San Jose, CA., – Speaking at the Ericsson Business Innovation Forum in San Jose, CA, Wednesday, Brian Wilcove a general partner at VC firm Sofinnova Ventures said a big change was happening in the world of telecoms.
“Instead of paying for minutes, we’re moving towards a model where we’re paying for apps,” he said noting that content had overtaken voice in terms of importance and value. As such, he said, VCs were seeing increased value in increasing investment in infrastructure firms, as it was only through enabling good networks that people could continue to have access to the content they want, everywhere at any time.
Wilcove also laid out what he sees as the key mobile mega-trends, namely apps, network evolution and data driving both hardware and software commoditization.
“It’s an app world. The world is transitioning to this notion of an app, this bit of functionality on your phone,” he said highlighting the statistic of half a million apps currently on the market with a whopping 10 billion downloads to date. “And thanks to Steve Jobs we’ve all become accustomed to paying for them,” he added.
By 2017, said Wilcove, each person alive will own an average of 1000 radios, which might sound impossible, but with the Internet of Things fast becoming a reality and projections of seven trillion devices serving seven billion people, including connected washing machines, cars and home automation systems, this is not a huge stretch.
In terms of what makes Silicon Valley such a unique environment for VC investment, Wilcove said the main component was the entrepreneurial culture that begins at a very early age, with kids in Silicon Valley schools already learning to set up their own businesses.
The second key factor is of course the rich ecosystem of companies and VCs in the area, which helps to foster the start-up nature and drive of the area.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, said Wilcove, is the ability of those in the region to remain optimistic no matter what. “It’s that ability to fail, dust yourself off and start again,” he said adding “when people come to me for investment, I fully expect them to have tried and failed before.”
