Since 1990, I have been teaching venture capital strategies in MBA programmes in Canada and Europe .   This part of the web-site is based on materials used in that activity.  The companies cited are cited as examples of interesting business models or strategies for the commercialization of technology.   In the venture capital memos section, there is a weekly update on a trend or business model considered worth investigating.   

                In this section:

               Investing in agricultural productivity: INVESTING IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND FOOD SECURITY: THE NEXT INTERNET FOR VENTURE CAPITALISTS.                

               Rotman Lecture -January 2008: VENTURE CAPITAL STRATEGIES: GLOBAL TRENDS 2008 INCINERATION, INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, INSTRUMENTATION
Investing in Sustainability and Turning Resilience into a Venture Capital Category..   
               

               Rotman Lecture - April 2007: KOREAN DIGITAL HAGWONS (“CRAMMING SCHOOLS”) AND TURNING ALGAE INTO ENERGY.   

               The Segway seeks a market was the introductory class in venture capital strategies in the 2004 academic year.   

                Rechargeable Batteries was an attempt to introduce issues of commercialization to a group of graduate students in the life sciences at McGill in 2003.

                Flying Squirrels was a lecture given tot the MBA class at McGill in 2004 that tried to move a discussion of investing in health sciences and life sciences away from an exclusive focus on biotechnology to look at other areas of potential investment. 

              Flywheels and the Next Sony Walkman   was developed for a lecture at Rotman in December 2005

.             An Investment Portfolio for Alternate Energy was a lecture presented at Haskayne Business School in Calgary in March 2006.                                                                               

                 A new piece on "Teaching Entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan and Angola" has been added as a venture capital memo on July 11, 2006.   It is a paper on ways entrepreneurial activities can be addressed in emerging capital markets, including resource-rich economies with an opportunity to develop sustainable prosperity and broader innovation.  

                In many instances, web-links are given.  Companies are cited as examples and, on occasion, a company in which I or a fund with which I am associated may have an investment interest.

                The venture capital memos are an attempt to capture trends that reflect new inventive sources in a now-global market of invention and new investment trends driving the next generation of venture capital investors.