Seed investors are in the unique position to spot trends early. Over the last twelve months I’ve noticed a new crop of startups coming in the door at Lerer Ventures and am confident we’re in the early days of the next major shift in computing -  the Era of Connected Devices.   It might still be five or ten years from now - but when it hits the impact will be huge.

These connected devices will be everywhere and enriching our lives in more ways then we can comprehend, today.  No, I’m not taking about a toaster that’s connected to the net.  I’m not even talking about like the Xbox in your living room or the iPhone on your desk. I’m talking about sensors and devices that will monitor and sense our environments, collect data and provide timely and critical feedback. If you think mobile is big right now, wait until the “edge of mobile” is fully developed.  A tremendous amount of value will be created at the “edge” (e.g. sensors, appcessories, etc.) because unfathomable amounts of data will originate here and will then be routed to other devices, applications, services, etc.  In order to support truly pervasive computing, the tech stack - hardware, software, services, infrastructure - will likely undergo significant changes and new value will be created at each level. I believe the companies that own the hardware, software and service in a given market will create significant barriers. 

Why now?  Startups are bringing these devices to market faster and cheaper than ever before thanks to a number of factors.  First, vibrant innovative online communities are growing (e.g. Quirky and Thingiverse) and low-cost / high performance web-based CAD tools are emerging (e.g. Lerer-backed Sunglass).  Additionally, the rise of 3D printers enable engineers / makers to rapidly prototype and manufacture parts, components, etc. all from their garages.  Equally as important, crowdfunding sites (e.g. Kickstarter) now provide access to capital for thousands of entrepreneurs who were previously shunned by VCs “who don’t invest in hardware companies.”  Finally, we’re starting to see a few of hardware focused-incubators spring up on the west coast (e.g. Lemnos Labs) and I know we’ll see many more in the next few years.  Hopefully, a few in NYC soon. 

Even the big guys are investing billions.  Ericsson forecasts there will be more than 50 BILLION connected devices by 2020 — “Everything that will benefit from a connection will be connected.”  All sectors will be impacted: transportation, retail, education, government, healthcare, utilities / energy, security, financial services, construction, etc.  The behemoth General Electric is investing in what they call the Industrial Internet. More specifically, the giant is hiring 400 engineers in San Ramon, California “to design the layer of software that makes the idea of intelligent machines a reality.”  Additionally, IBM is already investing billions in their Smarter Planet initiative. Their energy is focused “into things no one would recognize as computers: cars, appliances, roadways, clothes, even natural systems like agriculture and waterways.” Even the next generation processors from semiconductor manufacturers like AMD are being designed specifically for mobile (compact, energy-efficient and powerful). 

Over the last few months I’ve been cataloguing startups / organizations that are paving the way for the Era of Pervasive Connected Devices.  These companies are building sensors, media devices and appliances, robots, 3D printers, and appcessories which extend the value of our current mobile devices. The list I’ve complied below is far from exhaustive but should offer a glimpse into where the world is heading.  The opportunity may feel far away to an outsider, but as Bill Gates once said, “technology doesn’t change things as much as you think in the short term, and we underestimate the rate of technological change in the long term.”  Agree? Disagree? Would love to see your thoughts.  

A sample of connected devices

Bio Sensors:

• Nike Fuel Band: measure daily activity
• FitBit: measures daily activity and sleep 
• Lumoback: monitors posture and provides real-time feedback
• Withings Scale: measure and tracks your weight
• Withings Blood Pressure: measures and tracks blood pressure 
• AliveCor: mobile system to monitor a patients ECG 
• JawboneUp: measures and tracks activity and sleep

Motion Sensors

• Leap: control your computer using hand gestures
• PrimeSense: tech that powers MS Kinect  

Home Automation

• Nest: connected thermostat 
• elarm: connected home security  
• Lockitron: replace your keys with your phone 
• Wemo: modular system for mobile home automation

Music

• Gtar: tools to create, perform and enjoy music naturally
• Unplugged Instruments: smart devices for teaching music

Appliances

• Withings Baby Monitor: system to monitor your baby
• Blossom Coffee: perfecting the cup of coffee 
• iGrill: wireless and bluetooth-enabled meat thermometer
• Retriever: GPS dog tracker

Agriculture

• Prospero: swarm of autonomous robotic planters
• Bitponics: automate the plant growing process via sensors  
• Koubachi: the wifi plant sensor 

Sensor Platforms

• Twine: hackable platform for a myriad of sensors 
• Ninjablocks: platform for sensing and controlling things in an environment
• GreenGoose: sensors that make the world more playful 
• Safecast: sensor network for detecting and measuring radiation 

Robots

• Romotive: the smartphone robot (a Lerer-backed company)
• Momentum Machines: a robot that makes a perfect hamburger in mass volume
• ArcBots: open source robotics platform
• Sphero: remote controlled robotic ball 
• Kiva Systems: robots for warehouses (acquired by Amazon) 

