The document explores the strategies and successes of prominent venture capital firms, including DFJ Frontier, Index Ventures, and Sierra Ventures, focusing on their investment approaches and portfolio companies within the IT industry. Key insights reveal that successful firms prioritize direct customer engagement, utilize extensive networks for strategic advantages, and support entrepreneurs beyond capital by offering insights and guidance. The analysis includes specific case studies involving companies like Audiomicro and Pentaho, highlighting the evolving landscape of technology and investment in innovative solutions.

1. Introduction
When we as a team began looking into the world of venture capital firms and the
portfolios they invest in, we were honestly a little overwhelmed. Where should we start?
What industry would we focus on? And what makes one venture capital firm more
successful than another? Research led us to a Barron's interview with co-founder of
Third Rock Ventures, Kevin Starr. When asked about his process and ideas relating to
customer relationships, Starr answered, “That’s another area where we’re different. We
really go after our customers” (Willoughby, 2013). This made sense. Through our
analysis of three venture firms as well as some of their portfolios, we concluded that the
VCs and portfolios chosen succeed because they directly reach out to their customer
segments in new and unique ways.
The following sections outline these firms and respective portfolio companies related to
the IT industry. After the VC and company discussion, we will compare and contrast the
VC firms and companies, examine research that supports and refutes our hypothesis,
and then finally explain what we concluded about our hypothesis and the main takeaway
that emerged from our analysis.
DFJ Frontier
DFJ Frontier is a Venture Capital firm with offices in L.A, Portland, Sacramento, and
Santa Barbara. Their search for portfolio companies is focused on industries such as:
Alternative Energy, Biotechnology, IT, Nanotechnology, and Software. They typically
invest in early stage technology companies on the West Coast. They are a part of the
DFJ network, “the most active venture capital organization on the planet”
(dfjfrontier.com). One characteristic of this venture capital firm that most certainly
leads to success is the fact that their team consists of investors who have also founded
and grown companies. This advantage helps them decide what portfolios to invest in
and allows them to provide support to help companies turn their ideas or technology
into a self-sustaining business with real value.
In an interview regarding the announcement of DFJ Frontier’s second fund, Managing
Director Scott Lenet describes the benefits of being associated with a large network like
DFJ. Having connections with such a vast, international association, consisting of funds
all over the world in 33 different cities, certainly has its perks,
“DFJ has done something very innovative in creating their network… We share
information with over 150 of our partners. We each run our own fund--DFJ Frontier
is different from DFJ in Menlo Park, and Different from DFJ Gotham in New York,
or DFJ Mercury in Texas. We each have our own funds, and set of partners with
different expertise--but we share our knowledge. One of the things that is really
helpful about the network, is before we do a deal, we check it with partners all over
the world, to see if they've seen similar companies. It's really important to be local for
entrepreneurs, when you're at the very beginning of a company's life. When an
entrepreneur calls up, and is interviewing a new candidate for Vice President of
Marketing--and asks you to come over on Thursday to interview them to see if you
like them too--it's helpful to not have to go get on a plane. You can just drop by and
help with those things.

2. The risk of being local is you have on blinders--you only see what is happening in
your own little community. That's the benefit of the DFJ network, you can be local
for the entrepreneur, but get the benefit of the global insight of everything that is
happening in the entrepreneurial ecosystem... If you see a company, and have seen
one or two similar firms, it may turn out that over the world each of our funds is
seeing one or two similar companies--which means there are 25 of these things. We
can tell whether they'll have a competitive advantage before we fund then.”
(socaltech.com, October, 2013). In other words, the key to DFJ Frontier’s continued
understanding of the markets (and success in the venture capital world) lies in their
constant research and outreach to partners in the DFJ network.
