Tag: HeroX

Democratizing Innovation: The movement of problem solvers, misfit thinkers, & crazy dreamers

Democratizing Innovation: The movement of problem solvers, misfit thinkers, & crazy dreamers

Jul 12, 2015 | , ,

This guest post was written by Christian Cotichini, co-founder and CEO of HeroX, the world’s problem solver community. Christian has over 20 years of experience leading startup and high growth technology companies; he is an active angel investor and mentors startup entrepreneurs. Here we are, about two years into the HeroX experiment: what happens when we unleash the power of incentive challenges to everyone, anywhere, in the whole world? So far, I couldn’t be happier. I co-founded HeroX together with Peter Diamandis and Emily Fowler from the XPRIZE Foundation. Peter, of course, needs little introduction. Inspired by the original Orteig Prize, which took Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, Peter created the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million prize awarded to the first private reusable spacecraft to reach an altitude of 100 km, twice within two weeks. The prize was won in October 2004 by Scaled Composites, and the technology was licensed to create Virgin Galactic. Within the next few years, the general public will be able to get their astronaut wings. From this revolutionary beginning, the XPRIZE...

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The First “Law” of Venture Capital

The First “Law” of Venture Capital

Jun 25, 2015 | , , ,

In technology, change tends to be revolutionary not evolutionary. So you need to force yourself to place big bets on the future. -Larry Page Power Law Curve There is a tendency among less experienced early stage investors to think that the distribution of venture returns is linear — portfolio companies have an equal opportunity of failing, plateauing or growing. In reality, however, venture returns are incredibly skewed within a fund’s portfolio (as well as across venture funds). As Peter Thiel and others have discussed at length, the actual distribution follows a power law, with a few winners accounting for more returns than all others combined. Understanding the power law curve is essential to being a good venture investor, a difficult task given that most of us are accustomed to thinking linearly in our daily lives. Thiel attributes this curve to the compounding power of exponential growth that is typical of successful venture investments: Successful businesses tend to have an exponential arc to them. Maybe they grow at 50% a year and it compounds for a number of years. It...

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What We’re Investing In: Current Investment Opportunities on OurCrowd (June 2015)

What We’re Investing In: Current Investment Opportunities on OurCrowd (June 2015)

Jun 16, 2015 | ,

Venture capital activity dropped in the first quarter of 2015. For the first time since 2011, under 900 deals received funding from venture capital firms. Equity crowdfunding, on the other hand, continues to see a steady, impressive rise in dollars invested. According to Crowdnetic’s Eric Smith, the young equity crowdfundung market is poised to double every year, as more and more individual investors learn about the opportunity. This June at OurCrowd, in addition to launching three new investment opportunities, we also launched our first early-stage fund. Check out highlights of all the currently funding OurCrowd companies in this month’s edition of “What We’re Investing In.” OurCrowd First Finding promising early stage investment opportunities is an art. To find the right companies, the OurCrowd investment team sifts through upwards of 150 startups per month. Often, due to the size of the round or the maturity of the company, they are forced to pass on great, early stage opportunities. To address this, for the first time on the OurCrowd platform, we are offering an opportunity to invest in a fund composed...

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