StepOne Blog

Yesterday morning I attended a talk given by Ron Leuty, the life sciences reporter for the San Francisco Business TImes.  He gave valuable advice about how life sciences companies need to communicate better with their wider audience, not just with their potential equity investors.  I think this advice is true for technology companies in general, not just biotech ones.  Executives in tech companies need to be able to explain their technology in simple (but not dumbed down) terms.

C-YA does not have to mean “get lost!” In fact, it simply means keeping up with good friends and alumni of Stanford. Last Thursday, you could find yours truly at Nola in Palo Alto, kicking back some suds with recent Stanford Alums.

The environment was decidedly not stuffy, and business only made up some of the conversation, but that’s what makes C-YA events so fun and inviting. There were electrical engineers, MBAs, biologists, and even some social science degrees (guilty as charged!) in attendance. Come on out to the next C-Ya event in Palo Alto or the larger Bay Area. I’ll see you there!

Lithium ion battery maker, A123 Systems, has had a successful IPO — after its shares hit the market on September 24, their share price shot up more than 50%.  Does this mean the IPO drought is over?  Will cleantech lead the way to a general market recovery?  StepOne will keep our eye on developments in the cleantech market for our clients and future clients.  Full disclosure: I went to business school with one of the guys at A123 — congrats Doug!

I recently read an interesting article in the NY Times about an emerging new technology, called building-integrated photovoltaics.  The current, conventional way to install solar panels is through bulky panels added to roofs or mounted on the ground.  

Now, however, there are some US companies that are offering less conspicuous designs, in the form of shingles, tiles, etc, which have photovoltaic cells sealed within them.  The solar cells are thus part of the actual building, versus being an “add-on.”

This market is in its very early stages, and many energy consulting firms estimate that government subsidies would need to be in place to speed adoption of building-integrated photovoltaics in the US.  In Europe, where they do have government subsidies for this technology in place, building-integrated photovoltaics make up 3-4% of the solar market.

StepOne Ventures is excited to announce the upcoming MadriTech Bridge Trip, a four day event we’re putting on in conjunction with PromoMadrid, Enterprise Europe Network, and CEIM. You’ll be hearing a lot about it in the coming weeks, but the basic details can be found here.

In addition to the closing night networking event in San Francisco, we’ll be webcasting the highlights starting October 20th. We hope you’ll be able to join us! Stay tuned for details.