DFJ Frontier invests out of the DFJ Frontier Fund II. With fifty-five million dollars in
this fund (twice the amount in their first fund), they typically invests $100,000 to
$1,000,000 initially. They then reserve additional capital for follow-on investment “as
the company successfully achieves key milestones” (crunchbase.com- dfj frontier). An
example of this would be the portfolio company Predixion Software, which they have
invested in three times since 2010. They will also structure syndicates for companies
that require a larger initial capital infusion. Since 2010 DFJ Frontier has invested in
several portfolios including: Predixion Software (2013), Janrain (2013), Netpulse.
(2012), Big Frame. (2012), Mogreet (2012), Swink.tv. (2012), Seismic Games. (2012),
MomentFeed. (2011), Super Heat Games (2011), GameSalad (2011), Zadspace (2011),
AudioMicro (2011), Unsubscribe.com (2010), and SynapSense (2010). For the purposes
of this discovery-based analysis, we will focus on the AudioMicro portfolio later on.
Returning to the organization of the team at DJF Frontier, lets begin with a quote found
on their site, “The DFJ Frontier team is 100% committed to the success of the
entrepreneurs they back. They are supportive, loyal and incredibly helpful in helping
their companies focus on the objectives most critical to success” (dfjfrontier.com). David
Cremin serves as the Managing Director and is one of the founders. He leads fund
management, fundraising and portfolio management. He has helped lead investments
in over sixty companies and has raised over two-hundred million dollars in venture
money. As an entrepreneur, Cremin was the founder and CEO of Vis-à-Vis
Entertainment, a music publishing and digital media company. Before entering into the
business world, Cremin was a musician.
As early stage and seed investors, DFJ Frontier seeks out entrepreneurs right at the
beginning of their process, “You could be as early as--I have this idea, or I need to finish
my prototype, or need to commercialize or get my first couple of customers. That's the
stage where we get involved” (socaltech.com). They look for people who have the energy,
discipline, and courage to create something from nothing and the desire to work with
investment partners. They also provide much more than just capital. As an active Board
Member of your company, the professionals at DFJ Frontier help refine business plans,
recruit and interview key employees, identify and contact potential partners and
customers, secure additional funding as the company grows, and successfully manage
exit alternatives. Their experience with market trends related to their networking

3. capabilities, as well as their experience as entrepreneurs themselves, helps DFJ Frontier
find the right company (and people) when searching for investment potential.
AudioMicro
As technology advances, our world of opportunity continues to flourish. It is seemingly
integrated into every aspect of our lives. Whether you are making a phone call across
the world, uploading a new profile picture on Facebook, or turning on a light…
technology is there. To some, the development and evolution of the digital world can
appear to be double-edged. On the one hand, it has the potential to make our day-today lives much more manageable; simplifying and optimizing the tasks and activities
that we carry out on an ongoing basis. On the other hand, there are aspects of
technology that appear to be increasing in complexity, making it difficult to utilize it in
its full potential.
Ryan Born, Founder and CEO of AudioMicro, saw this gap and decided to capitalize on
the exposed opportunity. The beauty of AudioMicro is that it makes the process of
integrating media (such as stock music and sound effects) into projects a simple and
inexpensive task. Their library consists of nearly 300,000 sound effects, and over
65,000 royalty-free music selections from popular artists that are all available to
download and use. The uploaded material is not only from Grammy award-winning
artists, and hit TV shows… their collection also originates from the 300+ daily
submissions from various musicians worldwide (gigaom.com).
Although AudioMicro was initially bootstrapped by Born, a well-suited VC firm. DFJ
Frontier, recognized the potential of the company and chose to chip in. With the
additional $500,000 AudioMicro was able to grow to a whole new level. The company
quickly turned into an unmatched interface that allows regular people to access an
incredible tool. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional videographer, or a student
making a video for a class project… finding the perfect sound has never been more easily
accessible. This year, AudioMicro was named the second fastest growing media
company by Inc Magazine. Their success can be seen in their recent integration with
Microsoft Office. In addition, their uploaded tracks and effects can be heard on popular
stations such as CBS and the Discovery Channel. They have also been used in hit films
such as Braveheart, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Inglorious Bastards
(techcrunch.com).
