Speaker: Shomit Ghose: 09-06-06
From wiki
| Shomit Ghose, Berkeley Industry Fellow and Venture Partner, Onset Ventures |
Biography
Shomit Ghose joined ONSET Ventures in 2001 after 19 years of working at high-tech companies in the Silicon Valley. During his career he participated in several successful IPOs, including those of Sun Microsystems and Broadvision. Prior to joining ONSET, he was Sr. VP of Operations at Tumbleweed Communications, where he managed the marketing, professional services, applications engineering and corporate development departments. He helped the company through a successful IPO in 1999. Previously, he was VP of the Worldwide Professional Services Organization at BroadVision and helped that company through a successful IPO in 1996.
His first job was as network protocol engineer at Metaphor Computer Systems, a company acquired by IBM. Later, he was an engineer in the original pre-IPO software development team at Sun Microsystems. He has also been Director of Marketing and then Director of Asia/Pacific Operations for nCUBE, a manufacturer of video-on-demand servers, and a board member of Alier, a data integration software company that is now part of webMethods.
Shomit was awarded two academic scholarships to the University of California, Berkeley, at age 15. He graduated in 1982 with a degree in Computer Science. At ONSET Ventures, Shomit focuses on software, networking and infrastructure companies. He also mentors and provides management resources to portfolio companies to help maximize their success.
Lecture Summary: “The Importance of Nothing” (September 6, 2006)
“The Importance of Nothing” means finding markets and applications where something does not already exist.
Look for
- market opportunity greater than $500 million,
- immediate need
- long-term market growth potential.
- undiscovered areas -- i.e., if your target market has any sort of media coverage, then it is probably already too late for entry.
To uncover these elusive markets,
- talk to customers. It is crucial to talk to the right type of customers, not just the easiest ones to get to.
- Prior to talking to customers, it is best to email a one-pager explaining who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. * When talking to them, remember the 80/20 rule -- listen 80 percent of the time and talk for 20 percent.
In conclusion,
- The customer will not create the product idea for you — products are internally inspired and externally verified.