Hope Springs Eternal in Boston
Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe columnist and man-about-town, is one of the most positive guys I know. Whenever I’m feeling blue, I call Scott.
Recently, however, he turned blue because of the all the doom and gloom reflected by people and caused by lay-offs, the dearth of exits, state of the technology industry and VC industry as well. Scott came up with the idea to get people thinking more about the next wave of growth as opposed to the good ole days.
According to Scott:
“Here in Massachusetts, where we have a strong sense of history, we know that ever since the days of Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell – they once worked in the same incubator space in downtown Boston – to the era of Raytheon and Digital Equipment – to the time of EMC and Monster.com – there always has been a next wave.”
So Scott and several other community leaders have organized an evening event on Thursday, June 25th that’s called “What’s Next in Tech.” To register and get more details, go here.
For me, there are 10 growth areas (9 revealed here and 8 companies associated with them) which have or will present significant opportunities to develop unique technology solutions, solve customer pain and be big successes. Each area is based a thesis I have, and has resulted in me founding, advising or helping to startup companies to address these opportunities. They include:
- Cloud Computing: Advisor to Enomaly
- Game User Measurement: Advisor to gamerDNA
- Mobile, specifically LBS and GPS: Advisor to Cadio
- Online Marketing Solutions: Advisor to HubSpot
- Open Source, on the Board of Black Duck Software and advisor to Lucid Imagination
- Vertical Social Networks: Advisor to Stealthy Company
- Video Use Measurement: Advisor to Visible Measures, Inc.
I also believe that clean technology, specifically fusion, smart grid and one other area will be great growth areas. I will post on the clean tech opportunities in the near term and that other area someday.
What I can say is that the smile on my face is there because I work with great CEOs in these companies, like Brian Halligan, Brian Shin, Jon Radoff and Tim Yeaton; or great technologists like Ruv Cohen and Mark Krellenstein. These are the guys who are exploiting the next great set of opportunities of our day. Take a look at their sites and get to know their companies. When you meet these guys they will put a smile on your face as well.