There are other organizations in existence that provide similar services
(blogs.wsj.com). However, they are unable to match the simplicity and affordability of
AudioMicro. People around the world now have access to an incredible
resource. Through AudioMicro, it is easy and inexpensive to turn an assignment into a
creative, professionally sounding project (audiomicro.com).
As we will touch up later in our hypothesis, people want solutions quickly, but at times
do not know how to obtain them. More specifically towards music, AudioMicro satisfies
consumer needs by allowing them to quickly, yet efficiently create sounds and music
that sound professional and yet require hardly any prior experience. This holistic feature
demonstrates why a VC firm such as DFJ would be interesting in the first place,
knowing that AudioMicro’s service solves a need at a fast pace.
Index Ventures

4. Index Ventures is a Venture Capital firm based in Geneva, Switzerland with offices in
Jersey, France, London, England, and since 2011, San Francisco, California. Neil Rimer,
David Rimer, and Giuseppe Zocco founded Index Ventures in 1996 and the firm
participates in seed, early growth stage investments in information technology and life
sciences companies. Index Ventures invests in companies in Europe and the United
States, and despite its headquarters in Geneva, is known as having very strong relations
to the Silicon Valley networks. Since its founding in 1996 the firm has evolved seven
funds that have totaled $3.2 Billion. The most well-known Index portfolio companies
include Dropbox, Skype, and SoundCloud.
Index Ventures consists of 15 partners and just over 40 employees total that work very
closely to grow the portfolio companies in which they invest. The partners and
employees of Index Ventures have a unique and effective approach to success, it states:
“Many venture firms would be best described as a collection of free agents who
pursue their own deals and share offices and overhead with their partners. They are
more mercenary than missionary and will tell you to focus more on the individual
partners and less on the partnership. We hope to have the opportunity to show you
how we are different.
We are true partners who have built our own firm together, brick by brick; the same
way you are building your company. When we commit to supporting your company,
each and every partner in our firm commits to contributing his or her network,
creativity and resources towards achieving your success. We are big believers in the
power of teams” (indexventures.com- approach).
The collectiveness amongst all levels of the firm allows for a cohesive bond that
strengthens itself and the companies in which it invests. Without this structure the
company, that is based in Europe and regularly performs business in three different
continents, would surely crumble. Instead Index Ventures is a symbol of global
prosperity in the entrepreneurial world.
Currently, Index Ventures is investing out of Growth Fund II: $700M (6/2012), Life
Sciences Fund: $200M (3/2012), and Fund VI: $420M (6/2012). The investments are
made in Europe, with focus in Berlin, London, and Stockholm, as well as Israel, and the
United States with focuses in New York City and San Francisco. The firm typically
invests between $3M and $10M but can sometimes invest as little as $500,000 in
smaller or unproven companies. In very early-stage startups Index Ventures has
invested between $1M and $2M, yet seeks to invest between $10M and $20M over the
life of an investment. The target market size that Index Ventures seeks to invest is above
$1B, and Index always seeks to hold a Board of Directors position in each of its portfolio
companies. Index Ventures is interested in control of the company this way as opposed
to an equity control buyout (crunchbase.com - index-ventures).
The reason Index Ventures invests in its portfolio companies is for great business
opportunity, but also because these companies have a chance to change the world. The
purpose for practicing is stated as, “We believe you will want an investor with whom you
can build a close, supportive relationship over a number of years, yet who will be bold
enough to challenge your thinking and your expectations” (indexventures.comapproach).

5. Index Ventures has the ability to reach a large number of people and if the firm feels the
idea or practice that the business produces is worthy of the opportunity to reach these
people, it will provide adequate capitalization to do so. Index Ventures understands the
powers it holds and looks to embrace the cultivation of revolutionary ideas and products
that will shape daily life and interaction.
