The Next Big Thing in Technology

The next big thing in technology: What is it and how to find it?

Technological innovation has always been the key to tackling numerous problems facing the humanity. In today’s globalized world, many problems are interdisciplinary, cross-boundary and unprecedented. Entrepreneurs use data-led, technology-based and innovation-driven methods to think further on improving the quality of life for all. Seaman Chan and Hendrick Lee, both graduates of Stanford University, have rich experiences investing in and managing start-ups. They co-founded Palm Drive Ventures, a company that provides both financial and entrepreneurial assistance to new firms. It also aims to bring capital, expertise and networking across the Pacific Ocean between China and the USA. They are here to share their knowledge on investment and entrepreneurship.

Hendrick began by giving two factors that are critical to driving the change in today’s world, namely technology and globalization. He said that entrepreneurs are exploring the answer to the question – “what is the next big problem that we can solve with the technology in a global scale?” It seems that the history does not repeat itself and we would not see another “Uber” or “Facebook”. For example in China, the focus should be to explore new fields other than social networks and e-commerce. Hendrick and Seaman then presented three cases to show that history does rhyme for us to see a pattern.

Case 1: Company Name: Spire Spire uses numerous satellites, or “a constellation of satellites” to monitor the activities on Earth. The information collected by the satellites can then been sold to interested clients for various purposes. Seaman even claimed that in March last year, little information was known about the flight path or eventual location of the “disappeared” MH370. This could be solved better if there are numerous satellites roaring around the earth, monitoring the human activities more closely. Seaman and Hendrick believe that the news industry, including information and data can important areas that start-ups could tap on to improve the quality of today’s life.

Case 2: Company Name: Lucid Real estate, a key building block of economy in both the USA and China, drives financial investment and economic growth. However, fixed properties were also understood to contribute significantly to global warming by wasting energy and emitting carbon dioxide. Seaman and Hendrick presented the case of Lucid, a company that design software tools to track energy uses in physical buildings. They believed that Lucid will have a huge market potential in Asian countries like China, in which building industry is exponentially growing. Furthermore, energy efficiency is a critical topic in all societies. Companies like Lucid are trying to use technological tools, whether hardware or software, to improve efficiency, which in turns drives growth and innovation.

Case 3: Company Name: Luna Luna designs a tiny device that could track people’s physical features such as body temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate during sleeping. People could then use the collected information to analyze sleeping habits and sleeping patterns, in turn to maximize sleeping efficiency. The device could probably cure insomnia as well. Companies like Luna are inventing new tools to improve people’s life by focusing on personal healthcare or medical conditions. There are also many other that could be done.

From the above three cases, we could possibly see a trend. There is always a problem, whether social or personal, identified in the first place. Technology, innovation and data then come to solve the problem. This whole process of recognizing problems, organizing a company, coming up with solution and launching the solution in the real life, constitute the basics of entrepreneurship.

Seaman and Hendrick went on to give another example that they are thinking about – trust. Trust is the building block for society to function well. They are working on to use technology to increase trust in the society. Hendrick cited the example of “trust machine”, for which people feel that they have to behave honestly because all their information is encrypted online and could never be erased. This creates trust in the sense that people are more trustworthy and honest in their conduct.

Hendrick and Seaman also gave their advice on start-ups. They believe that founders must have a clear business model to follow, be metrics-driven and user satisfaction-driven, and able to execute the business and solution well with the help of personal experiences or external mentorship. They believe investors’ confidence would significantly influence the growth and success of start- ups. Furthermore, in terms of sourcing start-ups for investment, or assessing their performance, investors should be well connected with insiders of the fields and be well informed of the start-ups’ potential and performance.

Our guest speakers concluded the presentation by quoting from Abraham Lincoln, that “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” I believe that we are inspired to embark on the journey of creating a better future for all humanity with the empowerment of technology.

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