DIY Manufacturing

• Mezzomill: hardware + software for making circuits at home 
• Makerbot: a 3D printer for the masses
• Shapeways: a 3D printing service
• Reprap: humanity’s first general-purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine
• DIY CNC Machine: computer-automated machining and fabricating for masses

Connective Tissue

• IFTTT: put the internet to work for you
• Open Garden: crowdsourced mesh network using mobile devices
• Freedom Pop: 100% free internet access for all 
• Electric Imp: platform to bring every device possible to the networked world

Miscellaneous 

• Square: mobile credit card reader 
• LittleBits: digital legos  
• Google Glasses: the company’s first foray into wearable computing   
• Mosoro: maker of bluetooth accessories for smartphones 
• Maykey: an invention kit for everyone
• Readiymate: build your own web-connected object 
• Computer Patches: sterilizable, wearable patches to monitor health
• Thimble: wearable tech for the blind

http://questionnyaire.blogspot.com/2011/11/lerer-ventures-steve-schlafman.html

Lerer Ventures: STEVE SCHLAFMAN

New York City’s Silicon Alley has claimed a place among the ranks of top tech-hubs across the country such as Boston, Dallas, Seattle, and of course, its namesake and the “mothership”, Silicon Valley. While each of these start-up communities boasts its own set of advantages, Silicon Alley benefits from New York’s buzz and density people, which, in the past few years, has played into the hands of the social media phenomenon. Yet in many ways, the most important feature of any tech boom-town is the availability of funds. Enter: the venture capital firm. Steve Schlafman is a principal investor at one of these firms, Lerer Ventures, which focuses on funding companies in the “seed-stage”. That is, Lerer trudges through the weeds of all start-up hopefuls to find entrepreneurs with “product vision, consumer insight, focused execution, and unwavering ambition.” Although he is now in the position of the lender, Steve is no stranger to the experience on the other side of the table. His work experience spans from startups such as Stickybits  and Turntable.fm, to more traditional environments such as The Kraft Group  and Microsoft.
 

And what’s in Lerer’s portfolio these days? Just so happens they were one of the VC’s that took a stake in GroupMe (prior Q-naire feature, recently aquired by Skype), as well as other awesome hits like: Dispatch, Hipster , Yoke, and Venmo. Previous investments that have already made it big include: the Huffington Post, Paperless Post, Thrillist, and Business Insider.

 

 

How did you get involved with Lerer Ventures?  

Believe it or not, I learned about my position at Lerer Ventures on Twitter. While I didn’t know Ken and Ben Lerer or any of the partners personally, I was close with at least a dozen folks who had strong ties to the firm. I was able to leverage these strong relationships to get my foot in the door, which is often the hardest part. 

Describe your day-to-day activities: 

My daily activities include meeting with entrepreneurs, conducting due diligence on potential investments, researching industries, testing new products, reading blogs to catch up on the news, and providing support to our portfolio. I also spend time meeting with other investors and strategic partners who might benefit from a relationship with one of our portfolio companies or vice versa.

Best perk of your job: 

I’d have to say the best perk of my job is learning about new products and markets from incredibly smart, talented, and passionate entrepreneurs. I meet with designers, technologists, and business hustlers who are on a mission change the world and disrupt massive companies and industries.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 

That’s a good question. I’d like to think I’ll continue as a VC for the long run because I truly enjoy working with entrepreneurs, giving advice, making intros, and playing around with new products. On the other hand, I enjoy making things too, so it’s entirely possible that could be running my own company down the road.  

The most important factors to consider when evaluating a startup: 

At the earliest stage of investing, it’s all about the entrepreneur. We look for founders who are obsessed with the customer and have an intense focus on product. We also look for entrepreneurs who understand the importance of building a great team and a special culture.

Any notable startup red flags? 

There are number of red flags I look out for. If a startup doesn’t have a product demo, then it’s hard for me to take it seriously. I need to have confidence that the entrepreneur can make something out of nothing. I’m also skeptical when an entrepreneur focuses more on the their press mentions, business model, or market than on the product and the customer.

When and where are you happiest? 

I love NYC but I’m the happiest outside the city. There isn’t great hiking close to NYC, so I drive nearly 6 hours to Lake Placid, NY to vacation because it’s a great place to unplug.  
 
Your greatest indulgence: 

Espresso. I’m always in pursuit of the perfect shot or cappuccino. My favorite spots include Kava, Gimme!, La Colombe, and Stumptown.  

Your role model: 

Is it cliché to say my Mom? She has the strongest work ethic of anyone I’ve ever met and she has an enormous heart.  She worked two hard jobs so my siblings and I could live in a safe town, get a great education, and have access to the things that every kid wants. She has always put her family ahead of herself and has always stressed the importance of family. Most importantly, she has always supported our decisions and encouraged us to be unique.

Talent you’d most like to have? 

I’d love to be a world-class skier.  