Pentaho
Pentaho is an open source business intelligence company that received Series A, B, and
C funding from Index Ventures in the years 2005, 2006, and 2012, respectively. Pentaho
focuses on powerful and efficient computing for business analytics including diverse and
big data. Pentaho is currently in over 185 countries and has been deployed to over 1,000
commercial customers. Pentaho uses a subscription business model that has proven to
grow the company while still satisfying customer needs at an affordable price
(crunchbase.com- pentaho). The company was started in 2004 by five co-founders and
is now headquartered in Orlando, Florida.
Pentaho focuses on delivering a modern, integrated platform that can analyze large
amounts of diverse data in a way that is simple, attractive, and accurate. The analyzed
data can be embedded into different programs and layouts that are embeddable and
cloud-ready. The program is implemented and established in customers’ companies fast
and easily. Pentaho offers support that business intelligence personnel takes for
granted. Pentaho does have some criticism for its simplicity in functionality. Because the
programs perform the analytics and look to make the data more simple it can be
challenging to create more complicated analyses (innoventsolutions.com).
Index Ventures has invested three different series in Pentaho and Bernard Dallé, a
Partner at Index, was led these investments. Dallé joined Index Ventures in 1997, only a
year after its inception. His expertise in investments deals with enterprise
infrastructure, applications, and services (indexventures.com- team). Bernard Dallé
currently serves as a Director of Pentaho and seeks to grow the company and make its
easy and dependable service available to the world. In 2010, for example, Pentaho
increased annual revenue by 120% (marketwired.com).
Education of the product is crucial for Pentaho as it allows for customers to understand
the programs that the company offers, and in doing so, gives customers the tools to
understand their own business. Information technology is a growing industry and the
majority of business owners and employees do not know how to process data or read
what the analyses are saying. Pentaho is great for simplifying large amounts and
different types of information. Now, users can construct and alter the way businesses
process information to make even more informed business decisions.
Index Ventures and Pentaho are a seemingly perfect partnership and each has
benefitted the other. Pentaho has received capital and networking that has catalyzed
their growth into over 185 countries. Index Ventures benefitted with a portfolio
company that gives value to businesses that had a need for simpler and more efficient
data analytics. Together the firm and portfolio company have benefitted financially and

6. look to reach more of the world to fulfill the growing need of data analytics. We feel the
reason Index Ventures sought to invest in Pentaho was because of the growing market
spaces in cloud computing and data analysis. As more and more data is being tracked
and recorded, new analyzing software programs will be needed for the unmet need of
those who seek to explain the hard data in a simple way. Pentaho does this for its
customers and Index Ventures has capitalized on it.
Sierra Ventures
Sierra Ventures is a Silicon Valley based Venture Capital firm that focuses its
investments in all areas of the IT market. Peter Wendell who headquartered the firm in
Menlo Park, California founded sierra in 1982. Among himself there are five other
individuals, Mark Fernandes, Tim Guleri, David Schwab, Steven Williams and Ben Yu
who all make the decisions as to where Sierra invests its money. What makes Sierra such
a successful VC firm is their experience and expertise in management. “Sierra Ventures
has managed nine capital partnerships so far and currently has $1.5 billion of capital
under management.” (ICANNWiki). Typically, Sierra will invest anywhere from $2
million to $25 million, yet there have been much smaller and larger successful
investments as well.
“Since 1982, Sierra has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs around the world begin
and grow successful technology companies. Our passion is finding the right
combination of innovative technology and talented entrepreneurs, and guiding
them with expertise and capital to help companies grow and deliver on their
promise. Together with our vast network of domain experts, Fortune 1000 CIOs,
operational executives and the best bankers and lawyers in the business, let us
help you build the next great technology company.” -Sierra Ventures
“We believe that the future of the enterprise is approaching fast—and will be
driven by emerging, disruptive technologies like the ones we are investing in
today. Transformational innovation in key verticals; the introduction of
gamification technologies into the enterprise; social with real impact; the
application of chemistry and physics to disrupt mobile and power industries—
there are just some of the areas where we seek, study and invest in the future of
the enterprise.” -Sierra Ventures
(sierraventures.com- about)
Some of the most notable investments Sierra has made include Novariant ($40M),
ZoomSystems ($35M), Ooyala ($22M), Verari Systems ($20M), MakeMyTrip.com
($15M), as well as many more.
