Investment Thesis: Warren Weiss (Part 2 – Final)

SM:What are your key investments and the rationale behind making those investments. This will help entrepreneurs understand how you process deals.

WW: Energy markets present great opportunity for using IT to lower costs and improve operations. In the 90s there were companies — such as CellNet — that spotted this trend ahead of its time. Now we are finally seeing new technologies gaining adoption. For example, Silver Spring Networks allows gas, electric and water utilities to replace old mechanical meters with a standards-based, two-way utility network infrastructure. These low-cost, high function network devices support the two way, real time control and monitoring of every aspect of the utility’s operation, enabling new operational enhancements and service initiatives. Opportunities for new breakout investments in the enterprise will continue, as long as they are driven by bold new innovations and serving real customer needs.

Lately, alternative fuels/ethanol have grabbed clean tech headlines, but there are other problems to solve using new technologies. Take produce. Consumers want food that is free of chemicals and natural. Here’s the rub — food that is not treated runs a greater chance of exposing consumers to environmental risks like E.coli or salmonella. Past outbreaks have included E.coli in Dole chopped lettuce in 2005 and salmonella in almonds.

We backed a company named Novazone, which provides ozone based purification. Its technology is used along the “food chain” from water used for irrigation, to the processing, to cold storage and transportation. Its customers include major producers of almonds, grapes, peaches, strawberries, peaches, as well as big brands like Pepsi Aquafina and P&G.

SM: Which VCs do you like to work with as part of a syndicate?
WW: We work with a number of top firms, including Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Mayfield, Norwest, Granite, DFJ, ComVentures.

SM: What is your thesis on entrepreneurial / investment opportunities given the state of the market? What markets are likely to crash? What markets are likely to open up?
WW: Typically, our goal is to start working with entrepreneurs early on, when they have a new idea or breakthrough technology, at the very early stages. By the time a number of companies chasing after the same space are on the scene, it’s typically too late to make an investment that will generate a solid return.

It’s always hard to speculate on markets, but I would say that (despite the success of companies like YouTube) there is a bubblish feeling to some of the Web 2.0 companies. Some are even saying that there is a clean tech bubble, but I would say that’s not the case given how many emerging technologies — from alternative fuels to solar to ozone purification — within it that are poised to take off.

This segment is part 2 - Final in the series : Investment Thesis: Warren Weiss
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