Wei Ji - Reinventing Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation

Now what?  The country has its new president (elect), the economy is correcting itself, (sorry, you’re right, it’s contracting itself), and all the corrupt managers who played with my home mortgage, my friend’s student loan, and your job, are going to be prosecuted soon (a growing economy for the lawyers, accountants, and prison services). But, how does this impact my future and my dreams: innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital.  Frankly, it doesn’t. When I graduated with a bachelor degree in computer science, the year was 2001, and the situation was no different.  Consumer confidence was low, and investor confidence, lower.  Several venture capitalists weren’t quite the vultures we thought them to be, since some of them hid in their holes and avoided me like plague.  Okay, that is an exaggeration, but I was a first time entrepreneur, starting a company based on the best research out of my university, with my two best friends and no money.  I had my dream, my vision, and fire in the belly, and frankly, the economy did not affect me much.  Or at least that is what I thought when I decided to take the plunge and give into my dreams: innovation, and entrepreneurship.  Regardless of the outcome of my entrepreneurial endeavors, the one thing that I learned then, which I want to impart now, is the power of passion, persistence, and conviction. With these three aides by your side, you can reinvent the world to be yours, and emerge victorious, happy, and have a lot of fun.  And this is the point of this year’s MIT Venture Capital Conference.

Of course, you are much like me, interested in entrepreneurship and venture capital.  That is why you are spending your time reading me blog for the first time on MIT’s website. You are an innovator and a solution finder, and you want to know how the new world that you find yourself in is going to affect you.  Fear not my friends. You can learn to reinvent the ways in which one operates and respond to the rules of the new world, by creating your own.  The one who does this, and does this with passion, persistence, and conviction, will soon create and ride the new opportunities that these financial and economic challenges have created.  Innovators, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists are once again coming to the rescue, redefining the rules of the game, and adapting themselves to “rebound the missed shot and and dunk again!”

Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs know how to create new solutions for you, me, and everybody else.  That is what they have done for over a century (especially in our backyard in New England, where venture capital was born and the nexus of entrepreneurship continues to flourish). At the 11th MIT Venture Capital Conference, we will see how these venture capitalists and entrepreneurs (most venture capitalists are entrepreneurs and most entrepreneurs become venture capitalists, so in many ways we are talking about them as being one and the same), will now, once again, revisit the ways in which they operated until yesterday, and create new ways to operate from tomorrow.

At the outset, a Keynote panel of leading venture capitalists from firms that have developed and defined several industries, from high tech to life sciences, clean tech to retail, US to Vietnam,  will pause, and revisit: they will delve into their historic victories and lessons from failures, and reinvent the way they must now do business.  When the game changes, so must your rules, strategies and tactics. 

The new government may bring about several regulatory changes (oh, they must), but how will this affect you, the entrepreneur and the investor? The government has almost become the third wheel in fostering or dampening entrepreneurship and businesses, and we must discuss, with them on the panel, on how to navigate through their new landscape, cooperate with them, and have them cooperate with us. 

There is a lot that America can learn from other countries (even if the collapse of America now means a collapsing domino effect in several other countries), on how they did it.  Countries such as India, with less than twenty years of open economy, and income, education, and infrastructure, below feasible limits, have established business conglomerates such as Tata, Reliance, and Pantaloons, which have created products, services, and industries of giant scale and profits.  We will hear and learn from Dr. Jamshed J Irani, an icon and Director of Tata Sons (the parent company of 96 Tata companies, including the emerging Tata Nano – the $2,000 car that you all want to hear about), on how the Tata Group has created the finest steel industry, finest five star hotels (including our very own Taj Boston), and will now revive Jaguar within India, and around the globe.  As entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, we can collaborate with the Tata Group and reinvent our ways together.

The fun will not stop here, as we will close the panel discussions on Reinventing Venture Capital, by striking the cords with the founders of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, who have provided much needed fun and relaxation for several of us with their video games and entertainment products. We will learn how the founders created, developed, and profited from their entrepreneurial visions, and have them lead our way to an Entrepreneur Showcase of other innovations, and start-ups.  These entrepreneurs are all set to revive our economies and our spirits.

Failing economies and financial crisis is for those who cannot reinvent their ways, and who succumb to the pressures with panic and loss of confidence.  Innovators, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists have always, and will again, come to our rescue; the undeterred, and unmatched, solution finders for our country and our globe.

When all else fails, remember: passion, persistence, and conviction, and revisiting the old, and creating the new, will, definitely, make you emerge victorious.  I hear that Wei Ji is a word in Chinese, which means both opportunity and crisis – and this is our Wei Ji, so make the most of it.  Have fun.