Disruptive Technologies
Howard Anderson, Senior Managing Director, YankeeTek Ventures talked recently with Mark Mills, host of WBIX’s Market Wrap on Emerging Business, the weekly interview segment produced by Growth Advisors. Howard talked about some of the themes planned for his keynote speech at the ACG Fall Technology Conference including disruptive technologies, the “Yankee brain,” and the current state of venture capital.
Listen online to an audio clip of the complete interview. An excerpt of the interview follows:
Mark: What are some of the themes in your keynote speech?
Howard: The real issue is how we get companies growing and how we get them growing on disruptive technologies. It is a subject (that is) very close to Massachusetts, very close to the economy, very close to what we do here.
Mark: What do you mean by disruptive technologies?
Howard: A disruptive technology isn’t just a little improvement; it’s a major improvement or doing it in a different way. Let me give you an example. VoIP is disruptive because firms like Verizon and AT&T have resisted this for so long and new guys on the block can come in and undercut them and disrupt the markets.
Mark: When you get a good idea, if you are lucky enough to raise the capital, pull it all together and get it out in the marketplace, you may not succeed for that long a period of time.
Howard: It is interesting how few companies have been leading for generation after generation. But what is also surprising is that it’s not just poorly run companies that sunset, it’s very well run companies that sunset. Maybe they didn’t see the market coming; maybe they waited too long.
