualities of entrepreneurs, his early days at Altos Computer, PTS, and Snocap. Thinking big is a must:
Many, many of our companies don’t think big enough…there’s some big companies, it could be bigger so as ambitious as you want to be, go for it.
Raises $600,000 for Lee campaign
0 0 reuben reuben2014-10-20 16:34:282014-10-20 16:34:28Raises $600,000 for Lee campaignInvests in Dropbox
0 CommentsSV Angel joins Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, RIT Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Partners. From the previous roster, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Hadi and Ali Partovi participate. The round is reported at $250 million and values Dropbox at $4 billion.
Twilio Q&A
0 CommentsConway answers questions for the company – in which SV Angel has an investment – about hot markets, his investment thesis, and whether there is a bubble. On tech trends:
At SV Angel, we have a chart of “mega-trends” that we follow closely. The first and most obvious is social. We see a new kind of entrepreneur emerging in social. We call them “Behavioral Entrepreneurs.” These behavioral entrepreneurs understand that hardcore algorithms are no longer essential for success. Great UI and UX are becoming the new IP. Thanks to the low cost of computing, these entrepreneurs find innovation in human behavior, not pure technology.
CrunchFund investors
Business Insider reports that among the investors in the fund are AOL, Conway, Milner, Benchmark Capital, Horowitz, Andreessen, Redpoint, and Sequoia.
Disrupt backstage
Conway and Lee talk to Tech Crunch‘s Sarah Lacy backstage at the event about continuing growth in tech. Conway:
Silicon Valley and New York are spawning even more important companies, and more of them, because the internet watershed is not over yet. It’s still early days.
Conway says the industry is close to a recruiting crisis which underscores the growth:
We are going to get as bad as 1998
Lee on how angel investors contribute:
There are lesser evils than a lot of really bright, talented engineers who want to give it a shot
Invests in Pinterest
0 CommentsDocument shows fund’s investments
0 CommentsBusiness Insider publishes an Excel document apparently showing all of SV Angel’s 228 investments.
Founders each get $150,000
Y Combinator founders receive $150,000 each via Milner and Conway’s Start Fund. The investment will be convertible debt, which converts into equity in later rounds, with no cap and discount, the most entrepreneur-friendly terms.
[mashshare]
Circle Inc. Series A
Gur leads the round that includes Arrington, Conway, Andreessen Horowitz, and others for $1 million for the location-based app, which alerts people when someone in their circles is nearby.
Web 2.0 conference
0 CommentsConway talks about the investment list that he calls his Crystal Ball:
The companies that we are investing in have three entrepreneurs today, are the Twitters, Facebooks and Googles of four years from now…
He introduces 12 entrepreneurs from portfolio companies including Votizen, Hipmunk, and GroupMe.