SigEx Ventures : Investors are becoming increasingly interested in green technologyby Corina Ciubotaru

As climate change becomes a reality we are all responsible for, and governments start raising awareness, venture capital investors seem to be increasingly attracted to clean tech. In 2006, $2.9 billion were invested in this field in the US, compared to $1.6 billion in 2005, and a big part of this money went into energy-related ventures. This figure increased by nearly 60% in the first quarter of 2007 making the clean tech venture market the third most significant after biotechnology and software. GE was a big investor in clean tech in recent times; in the beginning of the year, they invested in a company that researches batteries for hybrid vehicles, and the American giant probably won’t stop here, aiming to invest $4 billion in renewable energy by 2010. Other companies have also announced they want to join the race: Citigroup is willing to invest $50 billion in the next ten years in companies that address climate change issues, while Bank of America intends to invest $20 billion in the same area. In Europe, the level of investment is significantly lower and it’s decreased in 2006 compared to the previous year. What should concern European leaders even more is that not only are they significantly behind the US when it comes to investments, but that the Americans have invested more in European ventures than the actual people benefiting from them. Part of this problem is due to insufficient state involvement in the issue, but some potential investors consider that there aren’t enough opportunities for them in Europe.

related story: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070606-clean-tech-investments-pull-in-10-percent-of-us-venture-capital.html

by Corina Ciubotaru for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

SigEx Ventures : Private equity companies going publicby Ioana Madalina Tantareanu

As a result of the tech-bubble bear market, most asset classes outside of U.S. large cap stocks, U.S. government securities, and municipal debt have been deemed "non-traditional" or "alternative" in some way.One of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend was private equity and the investors have flooded firms such as Blackstone and KKR with cash.Opportunities in the marketplace are researched by private equity. They are different from the standard stock analysis,which tends to focus on relatively arbitrary quarterly earnings per share estimates, because they analyze companies to determine whether the lines of business are worth more together or apart and they try to find unexploited opportunities. Richard Gere's character in "Pretty woman movie" would be the personification of today's "private equity." There are many options in having and managing a company. Sometimes it`s the best thing to do to tear the company apart and sell it, but sometimes you may leave it whole and shake up the business model.Going public doesn't necessarily take away these company`a flexibility.Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway has as it`s core business insurances.Geico and General Re are some of the primary lines of business.This hasn`t stopped Berkshire Hathaway from investing in, or acquiring, a host of other companies, like companies from high-tech electronics to making candy. Investors buy shares of the holding company, not the private equity subsidiary, refering to taking the private out of private equity.These will be publicly traded companies who engage in private equity portfolio management as their primary line of business, in order to cash in on the recent boom and successes and to provide liquidity for the firm's shareholders.

by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

SigEx Ventures : Private equity picking up steamby Delia Cruceru

Although market commentators said that New Zealand’s global buyout is going down, in here the private equity activity is blooming. This year the many deals regarding private equity firms like Yellow Pages and MediaWorks have been transacted. Corporate raider Carl Icahn said “the global boom has reached its peaked” and Blackstone Group, Kravis, Kohlberg, Roberts (KKR) and Carlyle Group capable of paying high prices are waiting for better offers and deals. Paul Chrystal, head of private equity from Goldman Sachs JBWere said that in New Zealand assets are becoming very expensive: “not all people paying high prices are overpaying, but if they are, there's always more risk that they will have a difficult time later. I don't think there's any serious investors in the private equity market who haven't felt the pressure of prices, are worried by it, and are probably more cautious." AMP Capital Investor’s boss says "base interest rates and risk spreads are rising. While we'd seen private equity interest, we hadn't seen transactions on the smaller part of the market. That's clearly changed with Tourism Holdings and MediaWorks.” Chief economist and head of investment strategy of AMP Capital Investors says the boom in the private equity takeover activity will get bigger and will have positive effects.

related story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10451724

by Delia Cruceru for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

SigEx Ventures : Russia makes its first steps in nanotechnologyby Corina Ciubotaru

