This week, Bill Janeway returns to MIB to update us his work as a venture capitalist. He is also a former Warburg Pincus banker. He attended Princeton undergrad, and earned his Ph.D. in economics from Cambridge University on a Marshall scholarship. An updated edition of his book, “Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Reconfiguring the Three-Player Game between Markets, Speculators and the State,” was released in May.
Known as a “key creator of modern venture capital,” Janeway helped to created BEA Systems, which connected software applications to databases across much of the Internet. The initial cash investment of $54 million became a payout of $6.5 billion within six years.
His work operates at the intersection of technology, finance, economics and public policy. Janeway discusses how much of America’s innovative technologies began with a helping hand from the U.S. government. Transistors, ARPAnet (the predecessor to the internet), semiconductors, cellular technology, microwaves, even stealth technology, got their start as government research projects.
Last we spoke, he noted that: “IPOs are the new down round.”
Janeway funded the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance in 2001 and funded the annual Princeton-Cambridge Finance Seminars in 2004.
A few favorite books are referenced here. (Transcript will be forthcoming)
You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Bloomberg, Overcast, and Stitcher. Our earlier podcasts can all be found at iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, and Bloomberg.
Next week, we speak with Eldon Scott, President of Urban Space,
Bill Janeway’s authored book
Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Reconfiguring the Three-Player Game between Markets, Speculators and the State by William Janeway
Bill Janeway’s recent reads
Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, then Ignored, the First Personal Computer by Douglas Smith
Funding a Revolution: Government Support for Computing Research by National Research Council and Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert
