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About Lisa Suennen
Yes, it’s me
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Category Archives: Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
FemBots, Rise Up!
If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know I like to write about the plight of women in business and the challenges we sometimes face in being treated equally to our male colleagues. As a regular reader you would also know that I am fascinated by how technology is being adapted and adopted to improve the human condition and that I sometimes like to make fun of some of the more over-the-top applications (see FitBit article HERE). And yet, when I read a story in the International Business Times entitled IBM Develops Brain-like Chip, I immediately recognized that my two of my pet issues were on a collision course.
According to the IB Times article, “IBM is deploying its [research] expertise in the attempt to accomplish the unthinkable: developing a chip to mimic the human brain. IBM says its new chip, called SyNAPSE, comes closer than anything done before at replicating the human brain, a breakthrough considering the system is capable of “rewiring” its connections as it encounters new information the same way the biological synapses of a human brain would.”
According to IBM Research … (read the rest)
Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare Information Technology, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
Tagged brain chip, cognitive computing, Dharmendra Modha, healthcare IT, IBM, psilos, SyNAPSE, women in private equity, women venture capital
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Peer Pressure Cooker
There was an article in the August 8th issue of Venture Beat entitled, “Do teens make good founders? 6 teenage teams make their debut to find out.” As the parent of a teenager, my immediate thought was, “yeah, sure, right after they clean up their rooms and set the table, they can be totally awesome founders, as long as they can tear themselves away from the latest installment of the Twilight series.” What do I know? As it turns out, some kids actually do get off the couch and take action to be the next Steve Jobs.
The VentureBeat article I mentioned above is about an entrepreneurial incubator put together by Teens in Tech. The Teens in Tech Incubator is an 8-week summer program which helped six teams of young entrepreneurs launch six products over the course of a summer. Teams come with ideas, get paired up with mentors and resources, and are guided through the process of bringing their ideas to life. At the end of the 8 weeks, the teams present their startups to a group of venture capitalists, tech influencers, members of … (read the rest)
Women on the Verge
Today the Asian Venture Capital Journal published an article on women in private equity and venture capital entitled, “Minority Report.” Among the things the article points out are that about 9% of those working in the venture capital and private equity fields are women and that figure is basically the same in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Nice to know that if you are going to be discriminated against, the discrimination will be distributed equally worldwide! Lots of good stuff in this article, including some of my usual politically incorrect quotes. To read the article from the AVCJ, click HERE
Interestingly, there was another article this week in the Wall Street Journal blog that reported on a study of women and angel investing. In an academic study of 183 angel investing groups, it was found that women are far less risk-averse as investors than the stereotype suggests. In fact, angel groups with a larger percentage of women investors made more and larger investment bets than those that had few women. I am not sure whether this means that a larger number of women means the risk tolerance overall rises or … (read the rest)
Don’t Let Breast Cancer Steal Second Base!
So I was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge this morning and I saw the wonderful sight of hundreds of pink-clad women hoofing it across in support of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. This event is truly lovely, with thousands of women (and some brave men) walking a minimum of 26.2 miles in honor of those they love who have fought breast cancer. I have done this walk myself 4 times, twice in SF and twice in NY (each time with my sister Tracy), and it was a wondrous event each time. It is a rare experience to be able to lose yourself among thousands of people all there to support something more important than themselves while wearing pink feather boas and classy t-shirts that say, “Save 2nd Base–Beat Breast Cancer!” I think I’ll do this walk again next year.
After taking part in the 2005 Avon Walk I penned one of my favorite pieces of writing and I decided that, in homage to those fab women out there walking today and tomorrow, I would re-post that here below. If you are out in SF or Marin today and … (read the rest)
Striving for Obsolescence!
Sorry to those who saw this already; the post didn’t make it to most of my readers so I am reposting…
Well thank goodness. I have recently learned that I can be replaced by a piece of software. Work has been pretty taxing lately, so this is quite a relief, as long as they keep paying me. Apparently there is a new data analysis product called Quid that is able to detect what sectors in a given industry are ripe for innovation and direct venture capital investors towards the best opportunities. Since that is a key function of those in the venture capital biz, it is a relief to think that I can outsource it to someone (something?) who won’t bring their personal issues to the office or drink the last of the coffee without replacing the pot.