Greatest tech innovation in the last year: 

That’s a tough question. My favorite young companies in NYC include Turntable.fm, Skillshare, and Dispatch. Turntable.fm was the first company to truly crack social music consumption and discovery. Skillshare has created a marketplace for community-based education. Dispatch has created a web-service that allows you to access all of your web files all in one place.

Define the Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Alley dynamic: 

The Silicon Valley vs. the Silicon Alley debate is over-hyped. Both places are great environments to build companies because they value innovation, creativity, success and hard work. That said, Silicon Valley is run by engineers whereas Silicon Alley is run by a mix of designers, hackers, and hustlers. There’s no question that Silicon Valley has a greater pool of engineering talent, but I’d argue that New York has greater cultural diversity and density.

The advantage of running a tech startup in NYC:

First, the population density and number of businesses makes it a perfect place to find customers and strategic partners. Second, there are at least a dozen co-working spaces that are affordable and come with a built in community. New York is special too because it values self-expression, creativity, hard work and risk-taking probably more than any other city in the world. It also has ample seed capital to fund entrepreneurs and innovative ideas. So what if NYC doesn’t have the sun (or the sheer numbers of engineers) that Silicon Valley has—I’d still argue there’s no better place to start a company.  

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while and Tristan Walker’s latest post on how he got his job at Foursquare inspired me to take the plunge this weekend.  Interviewing is a necessary evil in our society and we all need to go through the process at some point in our lives (unless we’re born entrepreneurs).  There are countless books written about the topic and thousands of self-proclaimed experts who try to prep us so we’re ready to handle any conceivable question.  There are even entire MBA courses devoted to the subject.  Those types of resources have certainly helped hundreds of thousands if not millions of job candidates around the world land the job of their dreams.  The reality is, however, that jobs are more competitive than ever before and the traditional interview is changing, especially in the startup world.  You’re not going to land the perfect job by just having a solid resume anymore, you need to find ways to differentiate yourself. 

Throughout my career, I’ve learned, first hand, that the best resumes don’t always win.  The people who win interviews, more often than not, are the ones who run through walls to demonstrate that they’re deeply passionate about the role and the company.  They go the extra mile.  The winners track down colleagues and acquaintances who are connected to the company and hiring managers.  They also send catchy and convincing emails like the one that Tristan sent to Dennis and Naveen.  Most importantly, they bring gifts to the interview and shower the hiring manager with confidence.  What do I mean by that?

Gifts, in an interviewing context, are the things that resumes will never be able to communicate.  They’re the ideas, the relationships, the execution, the intangibles that are impossible to capture on paper.  There are a variety gifts that a candidate can bring along to an interview and here are some of them based on my experience.

• Be a power user: Over the weekend, I was enjoying a cold beer with “Mike Karnj” Founder and CEO of Skillshare, and he explained that he would rather hire one of his teachers or community members over a random candidate.  “You know they’re already passionate about the product and engaged with the community which is a huge advantage, he told me.”

• Come with prospects: If you’re in Business Development or Sales and interviewing for a role, you should prepare a high level sales plan, develop a target customer list, and be prepared to make introductions to high quality prospects.  In the last four months, I’ve seen several startups hire VPs of Business Development who brought customers in the door during the interview process. That’s how competitive it is our there. In fact, when I was going through the Lerer Ventures interview loop, I connected the partners with several entrepreneurs who weren’t on the firm’s radar. 

• Share fresh ideas: When prepping for an interview a candidate should spend at least twelve hours studying the company, the market and the product.  Seriously. It takes that much time and more. At the conclusion of this deep dive, you should have a solid understanding of what the company does well, where they need to improve, how they’re vulnerable and a sense of what the short-and long-term strategy should be.  You should then pull together a handful of PowerPoint slides which includes an analysis of the product / business and provides actionable recommendations.  This will demonstrate to the hiring manager how you think about their business.  You’d be shocked how few candidates actually do this.

• Demo your work: Come prepared to show your demos, code, and / or portfolio of work.  Paper and ink can’t and will never be able to bring your past projects to life (unless you’re Steve Jobs), so compile your best work and let it stand on its own.

• Offer a free trial: Following the interview, ask the hiring manager if you can help him or her with a small project to demonstrate your competencies.  For example, when I was interviewing for my role at The Kraft Group, I asked Mr. Kraft and Jonathan if I could analyze an investment to show off my skills.  Without much haggling, they agreed.  The opportunity that I analyzed and recommended was Quattro Wireless which was acquired by Apple last year. 

• Become fluent: Learn how to speak their language.  For example, Zynga works in “Zynga time” and there are hundreds of other examples.  I particularly liked this post by Adam Ludwin who touches upon this point.

If you take anything away from this blog post, do everything in your power throughout the interview process to prove that you can do the job better than anyone else starting immediately.  Show you can deliver value even before you leave your first interview. If you’re successful in doing this, the hiring manager will have confidence in you and you’ll make the hiring decision more difficult.  As you can see from above, there are many different gifts (and probably many more) that you can offer to separate yourself from the pack.  The next time you’re gunning for your dream job, bring gifts and you’ll be at an advantage.  Good luck!