“Dare to change the world,” Bill Reichert intoned to the crowd of young Russian entrepreneurs who attended the BIT finale. The US venture capitalist came to Moscow a few days before to sign a partnership agreement with Moscow business incubator Digital October. He shared his impressions of the event with East-West Digital News.
From a veteran Californian point of view, what do you think of the innovative level of the projects presented here?
We have seen an extraordinary increase and improvement in the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Russia over just the last few years. It’s been amazing in terms of quality and quantity of companies starting up here. I think they’re closing the gap.
There are still things that need to be done because a lot of entrepreneurs here have not had the full exposure to the global technology environment. A lot of them are still pursuing mainly what they know – which is Russia.
This was part of the point of the “Art of Going Global” workshop we put on yesterday to help entrepreneurs broaden their horizons. For us particularly at Garage, our goal is to find companies that come up with global changing technologies that we can help by funding growth on the US as well as on the Russian market.
Among the thirteen BIT finalists, which projects do think could expand on the US market?
Some technologies are very interesting but still need to develop a global business plan.
I am very impressed by Maxygen, the genomics technology that derives better predictive diagnostic information from genomic database information.
The exoskeleton company presented an extremely intriguing technology. We’ve seen projects like that in the United States and in New Zealand, so it will be interesting to see how this one works out.
All this shows that technology is evolving rapidly and globally. The diffusion of technology around the world is accelerating at an unbelievable pace. The good news for all of us is that it should accelerate the pace of progress. On the other hand the challenge for entrepreneurs is that they need to understand that they are not just competing with other companies here in Moscow or even in Russia – they’re competing with companies around the world.
• Bill Reichert has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and an operating executive. Since joining Garage Technology Ventures in 1998, Bill has focused on early-stage information technology and materials science companies. He sits on the Boards of CaseStack, WhiteHat, ClearFuels, cFares, and ThermoCeramix. Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology startups, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. Bill earned a B.A. at Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a founding board member and a Chairman of the Churchill Club, and a Charter Member of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Currently he is the Chairman of the Small Fund Roundtable of the VC Taskforce and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
