We’ve started another crazy quarter with startups, technology, and bright, ambitious students. To kick off this undoubtedly crazy, yet ultimately fulfilling quarter, Shai Goldman came in to speak of his experiences at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Shai is a director at SVB capital, which according to their website “SVB Financial Group has worked hand in hand with the Venture Capital community since inception. We understand their business and are committed to partnering with this community to do whatever it takes to add value and achieve success. The Venture Capital Relationship Management team establishes and strengthens strategic business relationships with the venture capital and private equity community.”
We were very excited to have him come in because he has a breadth of knowledge about the financial industry, and an unrivaled depth of knowledge about the Venture Capital. As is typical of our weekly speaker series, the students largely guided the conversation but Shai started off with a little bit about himself and taught us about the VC industry. As opposed to some other speakers, Shai’s talk focused around the motivations of Venture Captial and how it works. This was a very fresh digression from the startup angle that we have taken in the past.
You can download a very informative Harvard Business Review overview of the VC industry. Its lengthy but definitely worth while. HBS, Zider – How VC works
Most of our students are approaching graduation and understandably are wondering where to place themselves in this economy. The students asked Shai which industries they should concentrate on and what skills they need to develop.
Shai described some of the industries he is seeing growth in and encouraged our students to develop the technical skills or market knowledge to succeed in these industries:
- Clean Tech
- Software as a service
- Online Gifts
- Casual Gaming
- Social Apps
I’m very excited for the rest of this quarter and bringing in more speakers like Shai!