Appcelerator is a portfolio company still in its venture round which Sierra is involved
with investing in, most recently investing another $12.1 Million into the portfolio. A list
of all of Sierra’s investments can be found on their crunchbase profile page,
(crunchbase.com- Sierra Ventures).
Appcelerator

7. Sierra Ventures in 2010 invested in Appcelerator. The company was founded in 2006 in
Atlanta, Georgia. The company describes itself as “a typical start-up. Nolan [CTO]
worked all day in his pajamas, Jeff [CEO] in his basement and the company’s first office
was less than 150 square feet.” (Appcelerator.com). Now, the company has offices
worldwide and 519,293 registered developers, which serve as their customers.
While Appcelerator has had multiple investors, there are evident reasons as to why
Sierra Ventures invested into this portfolio company. First of all, Sierra Ventures has a
want/need to invest in portfolio companies that fit into categories such as Big Data,
Mobile, Cloud, and Infrastructure. Appcelerator offers a Software as a Service (SaaS)
that allows users to “create, deliver and analyze their entire mobile application
portfolio.” (Crunchbase.com). A SaaS is software that is provided to users over the web.
More specifically, the service allows enterprises to perform the following: The service
allows companies to demonstrate a real-time view of its mobile app portfolio for
business and project stakeholders. Enterprises can create amazing user experiences
across multiple operating systems and devices and integrate their services with data
through any cloud. In addition, companies can deliver apps faster with increased quality
and control and provide a deeper understanding of user experience and problem
management (Appcelerator.com).
In addition to the original service, Appcelerator offers their Titanium brand service,
which allows users to create their own mobile apps. The best part about Titanium,
unlike the normal Appcelerator service, is that it is free. Looking at a holistic sense
regarding all services the company offers, firms of different sizes have turned to this
service for their mobile needs. The following are some testimonials: Vivi Zigler,
President at NBC Universal said “Appcelerator is as much about planning for the future
as it is innovating in the present. As we scale to include more programs across more
devices, we need a platform that enables us to have organizational agility and efficiency.
Appcelerator Titanium is that platform” (Appcelerator.com). Rusty Bealer, Executive
Director of Product Innovation at Bracket, stated that “Product innovation has always
been a competitive differentiator for us. The Appcelerator Platform will arm us with the
visibility and agility to build, deliver and manage business critical mobile apps that
improve communication for investigators and sponsors during clinical trials”
(Appcelerator.com).
It is evident that The Startup Owner’s Manual claims that in order for a business model
to be successful, it must be repeatable and scalable (Blank & Dorf, 22). When Sierra
Ventures is looking for a good portfolio company to invest in, they want to ensure that
they are making the right decision and can ultimately receive a good return on
investment. Essentially, the portfolio company should have a scalable and repeatable
business model. Appcelerator has an excellent model that fulfills these requirements. In
reference to the Business Model Generation book, the company implements the Bait &
Hook method effectively (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 104). The Titanium service is free,
which allows users to create mobile apps. However, a user can make the app, but how do
they analyze its efficacy? That is where the normal Appcelerator software comes in. The
software facilitates the analysis, but for a monthly fee. Ultimately, the user can get
interested in Titanium, build an app, not know what to do with it or how to analyze it,

8. and buy the monthly service to solve the issue. It is evident that Appcelerator has
developed a repeatable, scalable business model and it is no surprise as to why Sierra
Ventures invested in their company.
Hypothesis:
After carefully analyzing our respective VC firms and portfolio companies, we found that
there were significant characteristics that stood out, connecting to and distinguishing
one organization from another. On the surface, it would appear that the framework and
focus of our selected VC firms are distinct and independent of each other. However,
after collective questioning and examination, we realized that there is an underlying
focus between the three firms that set the stage for the development of our hypothesis.
