Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Interview with Jennifer Fonstad

Back in august of 2004 I interviewed Jennifer Fonstad of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) on investing in nanotechnology. The following is an excerpt from that interview.

RR: What is your definition of nanotechnology?

More than just a scale of measurement, nanotechnology harnesses and exploits the many unique characteristics of working at the nanoscale. The capacity to manipulate and control matter at the atomic level was driven by the development of tools such as the atomic force microscope (AFM). As more tools enable that manipulation, technologists across a wide spectrum of industries use these capabilities in truly unique and disruptive ways in their business.

RR: Overall, what do you like about nano as an investment area?

We see significant opportunity in materials science and in the manipulation of matter at the atomic scale. Catalyzed by critical tools such as the AFM and sequencing of the human genome, these advances promise to enable a host of new applications that are based on the often unique properties that are exhibited at such a small size. Carbon nanotubes, for example, are stronger than steel, highly conductive, and are precisely ordered. Far from being scientific curiosities, these structures may enable a new generation of nonvolatile memory, which is the focus of one of our portfolio companies, Nantero.

Read the entire interview here

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