In recent times, Russia has apparently set a goal for itself to become once again a leader the scientific world. The IT industry has grown rapidly to around $1.5 billion in 2006 and it’s reached 1.5% of GDP, but it still has a long way to go before it can compare itself to IT leaders like the US, India or Ireland. And since this business has developed mainly by itself, it is now time for Russia as a state to set its sights on other areas of science it can develop. After being the first nation to send a man into space, today’s Russians want to return to greatness by heavily investing in nanotechnology research labs. Vladimir Putin intends to set up a state corporation worth $5 billion to implement state policy in the field. It will be under the umbrella of First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who oversees industrial development projects in Russia and is likely to become the next president of the country. Putin acknowledged nanotechnology as a priority industry in April, in his yearly address to the nation. Though Russians are aware of the importance of foreign investment in developing sectors, the actual investors don’t seem all that interested. Suspicions of political favors appear in each of these attempts to develop Russian industry, and sometimes for good reason. With a good educational system and highly trained scientists, the country stands a fighting chance in the nanotech war, but it will all come down to how accurately the billions will reach their intended destinations.

by Corina Ciubotaru for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

Our Favorite SigEx Foundry blogs by Silvia Baldin

Here is a list of our top ten blog sites. They all relate to SigEx Ventures, the Foundry School and the founders Chris Cantell and Frederic Artru. We invite you to visit them as well for news on other Sigex Ventures companies and SigEx Foundry projects.

1. http://frederic-artru.blogspot.com
2. http://sigexventures-sigexfoundry.blogspot.com
3. http://sigexventureseurofund.blogspot.com
4. http://silviasigexfoundry.blogspot.com
5. http://diana-sigex.livejournal.com
6. http://sigexventures-avenirdesmedias.blogspot.com
7. http://sigexventures-futureofmedia.blogspot.com
8. http://sigexventures-beapartofit.blogspot.com
9. http://sigexventures-nanodata.blogspot.com
10. http://sigextogo.blogspot.com

by Silvia Baldin

Videoconferences by Diana Zotescu

Simultaneous videoconferencing among three or more remote points is possible by means of a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). This is a bridge that interconnects calls from several sources (in a similar way to the audio conference call). All parties call the MCU unit, or the MCU unit can also call the parties which are going to participate, in sequence. There are MCU bridges for IP and ISDN-based videoconferencing. There are MCUs which are pure software, and others which are a combination of hardware and software. An MCU is characterised according to the number of simultaneous calls it can handle, its ability to conduct transposing of data rates and protocols, and features such as Continuous Presence, in which multiple parties can be seen onscreen at once. .
by Silvia Sigex

Human resource management by Diana Zotescu

Human resource management (HRM) is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process. HRM is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall.
by Silvia Sigex

Third phase: investor validation by Diana Zotescu

Third phase: investor validation
At this point, the teams present to SigEx Ventures shareholders and other interested investors (local investors for instance) for final validation. All these investors have had the opportunity to follow the validation process and approve of the team they are being presented with. At this point, the project is ventureable, the team is hired on indefinite contract with stock options and bonus program.
As a result of this process, the Foundry delivers not just jobs but sustainable ventures that have already been validated, thus providing tremendous motivation and rewards to teams who are able to drive the industry with innovative success and take their careers into their own hands.

The Foundry is a revolutionary training, research and development center working on behalf of SigEx Inc. The revolutionary platform it uses for communication is based on the SuperPBX concept. The Foundry and Sigex Inc., are the creation of CEO Chris Cantell and COO Frederic Artru two professionals in their field of activity. For more information please visit our website thefoundryschool.tv.


By Diana Zotescu

Project validation of Sigex supported projects by Diana Zotescu

The Foundry provides opportunities for communications industry professionals to take part in an intensive re-training process. The re-training cycle of the Foundry is a three-month process with the ability to go back to the beginning of the process on a case-by-case basis. The process starts again every month, so three cycles are always under way. The objective for each candidate is to get out of the Foundry as soon as possible; ideally as part of a successful project team that has been validated through the Foundry’s proven project development and validation process.
The validation process is a very intense and competitive one in order to select only the best to lead the Enhanced Communications projects. Only small teams of excellence can provide sustainable growth and lead the industry into this paradigm shift.

The Foundry is a revolutionary training, research and development center working on behalf of SigEx Inc. The revolutionary platform it uses for communication is based on the SuperPBX concept. The Foundry and Sigex Inc., are the creation of CEO Chris Cantell and COO Frederic Artru two professionals in their field of activity. For more information please visit our website thefoundryschool.tv.

