The troubled future of startups and innovation
Details
Despite years of hype about startups and the technologies they have tried to commercialize, today's startup Unicorns compare poorly to ones founded before 2000 such as Amazon and Google. They are taking longer to become profitable, and their share price changes lag the Nasdaq. Smartphone apps may be cheap to commercialize but they don't provide the productivity benefits that semiconductors and networking equipment once did. Startups in other technology sectors are experiencing troubled times too.
What are the reasons for this slowdown in productivity improvements and the poor performance of startups? Is this a sign that breakthrough technologies aren't available? Are major changes needed in the management of innovation?
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To register for this event, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pl8jk9ILQtG1B--GC6K-OA
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This 90 minute London Futurists live Zoom webinar features Professor Jeffrey Funk, a consultant in the economics of technology and associated business models. Jeffrey is based in Singapore, where he taught at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Previously he taught in Japan at the University of Kobe and the University of Hitosubashi. See https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jeffrey-funk-a979435/
Jeffrey's career has focused on how new technologies emerge and diffuse. During the late 1990s he was one of the first to recognize the potential for smart phones in Japan. He was recommending to mobile service providers that they should focus on apps long before the iPhone was released in 2007.
After he moved to NUS, he taught a unique course on the economics of new technologies that can be found on his slideshare account Funk98. The course and the supporting research present a methodology that could have helped entrepreneurs and investors avoid many of the loss-making businesses that currently comprise today’s startup bubble. For instance, it identified the challenges for ride sharing, electric vehicles, and driverless vehicles. It also proposed alternative designs for them, still relevant today.
Jeffrey is currently completing a book entitled "The Superficial Entrepreneur: Falling science, Declining tech, Rising hype and Misleading Narratives."
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During this webinar the following panellists will also be offering their feedback and insights:
*) Gyanee Dewnarain, independent consultant in innovation and strategy, who has previously held senior roles at Gartner, Orange Business Services, and Tizen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gyanee/
*) Miguel Marcos Martinez, a VP in IT at a major international bank, who has led innovative IT projects in the finance industry starting from the early days of the WWW in the mid-90s and was a member of one of the first bank-funded venture fund for FinTech startups - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/miguel-angel-marcos-martinez-9456ab1a
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Optional reading ahead of the webinar:
*) "What’s Behind Technological Hype" - https://issues.org/behind-technological-hype/
*) "Where have all the profitable startups gone" - https://mindmatters.ai/2020/05/where-have-all-the-profitable-startups-gone/
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The webinar will start broadcasting at 2pm UK time on Sat 18th July. To find this time in other timezones, you can use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20200718T130000&p1=136
You are advised to log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the publicised start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.
As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.
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To register for this event, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pl8jk9ILQtG1B--GC6K-OA
A small fee (UKP £2.50) is being charged to register for this event, in order to help offset the costs incurred by London Futurists with the Zoom and Meetup software.
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For a mirror of this announcement on Facebook, see https://www.facebook.com/events/1804565006352468/