This Week's Herman Trend Alert

Nail-Painting Robot Coming
to a Salon Near You

 

  The Herman Trend Alert

February 14, 2018

Top VCs' Tech Trends of 2018

Venture Capitalists (VCs) are always on the lookout for cutting edge technologies. When we saw this article in Fast Company, we had to share the content with you. Venture Capitalists who invest in start-ups are obviously a perfect group to ask about the top tech trends. Some of the trends are new; others are building on known technologies. This Herman Trend Alert focuses on the insights from three VCs featured in the article

The human side of AI
First Round Capital's Hayley Barna is interested in using AI to give people "superpowers", including helping the stylists at StitchFix, a personal shopping service, to make better suggestions to their customers. Barna is also interested in blending the physical with the digital, e.g., digital companies creating pop-up experiences or bricks and mortar businesses establishing digital portals.

Prospects abound in e-sports
We were happy to see that Accel's Vas Natarajan highlighted the opportunities in E-sports. With the rise of a new platform called Twitch, there has been an exponential increase in the identifiable audience for global gaming. Twitch alone has 45 million viewers per month. Now the market is not just the tens of millions of core- to mid-core gamers, there is a huge additional audience of spectators. Natarajan believes (and we agree) that this multiplier effect will prompt the appearance of many "new product and company opportunities".

Making genetics work for healthcare
We have often talked about personalized medicine being the future of healthcare. Venrock's Bryan Roberts sees that over the next 5 to 10 years, we should expect to see "more data-based, more genetic-based information being included in [our] interactions with [our] providers, whether on a generalized basis or in response to specific disease issues." Doctors will have much more information on which to base treatment decisions, because we will know much more about the associations between genetic markers and reactions in the body.

Synthetic biology in consumer products
By far, the most fascinating to us is the trend named by the Roche Venture Fund's Karl Handelsman. For a while now, we have had clothes washing detergents that worked well in all different temperatures. What makes these cleaning agents work so well is the "evolved and engineered" enzymes. Handelsman also talked about rice that that has been engineered to "lose its resistance to cold" but gain 20 percent in metabolic efficiency. Given the warming trend in many areas that grow rice, we could see this product doing very well in some climates.

Our Brave New Technological World
There are many other trends mentioned in this article, we just took our favorites. We see innovation, especially in start-ups, to be growing very fast, as a result of many factors, not the least of which is the availability of funding for these ventures. Hang on, it's going to be a wild ride!

Special thanks to Fast Company and the VCs who contributed their insights to the article. To read the entire article, visit https://www.fastcompany.com/40503654/the-most-important-tech-trends-of-2018-according-to-top-vcs.


© Copyright 1998- by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurist. 1.336.210.3548 or https://hermangroup.com. To sign up, visit https://HermanTrendAlert.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc."

HEAR JOYCE SPEAK TOMORROW AT 11:30 AM EDT
Tomorrow morning, Joyce will be a Fireside Chat Speakers at the Brightside Business Women Empowerment Virtual Conference where she will talk about how business women can use the insights from her new, groundbreaking book, EXPERIENCE RULES, to be successful. Register for FREE at https://brightsideglobaltrade.org/women.

GET COACHING FOR YOUR PEOPLE FOR LESS THAN $1/DAY!
Gain access to dozens of coaches for the same low price. Find out more by visiting https://ingomu.com/joyceg

JOYCE IS ON THE RADIO EVERYDAY NOW
To listen to Joyce's TV shows on the radio, simply visit RadioFutures.com. Joyce's show is streaming every day at 3:00PM Pacific Time.

To read this Herman Trend Alert on the web: https://hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-29-2023.html.


Herman Trend Alerts are produced by the Herman Group, strategic business futurists, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and professional speakers.

New subscribers are always welcome. There is no charge for this public service. The Herman Trend Alert is read by over 30,000 people in 90 countries, including other websites and printed periodicals. Click here to sign up for the Herman Trend Alert.

Do you enjoy receiving this weekly e-mail update? Contact us about our co-branded Herman Trend Alert service.


Subscribe or Unsubscribe to weekly Herman Trend Alert
View this week's Herman Trend Alert
Archived Weekly Herman Trend Alerts

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


[ Home · About · Products · Resources · Media ]

 

7112 Viridian Lane
Austin, TX 78739
Voice: 336-210-3548
Toll Free in US & Canada: 800-227-3566
E-mail: info@hermangroup.com


  © The Herman Group. All rights reserved.

Web site design by WebEditor Design Services, Inc.