Blog - StepOne Ventures http://www.stepone.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:55:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Global Business Trip to Silicon Valley: A Real Success! http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/12/global-business-trip-to-silicon-valley-a-real-success/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/12/global-business-trip-to-silicon-valley-a-real-success/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:26:27 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=527 SV300122

During the second week of December, StepOne and Barrabés hosted a trip organized by Fundación Banesto with the collaboration of ICEX the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade. The “Global Business Trip” brought 10 Spanish tech to the San Francisco Bay Area.

This trip was seen as a success for the companies who had the opportunity to meet possible partners, prospective clients, VC representatives, while also enjoying group visits Google, Yahoo, The Plug and Play Tech Center, and the Intel Museum.

Imaste’s blog: http://blog.imaste-ips.com/?p=162

http://blog.imaste-ips.com/?p=169

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/12/global-business-trip-to-silicon-valley-a-real-success/feed/ 0 MadriTech Bridge Trip a Success! http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/madritech-bridge-trip-a-success/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/madritech-bridge-trip-a-success/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:30:52 +0000 admin http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=521 MadriTech Bridge Trip

Thanks to everyone who made this such a great event. We’ll be posting pictures and videos shortly. Stay tuned!

(In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.)

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/madritech-bridge-trip-a-success/feed/ 0 Consolidation of the VC industry in Silicon Valley and Boston http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/consolidation-of-the-vc-industry-in-silicon-valley-and-boston/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/consolidation-of-the-vc-industry-in-silicon-valley-and-boston/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:52:51 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=513 bio-andrea2The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about how former growing centers of VC funding (such as Dallas) are losing their edge amid this tough funding climate.  Only the VC clusters in Boston and Silicon Valley seem to be thriving.

From the article: Many of the VC firms in Dallas have run out of cash and stopped investing in new startups.  Only six new venture funds have been raised in New York this year, totaling $486M, down from 14 new funds with $1.9 BN in 2006.

http://bit.ly/le8Tl

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/consolidation-of-the-vc-industry-in-silicon-valley-and-boston/feed/ 0 Successful Visit to Silicon Valley by elAbogado! http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/successful-visit-to-silicon-valley-by-el-abogado/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/successful-visit-to-silicon-valley-by-el-abogado/#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:20:52 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=499 martiStepOne’s US office just finished up hosting a very successful and enjoyable client visit by Marti Manent, CEO and Founder of elAbogado.  As we do with each of our clients, StepOne US arranged key logistical, strategic, and networking meetings for Marti, including meetings with other legal directories in the US, and top tier website companies, such as Facebook and Craigslist.

We in the StepOne US office were extremely impressed by Marti’s energy, entrepreneurial spirit, and “just-get-it-done” attitude that will fit well with Silicon Valley.

elAbogado.com is the top directory for law firms and lawyers in Spain.  elAbogado is currently working with StepOne to launch a subsidiary in the US market.

Marti’s blog: http://www.mmanent.com/desde-silicon-valley/

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/successful-visit-to-silicon-valley-by-el-abogado/feed/ 0 Twilight of the Matadors in Catalonia? http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/twilight-of-the-matadors-in-catalonia/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/twilight-of-the-matadors-in-catalonia/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:39:59 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=494 The New York Times recently published an article about the potential passage of a referendum in the Catalan Parliament against bullfighting.  Economic woes, combined with dwindling interest among young Catalans, has led to closures of bullrings all across Spain.  Political issue?  Animal rights issue?  Cultural issue  What do you think?

http://bit.ly/v9Qgt

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/twilight-of-the-matadors-in-catalonia/feed/ 1 The Next Youth-Magnet Cities http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/the-next-youth-magnet-cities/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/the-next-youth-magnet-cities/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:58:21 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=492 bio-andrea2The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article about the “next youth-magnet cities.”  San Francisco wasn’t on this list….but Washington, DC, Seattle, New York, Portland, and Austin were.  Why wasn’t San Francisco on there?  Aren’t we supposed to be the mecca of entrepreneurship?  Or is our high cost of living “costing” us?  http://bit.ly/3yavpS

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/the-next-youth-magnet-cities/feed/ 1 Rocky Mountain Institute Cleantech Event http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/rocky-mountain-institute-cleantech-event/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/rocky-mountain-institute-cleantech-event/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:00:29 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=483 bio-andrea2I attended the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Cleantech conference in San Francisco (Reinventing Fire) last Friday.  Not only did I get to meet up with a fellow Harvard Business School grad, Lionel Bony, who works at RMI, I heard a great panel of speakers: Amory Lovins, Dan Reicher (Google.org), Paul Holland (Foundation Capital), Bill Joy (Kleiner Perkins), Aimee Christensen (Christensen Global Strategies), and Catherine Zoi (Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy).

One big takeaway for our European clients is: Catherine Zoi talked about the Obama Administration’s mandate to grant $400M to companies that can help promote and scale energy efficiency to a national level.

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/rocky-mountain-institute-cleantech-event/feed/ 0 Social Media in Strategic Alliances http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/social-media-in-strategic-alliances/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/social-media-in-strategic-alliances/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:24:24 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=479 bio-andrea2I attended my second ASAP (Association for Strategic Alliance Professionals) event last night.  It was held at Cisco’s offices in San Jose, and I was very impressed by 2 things.  

First, the “technology” of the event was extremely well-integrated with the speakers.  For instance, audience members were able to record their responses to several polling questions that the speakers asked.  The speakers then were able to integrate this real-time data into the presentation.  Of course, this is not new technology — but it was the first time that I felt a presentation was actually enhanced by technology.  This is especially interesting to me since part of StepOne’s value add for our European clients is to prepare them for presentations they may give or meetings they hold in the US.  Anything that enhances a speaker’s message is something that I will keep an eye on for our clients.

Second, on the topic of how social media can enhance strategic alliances, the speakers referenced 2 source materials that I will definitely track down and read.  The book, Groundswell (http://bit.ly/1CgLph), and the Conversation Prism (http://bit.ly/65Hnr) by Brian Solis.  Have any of you out there read or used these?  What do you think?

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/10/social-media-in-strategic-alliances/feed/ 0 San Francisco Business Times reporter gives valuable advice http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/09/san-francisco-business-times-reporter-gives-valuable-advice/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/09/san-francisco-business-times-reporter-gives-valuable-advice/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:01:49 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=477 bio-andreaYesterday 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.

]]> http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/09/san-francisco-business-times-reporter-gives-valuable-advice/feed/ 1 C-YA in Palo Alto! http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/09/c-ya-in-palo-alto/ http://www.stepone.com/blog/2009/09/c-ya-in-palo-alto/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:00:27 +0000 stepone http://www.stepone.com/blog/?p=470 bio-beto 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!

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