The Startup Journey

While VC funds have played a critical role in the creation and sustenance of companies in the US, it would be a gross oversight to miss the role that US corporations, especially in Silicon Valley, have played in engendering and nurturing innovative startups. From hi-tech companies (e.g. IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, SAP, Motorola, Google) to bio-tech and healthcare (e.g. Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson, SmithKline Beecham, Pfizer) to publishing and media (e.g. Reuters, EW Scripps, McGraw-Hill, Disney, Sony) to aerospace and defense companies (e.g. Boeing, Lockheed Martin) to energy (e.g. Chevron, BP) have played an important role in furthering innovation in the US. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, in the first half of 2008, corporate venture capitalists were involved in roughly 300+ companies or 20% of VC deals signed and invested over $1 billion or 7% of overall venture capital dollars invested in US companies. Even the CIA spun out...

Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM-Bangalore is organizing two day workshops for entrepreneurs. The first - on Sep. 29 & 30 - will focus on Business Development Skills and the next - on Oct. 3 & 4 - will focus on Finance for Entrepreneurs. For more information, contact: Girish Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning Indian Institute of Managment Bangalore Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560076 Tel: 080-26993701, 3721, 3710 Fax: 080-26993769 nsrcel.orgnsrcel@IIMB.ERNET.IN

Over the weekend, I was immersed in reading Madcap Crazy Inventions by Gyles Brandreth, a slim volume published in 1997 as a tribute to the imaginative people from around the Western world. These quite remarkable people dreamt up an incredible variety of inventions that, no doubt, they thought would prove very useful but which we recognize today as being simply ridiculous. Of course, the inventors themselves had faith in their inventions! The inventions range from a spaghetti eating tool to a robber catcher to a rat scarer to a stammer stopper to reversible trousers to the Smellorama (where smells were made to match the action on a movie screen!). Most of the inventions were made in the 1st half of the 20th century. On February 28, 1856, the Government of India promulgated legislation to grant what was then termed as "exclusive privileges for the encouragement of inventions of new manufactures". On March 3, 1856, a civil engineer, George Alfred DePenning of 7, Grant's Lan...