Drinking the Kool Aid in Silicon Valley… and Scotland
By Alison R.G. van Diggelen, host of FreshDialogues
Just back from a whistle-stop trip to Scotland where I was invited by Michael Clouser, at the University of Edinburgh, to give a series of seminars to students and entrepreneurs. These included:
The state of Clean and Green Tech in Silicon Valley – why green tech is still hot, VC opportunities, greening your business, vampire energy, and best green business practices
Drinking the Kool Aid in Silicon Valley– highlights from ten years of interviews, including midas touch Frank Addante; a brief history of Silicon Valley and its ecosystem; its spectacular successes (Google) and failures ( Webvan); what are the lessons for entrepreneurs? Got some cool feedback on this one and delighted to see the turnout exceeded expectations by 3 or 4 times.
Excellent to get a tour of the new Informatics Forum Building which houses 500 researchers in artificial intelligence, computer science etc. with Dr. Steve Ewing. Amid the gloom in the British economy which has been hit hard by the distastrous performance of the Royal Bank of Scotland (largest corporate loss in UK history last year) and others in the financial sector, there were glimmers of hope among the students and entrepreneurs I met.
One earnest young student, by the name of Ali Eslami approached me after a seminar and explained his hot new idea. Aware that he and all his friends are wasting precious time on Facebook etc. when they should be studying, he’s come up with a cool application: keepmeout. Register those sites you’re addicted to, and it will ping you if you go there too often. Sounds like it might be a useful tool for many of us type A’s here in Silicon Valley.
Another hopeful sign came at my Green Tech masterclass which assembled a group of Scotland-based 
eco-entrepreneurs, along with two editors from entrepedia , the university’s wiki for entrepreneurs. We had Patrick Hickey from nipht.com an eco-lighting and biolumanescent mushroom (!) developer; Christine Gupta of GuptaPartnership who’s making a name for herself with her blog, MyGreenWheels; David Lawson of EcoMove, Martin Jones of Tantallon Systems, and Alan Blunt, a startup consultant.
After some grumbling about Scottish Enterprise, there was general agreement that the organization is now getting its ducks in a row and is ready to support and nurture early stage startups to full commercialization.
One such startup is led by David Tonery, of Oxy-Gen Combustion, developing a low emission engine he claims offers over 20% increased energy efficiency. He’s received $180K+ in funding from Scottish Enterprise and later this year, is headed to Silicon Valley to do the VC circuit. Smart young guy, from a family of entrepreneurs, and with enthusiastic support from former Scottish Enterprise veteran, John Finlay, I am optimistic he’ll succeed.
One recurring question I faced during Q&A was the issue of “someone stealing my idea.” Despite reassurances from me and others in the room, I fear this cultural gap and reluctance to “go for it” may mean some bright ideas hatched in Scotland don’t see the light of day.
After two days in sunny Edinburgh, I took the train to Glasgow to visit with Paul O’brien of Scottish Development International, a guru of the clean energy sector, who regaled me with all the impressive achievements Scotland has been making in wind, wave and tidal power. He’s bullish that Scotland will be producing 50% of its energy through sustainable means by 2020. More on this in next week’s blog.
I also heard a whisper that Mayor Gavin Newsom is paying the savvy Scots a visit this week to explore opportunities for capturing some of that strong tidal action under Golden Gate Bridge. Wish I could have stayed a few more days to show him round my fair city. Ah…another time Gavin.
Girls get geeky at She’s Geeky Conference
By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
Hundreds of women descended on the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, January 30 and 31st for the second annual Silicon Valley She’s Geeky Conference.
I hadn’t heard about it until Melanie Swan of the MS Futures Group invited me to lead a seminar about Fresh Dialogues podcasts and greening your business.
Kaliya Hamlin did a stellar job moderating the proceedings. Introductions were made using the expression: “I’m geeky because….” and everyone tried hard to outgeek each other with comments like “I’m geeky 
because I named my first born child after my favorite search engine,” and “I’m geeky because I take my laptop in the bath with me.”
During intros, everyone was encouraged to share their Twitter ID, which revealed over 90% of the room was already Twittering. One gal proudly announced that she was going to do her 10,000th tweet that morning!
As for me, still a Twitter virgin, I decided I’m a just nuevo geek with a very long way to go.
Highlights on Saturday were a seminar on social media and business (twitter, facebook, myspace, Hi5 among others) by Jen Leggio – ZDNet, and Jen from Adobe; and 
Mary Vincent of Green Star Solutions led a seminar about ecopreneurship; and Lynne Sopchak talked about biomimicry You can check out more at this TED video
Great to see Debra Bowen, Secretary of State for California there. She’s a strong advocate for using the Internet to open government to computer users worldwide. In 1993, she successfully helped to pass legislation making all of California’s bill information available on the Internet.
If you want to read a wiki listing notes from all the seminars and information shared (and there was a ton of 
it!), check out this link. And if you want to find out more about my seminar, Greening your business, click here
Energy high at SV Clean Energy Conference
By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
A capacity crowd packed Sun Microsystem’s historic Santa Clara campus auditorium last Friday.
