Strategic Insights on Venture Investors with David Beisel

Starting a new company is challenging, exhilarating and something you never forget. It can also be very rewarding. In 1999, David Beisel co-founded the email marketing company Sombasa Media. After a successful exit, he shifted in the the venture capital world, spending three years with Venrock. Nowadays, Beisel is co-founder and partner at NextView Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in internet-enabled startups. Beisel specializes in helping entrepreneurs build successful digital media and internet companies.

David Brin is recognized as one of the most iconic futurist fiction writers of our time. With huge bestsellers like “The Postman” (later turned into a movie starring Kevin Costner), David’s work explores the ramifications of human choices of our collective future.

Investments in artificial intelligence continued on an upward swing in 2016, following through on the technology's promise to disrupt how business is done across industries.

One of the most exciting aspects of the current entrepreneurial ecosystem is the opportunity to showcase your product or service at an event. Just a decade ago, there were few options in terms of events geared toward showcasing startup offerings, and finding a way to showcase your product was a real challenge. Today, so many different events exist that it can be hard for a startup to know which events will best allow them to showcase their product and connect with angel investors.

Episode Summary: Machine learning (ML) can be used to identify objects and pictures or help steer vehicles, but is not best suited for text-based AI applications says Robbie Allen, founder of Automated Insights.