Goldman Sachs Technology Conference

Last week I flew over to Las Vegas and spent 2 days at the Goldman Sachs technology conference. In general, I don't think these tech conferences are really relevant for early stage VCs (and entrepreneurs) as the audience is composed of mostly public market funds and equity managers. However, it's a great way to get a pulse on the current public market and also to hear about the future strategic directions of the larger public companies. Anyway, here are my 4 major takeaways:

1. Clearly, the recession was the most important topic, and was constantly discussed with every company presented. The overall feedback from most companies was the same "We are cautious, but still optimistic about the upcoming quarters". In other words, most companies are worried, but not feeling the recession yet. Specifically, I liked the comment made by Jerry Kennelly, founder & CEO of Riverbed: "Recession? Flights are full, restaurants are full, and I can't get a decent hotel room in any city I go to. Not sure at all that the recession is here". I totally agree with that observation.
2. One area that is having a negative impact on the technology vendors – Financial services. For many of the public companies this is not a big issue (They can compensate with sales in other verticals). For the startup community this is hard. The banks are usually big tech spenders and early adapters.
3. M&A was a topic that was constantly discussed. Microsoft – Yahoo, Activision – Vivendi, and many others. Again, these mergers are overall bad news. The startup community needs a lot of potential buyers, and every public company that disappears has a negative impact on the overall venture results. As I was listening to companies like Riverbed and Data Domain, I was happy to hear about their inorganic growth plans, yet worried that in a year from now both will merge with the companies like Cisco and IBM.
4. Finally, It was interesting to hear Microsoft Chief Strategy Office, Craig Mundie, talking about the potential in innovating the desktop. He claims that the desktop hasn't changed at all in the past 10 years, and there is room to re-create the fixed computer desk (I guess Microsoft's table top is the first step). As Microsoft talks about the desktop, Apple's COO, Tim Cook, (Boring presentation) talked about the iPod touch as the ultimate mobile Wi-Fi/data device. Interesting to see Microsoft and Apple taking 2 very different views on innovation.

Finally, a word about Israel. I was very proud to hear Craig Mundie's view on the next big thing: "As far as we know, the next big thing will come from a small startup company in Israel". In addition, Mark Loughridge, IBM's CFO, talked about XIV, their latest acquisition in Israel. "This acquisition positions IBM to grow in emerging opportunities like Web 2.0 applications, digital archives and digital media. So, we're excited about this addition to our storage family."

It's nice to see that Israel is taking center stage in the technology world, both in innovation and in overall brand and perception.

Comments

[Cleantech]

Nice post - i may refer to it in my cleantech blog - http://cleantech.blogli.co.il