From Semiconductors to Green Power: Borrego CEO Mike Hall (Part 3)

SM: How long were you able to take advantage of the beneficial AdWords pricing? MH: Within four or five months people started realizing that Borrego Solar was advertising there so they figured they should, too.

From Semiconductors to Green Power: Borrego CEO Mike Hall (Part 2)

SM: So you had a perspective for your search for a green economy job. MH: Exactly. It’s funny because in 2001, my brother and the original founder of Borrego Solar had re-incorporated the company and moved it to San Diego where they tried to grow the business.

From Semiconductors to Green Power: Borrego CEO Mike Hall (Part 1)

Mike Hall serves as CEO and board member for Borrego Solar Systems, Inc. Mike has been with Borrego Solar since 2002. Prior to joining the company, he worked as a product development engineer for Applied Materials in Santa Clara. He holds a MS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Chemical Engineering

Read Full Article »

The Future Of Venture Capital: Trinity Ventures Partner Gus Tai (Part 7)

SM: What is the future of venture capital? GT: It will go back to its roots. It will be a smaller industry with fewer firms practicing it as a craft. There will be smaller fund sizes. I do not believe there is evidence that venture capital is an industry that scales.

The Future Of Venture Capital: Trinity Ventures Partner Gus Tai (Part 6)

SM: A third major area in which I would like to see leadership is in education. What do you think needs to happen for that momentum to build up? GT: We are seeing innovation on education in two fronts. One innovation trend in education is the notion of crowdsourcing education in modules.

The Future Of Venture Capital: Trinity Ventures Partner Gus Tai (Part 5)

SM: There was a time when VCs stepped into uncharted territory even though they did not understand the risks. The disruptive potential made all the risk worth it. Today, if we need to break open new areas of potential, my guess is that they will be in territories which require cross-domain innovation. That will require

Read Full Article »

The Future Of Venture Capital: Trinity Ventures Partner Gus Tai (Part 4)

SM: Since the dot-com crash we have seen a few different things come together. The SaaS market has really developed, and the Web 2.0 and cleantech markets have also developed. SaaS and Web 2.0 are not capital intensive areas which have had a lot of investment while cleantech is very capital intensive. What is your

Read Full Article »

The Future Of Venture Capital: Trinity Ventures Partner Gus Tai (Part 3)

SM: You are a $300 million fund, but is your structure a standard 2 + 20? GT: We don’t discuss the actual structure of our fund, but it is identical to our historical structure. When we started, [we were] circulating the idea that we would raise Trinity 10 with an identical focus to our other

Read Full Article »