This document provides an overview of venture capital from the perspective of Will Cardwell, who has experience as an education CEO, partner at various venture capital firms, and board member and advisor. It discusses how venture capital firms are structured, what venture capitalists do, and compares venture capital activity in Finland to Israel. It also discusses lessons for enabling outlier startup success based on examples from Israel's ecosystem.

1. Will.Cardwell@Aalto.Fi
Venture Capital:
A Practioners View
For UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

2. My Experience
EDUCATION CEO / PARTNER/ DIRECTOR
BOARD-MEMBER ADVISOR / INVESTMENT BANKER
Bedford Hills, Linkhorne School,
EC Glass, Davidson College,
Aalto School of Economics,
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill,
Aalto School of Science and Technology
LTT-Research Finance Institute,
Eqvitec Advisors/Robertson Stephens,
Eqvitec VenturePartners,
Valimo Wireless, Conor Venture Partners,
Technopolis Ventures, ACE
Valimo Wireless, Smartner/Seven,
Frends, Rissa Communications, TIVIT,
Amcham, TEKEL, Finnish Mobile
Association, Center for Internet
Excellence, NS Sports Management,
Technopolis Ventures
F-Secure, Iobox, Codetoys, Digia,
Solid, Footbalance, Microtask,
several ongoing
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3. Entrepreneurship
Research
Entrepreneurship
Education
Innovation Services
and Technology
Transfer
Growth
Venturing and
Start-Up Services
What is ACE Today ?
Note
Combo of
Academic
And
Practice!

4. 0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
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1999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011
Annual IPR Licences
5
7
10 10 10
7
4
5
11
14
0
2
4
6
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10
12
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2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Spin outs
50
66
80
89
110
180
4
12 13
7
22
45
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Inventions
priority applications
Invention Disclosures
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TKK08 MIT08 TODAI08 Yissum08 Aalto 2011
IP activity benchmarks
Inventions/100
researchers
priority filings/100
researchers
ACE Innovation Services today and tomorrow *
* This is ”Practice” part and it is Critical to future of Finland and must be
resourced accordingly!!

5. How VC Firms are Structured
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6. What Venture Capitalists Do
Fundraising
Proprietary Dealflow
Process / Screen Dealflow
Close Attractive Deals
Manage / Develop Portfolio Companies |
Attract Follow-on Investors
Exit Companies
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7. VC within Course Framework
7
# ’s equal importance in VC

8. Summary of Finnish high-tech company
capital raising activity – Q32010
• Finnish high-tech companies
announced raising nearly €30 million
of risk capital during Q3 of 2010.
• The quarterly amount was
comparable to Q3 2009, when
Finnish high-tech companies were
able to attract around €29 million
euros of financing.
• The amount of investments remained
equivalent to the prior year’s Q3
activity, however, the average
investment size in Q3 2008 was
significantly smaller
TECHNOPOLIS PLC 30
January 2015
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0
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4
6
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0 €
5 €
10 €
15 €
20 €
25 €
30 €
35 €
2008 2009 2010
Millions
Yearly Q3 Comparison - Investor Types
Angel
International
Domestic
#

9. A Comparison: Israel
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10. Great Finnish Stories in Outlier and
Black Swan Framework
• Defies Prediction
• Makes a Massive Impact
• We make up Explanations
Afterward
Have we ever had any, and
why are they so important today?
• Endowed with an unfair
advantange.
• Extreme practice and work

11. 1. The Counter-Intuitive Reality of the Black Swan
Link11

12. 2. On Risk-taking and Failure…
• Ecosystem: promotes
pioneering spirit embracing
uncertainty, risk-taking and
tolerating failure
• Entrepreneur: You must not
fail! (but its OK if you do,
keep trying!)
You just cannot have a Plan B !!Link Link
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13. 3. On Youth and Energy…
• Ecosystem: Attract founders,
who are ideally young, energetic
and possibly migrants, and
support them patiently
• Entrepreneur: Start early!
Universities will probably drive
the next Black Swan. And,
DON’T BE PATIENT!
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14. Company Foundation Founder Age
Microsoft 1975 Bill Gates 20
Microsoft 1975 Paul Allen 22
Oracle 1977 Larry Ellison 33
Apple 1976 Steve Jobs 21
Apple 1976 Steve Wozniak 26
Cisco 1984 Len Bosack 29
Cisco 1984 Sandra Lerner 29
Sun 1982 Vinod Khosla 27
Sun 1982 Bill Joy 28
Sun 1982 Andy Bechtolsheim 26
Google 1998 Larry Page 25
Google 1998 Sergey Brin 25
eBay 1995 Pierre Omidyar 28
eBay 1995 Jeff Skoll 30
Yahoo 1995 David Filo 29
Yahoo 1995 Jerry Yang 27
Netscape 1994 Marc Andreesen 23
Intel 1968 Robert Noyce 41
Intel 1968 Andy Grove 32
Amazon 1994 Jeff Bezos 30
HP 1939 Bill Hewlett 26
HP 1939 David Packard 27
Dell 1984 Michael Dell 19
Founder Company Age
Hasso Plattner SAP 28
Dietmar Hopp SAP 32
Hans-Werner Hector SAP 32
Klaus Tschira SAP 32
Francis Bernard Dassault >36
Pier Luigi Zappacosta Logitech 30
Daniel Borel Logitech 30
Bernard Liautaud Business Objects 27
Denis Payre Business Objects 27
Jamie Urquhart ARM 32
Mike Muller ARM 31
Tudor Brown ARM 31
André Auberton-Hervé Soitec 31
Jean-Michel Lamure Soitec 44
James Collier CSR 40
Glenn Collison CSR 35
Mike Lynch Autonomy 31
Richard Gaunt Autonomy 28
Marc Lassus Gemplus 49
Daniel Le Gal Gemplus 37
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15. aaltovg.com
twitter.com/
aaltogarage

16. 4. On Customers…
• Ecosystem: Willing customers
participate in trial and error
process with innovators.
• Entrepreneur: Get out of the
office all the time – live and
breathe with customers.
And customers:
if you don’t pay,
you are part of
the product or
service, act like
it!
Link16

17. 5a. On Teams
• Ecosystem: Freedom offered to
talent who should not be
snatched from start-ups. Talent
(and capital!) MUST be mobile!
• Entrepreneur: Bring in the best
wherever they come from (and
many will come from abroad!)
Link
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18. 5b. On Teams
18
Link

19. 6a. On Pricing Technologies
Link

20. 6b. On Pricing Technologies
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Link

21. 7. On How to be a VC
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Link

22. What are we trying to do at ACE to
enable this?
• A Deep International Network
– Bring world-class lecturers, practitioners and students IN
– Send our community OUT to global hotspots.
• Support REGULAR bootcamps and events around key
themes
• Create winning IP strategies
• Raise the overall IMAGE of Growth Entrepreneurship
• Collaborate fluently with our national and regional
ecosystem!
• Get great ideas into the market FAST!
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23. Select Spin-offs and Start-Ups from Aalto
University
Some Past
Start-Ups
Hybrid Graphics
F-Secure
Sulake
Rovio
Solid
… many others

24. Any Ideas? Invented Something?
Contact us directly:
Will Cardwell, Head, 040 514 1325
Pauli Laitinen, Innation Services team leader, 050 338 0509
Or looked at: http://ace.aalto.fi
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