After introductions by hosts Susan Lucas Conwell of SDForum and Linda Holroyd of FountainBlue, a rousing challenge to the green tech crowd came from Mayor Chuck Reed : “We want YOU to make us energy independent and pull us out of this recession!” Tall order, no pressure guys.
The Green Mayor emphasized the trillion dollar opportunity in the energy market and anticipates clean tech will receive between $40-$60 billion from President Obama’s stimulus package, most of which will benefit Silicon Valley. He underlined Silicon Valley’s reputation as the best place in the world to start and grow a business; and urged entrepreneurs to call him if they need land or buildings. The guy is serious and announced his number several times: (408) 535-4800.
The first panel “Where’s the Green in Clean?”assembled a group of top VCs: Laurie Yoler of Growth Point Technologies, Nancy Pfund – DBL Investors, Kjerstin Barley – GE Capital, and Stephen Eichenlaub -Intel Capital. Nancy Pfund addressed the issue of the price premium for clean tech products. She says some consumers are willing to pay a premium for efficiency improvements, but for a global thriving business, we need to get to parity with existing energy sources. Looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) is key. ie a Tesla Roadster may cost a fortune to buy, but a “fill up” only costs $4.
Consumer sentiment is strongly in support of clean tech, says Laurie Yoler and cited Palo Alto where consumers were offered “green” electricity for a 15% premium. So far, the sign up rate is 60%. Of course, Palo Alto is hardly representative of the rest of the world, but what starts in Silicon Valley seldom stays in Silicon Valley.
The credit crunch is impacting investment activity especially for capital intensive solar comanies. Startups with smaller capital demands will do better, says Yoler and points out there’s a vibrant market for companies focused on energy efficiency: especially virtualization software and clean tech construction companies looking for $10 million/ round.
Someone had the audacity to ask what we can learn from the Europeans who invested heavily in clean tech, especially solar, over a decade ago. I look forward to discussing this issue further with Nancy Pfund at a later date.
Steve Eichenlaub emphasized the importance of keeping the green buzz going and credits the Obama administration for talking about the environment, global warming, energy independence and green tech almost every day since he took office. What a difference a Bush-less fortnight makes!
Check back soon for more on the conference from the Green Czars from Sun, HP, SAP, Intel and IBM
Stanford Clean Tech class by Andres Wydler a sellout
By Alison van Diggelen, host of FreshDialogues
If we need any more evidence that clean tech is hot in Silicon Valley, this is it. Last Wednesday, I attended a lecture on Clean Tech Entrepreneurship by Andres Wydler at Stanford University. Originally planned for 20 to 30 students, the class was heavily oversubscribed and extended to 80 students. As of this writing, there are still 30 on the waiting list.
The class was packed with energetic people and ideas: a woman from National Geographic, just back from the Antarctic who’d witnessed the scale of the ice melting; a “green” executive from WallMart; entrepreneurs working in the solar, wind, and batteries sectors, and at least one VC. According to Andres’s questionnaire, two key factors are motivating attendees: making a living and making a difference. Several attendees are “between jobs” so the down economy is providing opportunities for some efficient reallocation of capital and labor.
Andres, founder of smartgrid company, BPL Global, wants to equip cleantech entrepreneurs with the tools they need to leverage their skills and ideas; and is bullish about Silicon Valley’s role in the world of clean tech. Admitting that the U.S. currently lags the rest of the world, he anticipates that we will be in the forefront of clean tech in certain sectors within the next 3-5 years.
“When Silicon Valley puts its mind to something, it’s a fantastic environment to pursue a cause,” he says.
His reasons for optimism:
President Obama’s “New Energy for America” plan
End markets are real and huge
The regulatory enviroment is moving in the right direction
Encumbant energy companies are motivated to change
FDR’s motivation: “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” (heard again by President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel most recently )
VC funding for clean tech is at record levels. Although 2008 Q4 showed a marked reduction in VC funding, Andres points out that it’s still attractive and alternative clean tech funding sources are available
Recommended reading:
Thomas Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded” (described as inspirational)
“Perfect Power”by Robert Galvin and Kurt Yaeger
Coming Soon: After his last class in February, I will interview Andres at length to find out what hot clean tech entrepreneurs he discovered, and get an overview of his conclusions and predictions for clean tech in Silicon Valley.
Clean Energy focus at FountainBlue
By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
Last Friday, I met with Linda Holroyd, CEO of Mountain View based FountainBlue to discuss her views on the resiliency of green tech in today’s economy. Given that the oil price has now tumbled to under $50 a barrel and gas prices are half of last summer’s high of $4+ a gallon in Silicon Valley, is there still a pressing case for clean energy and green tech investment? We discuss:
The mood of FountainBlue’s clean energy group
Her expectations for President Elect, Barack Obama’s stimulus package and her advice to our next president.
What local VCs like John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and authors like Thomas Friedman are doing to green the minds of Washington DC
The California CleanTech Open and how it stimulates clean tech development
Why failure is a badge of success in Silicon Valley
Why the downturn can create fertile ground for new startups
Check back soon for audio
