Singapore-MIT Alliance
Summer Conference 2003
- Agenda
- Speaker
- Photo Gallery
|
Speaker
Mr. Richard Oedel Managing Director of Brookwood Partners
Abstract "Great technology! — Great business?"
A couple of years ago, new businesses could launch and have a reasonable chance of success with a great technology and little business expertise. But no longer. The new crop of startup companies emerging today have great technology, great business models and people heading them who have successful track records in other companies. How do you compete with this sort of startup? How do you obtain funding with a tight or non–existent venture capital market, and what is the long–term prognosis for new companies sporting new technology? And more importantly, is this a business or is this a technology that is best exploited using an already existing business platform? Far too many technology–driven startups do not answer these questions until late in the birthing process, and most do not survive the first year. This discussion focuses on minimizing risks, realistically evaluating the technology/business opportunities, evaluating your own suitability to run a business, and quantifying the current financial climate for technology based startups.
Biography Richard Oedel is the Managing Partner of Brookwood Partners, a venture capital partnership focused on very early stage startups with high technology content and solid business models. As an angel investor in the startup community, he has coached and mentored CEO's and potential CEO's through the startup process. As CEO of Spir–it Inc, an international manufacturer of foodservice disposables, he has acquired, grown and sold businesses over the past 20 years. An early advocate of Lean Manufacturing techniques, Oedel ran open–book companies and developed modifications to lean technologies that improved profitability beyond what was attainable with zero–inventory–level manufacturing, and in late 1998 he sold off all of his manufacturing–related business. Harvard Business School currently teaches a case about Spir–it to their second year students. In addition, Oedel is on the board of several companies in the New England area, and is on the board of several startups, several medium–sized businesses, and most importantly, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
|