In general, each VC firm is distinct from the others based on certain qualities, such as
their fund size, investment stage concentration, and overall industry of focus. In
particular, we found that DFJ Frontier and Index Ventures fixated on the startup/seed,
as well as early stage of investments, in contrast to Sierra Ventures, who is additionally
involved in the expansion and later stage development of portfolio companies. Between
the three firms, fund sizes varied from one to five billion dollars and had a wide
spectrum of financial involvement ranging from $100,000 to over 75 million dollars.
These figures are insignificant, however, to the overarching association they have
amongst each other. The commonality we identified is not necessarily something you
can find on their company websites, but rather an interpretation we have made based on
their unique selection of investments. Despite obvious differences, these firms have
recognized a key trend in the exponential reliance on technology, specifically the
integration and interpretation of big data and mobile usage. IT services is an industry
that is recognized between all three firms. It does not only link these particular VC
firms, but also builds a bridge between their portfolio companies. As we become
increasingly reliant on the technology that is around us, it is beneficial that there are
companies able to account for the needs we have. By analyzing, interpreting and
servicing big data, these
Today users live in a world that is continually depending upon technology to give them
instant, organized, and personalized answers that are simple and interactive. We will
refer to this phenomenon and user need as “instant gratification.” The venture capital
firms that we have analyzed have all been working toward this seemingly unmet need in
the technological space. This can be seen in their choice of investments in information
technology portfolio companies. Through their understanding and exploration of these
needs, the venture firms seek to enable these companies to give solutions to users and
meet these needs that, due to rapid iteration within the field of technology, can never
completely be satisfied. Luckily, these companies develop complex tools that answer the
users’ personal needs.
There will always be a market for reaching those who seek instant, easy answers. The
intro to the book The Dragonfly Effect touches upon the idea that, “People frequently
create wildly inaccurate forecasts of what will make them happy because they
mistakenly associate happiness with short shallow rewards...research suggests that

9. individuals become consumers with the goal of ‘becoming happy’ or ‘getting happier’ but
that they rarely attain that goal through their purchases” (Aeker, xx). The phenomenon
of instant gratification as a user need was not created by the technical age, but advances
in the accessibility of technologic tools and “quick fixes” have certainly amplified the
symptoms.
Answers to almost anything and everything are just a click away for today’s users. Want
to research your family history?--Skip the library, just sign up for Ancestry.com! Need
an outfit that’s just as unique and awesome as you?--Thousands of small businesses and
vintage clothing stores from around the world are at your disposal. Need an app to: quiz
you daily for the ACT, tell you what music to listen to, remind you of daily tasks, help
you lose weight, track flights etc.--if there’s not one today, there will be
tomorrow. While it may be true, that instant gratification can’t ever make you truly
happy, go ahead and try telling a user that. Smart companies today are bravely
navigating this ever-evolving and unpredictable environment and making real gains.
How are they able to do this? The answer lies not only in their ability to identify these
new user problems, it also depends on their ability to provide tools to answer these
unattainable user wants and needs.
The venture capital firms which we have researched have a strong appreciation for these
needs. Some have the entrepreneurial (and sometimes life) experience to help them
understand user problems and understand solutions; while others possess special
insight into the market due to their ability to network globally with partners. All of the
VCs visited, communicate and interact regularly with their portfolio companies to help
them continue development of tools and answers for the user. This guidance and
support is crucial because it allows the portfolios to grow their ideas and directly provide
the necessary platform to satisfy user needs.