According to a recent article in Venture Capital Journal (excerpted in PE Hub), you can visualize Quid as follows:
But imagine plugging data into a computer, such as hiring trends and past rounds of funding for thousands of companies in a sector, and then having software that crunches the numbers and … (read the rest)
Bono, Summers, Suennen-seriously?
Funny to see my name on a tag list alongside Bono and Larry Summers…but a fun article by PE Hub’s Larry Aragon on a topic I find interesting: celebrity and venture capital investing. Click here for the story which also nicely mentions one of my others.
Striving for Obsolescence
Well thank goodness. I have recently learned that I can be replaced by a piece of software. Work has been pretty taxing lately, so this is quite a relief, as long as they keep paying me. Apparently there is a new data analysis product called Quid that is able to detect what sectors in a given industry are ripe for innovation and direct venture capital investors towards the best opportunities. Since that is a key function of those in the venture capital biz, it is a relief to think that I can outsource it to someone (something?) who won’t bring their personal issues to the office or drink the last of the coffee without replacing the pot.
According to a recent article in Venture Capital Journal (excerpted in PE Hub), you can visualize Quid as follows:
But imagine plugging data into a computer, such as hiring trends and past rounds of funding for thousands of companies in a sector, and then having software that crunches the numbers and predicts what areas are untapped by startups and ripe for investment opportunities. That way, when a gung-ho entrepreneur walks in a … (read the rest)
We’re From the Government; We’re Here to Help
Unlike many of my colleagues who got MDs or MBAs, my graduate school education was focused on political science–the study of political behavior to be exact. I was a good portion of the way through a PhD program in this field when I started working in industry (high tech marketing at the time, not yet healthcare). I was managing to balance the study of politics and the high tech marketing roles pretty decently, or so I thought until my graduate school advisor gave me an ultimatum: quit the job and spend full time in the political science department researching and teaching or quit the program.
I remember thinking at the time that my odds of working in government were pretty low (too blunt) and that I wasn’t cut out for a life of public policy-making (too impatient), so I decided to leave the study of government and political behavior behind and dive full-time into the life of the private sector. That was it, I figured: political life over, business life here I come.
What a difference a couple of decades makes.
This week I attended two separate healthcare conferences. The … (read the rest)
Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Medical Devices, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
Tagged AHIP Institute, Carville and Matalin, health insurance, healthcare reform, medical technology, PPACA, psilos, WSGR Medical Device Conference
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Next Best Thing to Sliced Bread?
It is an oft-stated piece of conventional wisdom in venture capital that most investment firms will get 1 deal right and make a big return on it for every 4 or more they get wrong. In other words, you are lucky to see 20% of your investments make enough money to pay for the 80% of mistakes you made picking the others, plus a profit. If that is true it means, of course, that the risk venture capitalists take by investing in seemingly wacky ideas needs to be covered by the sure bets (the things you can’t possibly lose money on) plus the little bluebirds that come from the wacky ideas you fund because well, who the hell knows, it just might work.
As I consider the announcement made this week about Sequoia Capital’s investment of approximately $10 million in a new start-up called The Melt, I note that it is tough to figure out which side of the risk profile ledger they are putting this one on.
The Melt is a new restaurant idea based on the idea that people just love themselves a good grilled cheese sandwich. The … (read the rest)
Your Returns Are Lifting Me Higher…
I have often joked with friends that I have gone into the wrong area of investing as the perks are lame. As a healthcare investor, I can get a free hearing aid or diabetes test whenever I want one, but who the hell wants something that just proves you’re old? It’s the guys who invest in entertainment, media, even technology that get all the good stuff: free iPads, concert tickets, meetings with celebrities. But lo and behold, there is a brave new world of venture investing out there where the perk possibilities are really unique.
In an article entitled Medical Marijuana Companies Chase Investors, Eye IPOs, Dow Jones’ reporters write one of the best opening sentences I have seen in recent financial services reportage, “In what was once a pipe dream, medical-marijuana companies are courting private investors and even planning public stock sales.” I will confess, I am listening to Van Morrison’s “And it Stoned Me” while I write this piece, which my daughter suggests cannot be coincidence.
The article describes a rapidly growing (pun intended) trend for investors to make seed and venture investments (or maybe it’s venture … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
Tagged alternative medicine, ArcView Group, general cannibis, GrowOp, healthcare, healthcare venture capital, hedge funds, investing medical marijuana, kaneabis, medical dispensing systems, private equity, psilos, venture capital
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