Friday, December 29, 2017
Reflections On 2017: John Greathouse, Rincon Venture Partners
During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions from Southern California's "movers and shakers" in the technology industry. Here, we feature the contribution of John Greathouse, an investor with Rincon Venture Partners and Professor Of Practice at UC Santa Barbara, where he teaches courses on New Venture Creation and Entrepreneurial Sales.
What was the big news for your company this year?
Our third fund made some intriguing investments during the year (Postie, Nordsense, LiftIgniter and Qordoba) and we're now out of our investment phase. It's nice to be able to solely focus on nurturing our portfolio companies.
What was the biggest personal lesson you learned from 2017?
Reconciling that some folks are just not good people. Sounds harsh, but I've realized that I tend to naively confuse friendships with business relationships of convenience. Even at my age, I'm still have some emotional maturing ahead of me.
What are you looking forward to most in 2018?
As noted above, I'm excited to spend time that previously went to vetting new deals on making our portfolio companies more prosperous. I will also become more involved in the Santa Barbara startup ecosystem, now that I am no longer vetting deals up and down the CA coast. SaaSification of legacy sw solutions is approaching its peak, with the remaining areas to be exploited fairly nichey. As such, I'm also looking forward to helping non-SaaS Founders, which has been my primary focus for the past 15-years.
Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that particularly caught your eye in 2017?
I'm excited by some of the deep tech generated by UCSB, which has resulted in such companies as Apeel Sciences, Aurrion (acquired by Juniper) and Calient (acquired by Suzhou Chunxing Precision Mechanical Co.). After working in adTech and SaaS for a long time, the prospect of going back to my deep-tech roots (Computer Motion, acquired by Intuitive Surgical) is invigorating.
Finally, what is your prediction for what will have the biggest impact on the technology industry in 2018?
I'm not much of a soothsayer, but I do enjoy reading folks who are good at it, such as Tim Urban, author of Wait But Why? As he articulates nicely, the transition from AI that is vertically focused to AI that is horizontal will change the fundamental way most people on the planet live (hopefully, for the better). In the interim, lots of value will be created by entrepreneurs who apply AI in a value-added way to "dumb verticals," much in the way SaaS entrepreneurs knocked down one legacy software vertical, after another, during the past decade.
John Greathouse has held a number of senior positions with successful startups and has been a Venture Capitalist for the past decade. At Computer Motion and GoToMeeting, John spearheaded transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including Computer Motion's initial public offering and the sale of GoToMeeting to Citrix. He is a Professor Of Practice at UC Santa Barbara, where he teaches courses on New Venture Creation and Entrepreneurial Sales.