Discussion
There is certainly evidence found in the analyses of the Venture Capital firms and their
portfolio companies that support our hypotheses. This is seen in the development and
analysis of big data. Big data is defined as the massive amount of information that is
collected on all kinds of different subjects and real-time events. It is often too
overwhelmingly large to comprehend and analyze...until now. Every day startups and
well-established companies are working to develop the organization and simple analysis
of big data so it can be applied in business, government, and overall society. The VC
firms we have focused on have continuously invested in portfolio companies that look to
simplify these mass collections of data (indexventures.com- blog). Whether it is
Pentaho, AudioMicro, or Appcelerator the companies described above have sought to
give their target markets interactive access to amounts of data that have only been
previously imagined. As our hypothesis states, these VC firms are seeking companies
that look to give users “instant gratification.” There is a trend of VC firms investing in
innovative companies in this market and it will only continue to grow. As we reviewed
evidence of big data and its future in our society found Bryan Trogden, an entrepreneur,
as he said, “Big data is the new oil” (Pewinternet.org- the Future of Big Data). So, we
have found that experts in the field of technology and data look to see the possibility of
analyzing every small detail, that we see and do not see, that is recorded by technology.

10. Our hypothesis is further supported by the fact that 63% of adult cell phone users now
use their devices to go online, a figure that has doubled since 2009 (pewinternet.orgCell ). Therefore, we see that as more technology users are on their phones and devices,
there is an increasing amount of data that is being collected, analyzed, and processed
into useful resources. In addition, these users seek immediate solutions to their needs.
Whether that be structured organization of files, or access and interactive use of a
library of files, a growing amount of users that have a growing amount of needs want
solutions now. As these answers are developed and become more and more readily
available to users, their problems only become more and more complex and evolved.
Therefore, society will never actually be able to truly answer or fulfill society’s wants or
unmet needs. Every answer or action as an equal and opposite question or need.
Despite the information we have discovered supporting our hypothesis there is also
refuting information. For example, some believe that big data is in fact not the future
and needs to be stopped to make life less analyzed, systematic, and controlled. This
opinion stems from the fear of data being collected on individuals and used against
them or in some way they do not approve. Recently, this has come under fire because of
the highly publicized collection of data that the United States’ NSA has been
participating in. The fact that all data and technological use is seemingly recorded may
detract people from using technology to find answers to their needs. Instead of seeing
the companies we have reviewed as a tool, potential users may see these businesses as a
threat to their safety, privacy, and well-being. In addition, users may seek to find more
complex answers. Instead, when users ask a question or seek a solution to a problem
they might not want to be told that one single answer is absolutely correct. There are
cases where complexity is a luxury and these situations might go by the wayside. Rather
than instant gratification, some users seek a more organic solution that has not been
offered by the companies we analyzed. Since the modern users of technology and
innovation seek a personalized experience, these same individuals may be dissatisfied
with the offerings of the current VC firms and their portfolio companies. When potential
customers seek to answer personal unmet needs themselves they will no longer need to
participate in anything the companies are offering. Therefore, there is some refuting
evidence that our hypothesis might not be true since members of the market could leave
the market if they are looking for either more simple or complex or more personal or
regulated answers to problems that are only increasing in specificity.
CONCLUSION
After reviewing our companies’ similarities and differences we developed a hypothesis
which we have found to have strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, we see that in a
world that is being built, maintained, and run by technology, our VC firms and their
portfolio companies are developing solutions to unmet market needs. Since big data and
widespread mobile usage is an up and coming industry, we have seen that there are
many unmet needs that require answers. With that being said, every answer will open
the door to new questions. As our portfolio companies answer these issues we have
realized that current society needs require a basic and personal solution for complex
personal needs. This is seemingly impossible and therefore our VC firms are seeking to
answer questions that open doors to other creating a cycle. Finally, we find that no

11. solution will ever bring about instant satisfaction, only temporary satisfaction because it
is natural to never be satisfied.
References
Aaker, Jennifer Lynn, Andy Smith, and Carlye Adler. "Introduction." The dragonfly
effect: quick, effective, and powerful ways to use social media to drive social change. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. xx. Print.
Blank, Steven G., and Bob Dorf. The startup owner's manual the step-by-step guide for
building a great company. Pescadero, Calif.: K&S Ranch, Inc., 2012. Print.
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http://www.Appcelerator.com
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/appcelerator#ixzz2j9fB5LgU
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/pentaho

12. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/pentaho#ixzz2jAumA5ae
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