By Diana Zotescu

Sigex Foundry recruits candidates to pre-funded projects by Diana Zotescu

The Foundry’s development programs provide fully-funded viable structures for business R&D, to address alpha-beta development projects for strategic customers that include global telecommunications carriers, network equipment manufacturers, information technology companies, and digital content providers. The projects developed by the Foundry are all pre-funded by the SigEx Ventures investment fund and are sustainable for a period of 12 to 18 months. The most successful of these may become sustainable ventures. The first Enhanced Communications project companies emerged from the Foundry in early 2003.

The Foundry is a revolutionary training, research and development center working on behalf of SigEx Inc. The revolutionary platform it uses for communication is based on the SuperPBX concept. The Foundry and Sigex Inc., are the creation of CEO Chris Cantell and COO Frederic Artru two professionals in their field of activity. For more information please visit our website thefoundryschool.tv.

By Diana Zotescu

Attract best talents and create excellence at SigEx Foundry by Diana Zotescu

Because the industry is looking for new models that can re-inspire great talents, the Foundry is the ideal place to attract the best engineers and business profiles locally, as well as nationally and internationally.
Competency is sufficient to get people to do their job, but motivation and success are bred from the right environment, one that promises the tools and conditions to deliver excellence. The Foundry School, creation of CEO Chris Cantell and COO Frederic Artru provides such an environment and the founders’ track record shows tremendous success in attracting the best talents to even the most remote locations.
Excellence becomes a consequence of the Foundry methodologies as true nature decides what is successful. The Foundry process lets people draw out the best of themselves and its intensity will enhance those capabilities. Teams are now capable of delivering outstanding results in very little time.

The Foundry is a revolutionary training, research and development center working on behalf of SigEx Inc. The revolutionary platform it uses for communication is based on the SuperPBX concept. The Foundry and Sigex Inc., are the creation of CEO Chris Cantell and COO Frederic Artru two professionals in their field of activity. For more information please visit our website thefoundryschool.tv.

By Diana Zotescu

SigEx Foundry Leadership Training Process by Diana Zotescu

The SigEx Foundry Leadership Process

Goals

The telecommunications industry, after massively investing in more fiber optics and capacity, is realizing that the problem is not about the bandwidth, it’s about traffic. A new industry is emerging from these findings : Enhanced Communications.

The SigEx Foundry re-training and job creation program has been mandated by SigEx to develop custom Enhanced Communications training to deploy over a thousand engineers in the next three years. The new industry, Enhanced Communications, will require a minimum critical mass of newly trained engineers able to develop and install enhanced telecommunications products and services on a global basis.

The SigEx Foundry has just conducted a thorough European site selection for the ideal location with a sufficient supply of engineers and global business executives to set-up its 20,000 square foot facility. The facility in Pau, France will also offer educational programs to SigEx Foundry clients on a global basis through distance learning. The SigEx Foundry will be accepting research grant applications and PhD candidates in: telecommunications, applied mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, economics and business, and marketing communications practices.

Description of the SigEx Foundry

The SigEx Foundry projects for SigEx will support numerous technology leaders including : SAP, Vivendi, SONY, AOL Time Warner, eBay, Cisco, IBM, Sun, Apple, Nokia, Siemens, Alcatel and international carriers. The mandate to build the new communications industry and support existing telecommunications infrastructures will be deployed with Fortune 1000 strategic customers.

The SigEx Foundry is much more than a think tank where great ideas get nurtured. The SigEx Foundry is a concentrate of "real life" so that not only the ideas, but also the teams, the technology, the revenue models and the culture are tested against real live situations to see whether they have the right to succeed in the outside world. Validation includes publications and patents, strategic customers as well as financial modeling and analysis. A short intense process creates the right competitive environment to breed excellence.

The training also includes new advanced technology methodologies such as extreme programming or user profiling and business methodologies like Real Options, Fifth Discipline and Strategic Marketing. And, let us not forget Enhanced Communications training at all layers of technologies from chips to applications. Thus, the SigEx Foundry’s re-training and job creation delivers excellence and positions the new Enhanced Communications industry on a successful path.

Components of the SigEx Foundry

Candidates enter the SigEx Foundry on a voluntary basis and do not pay for the training they receive in the SigEx Foundry. Though the SigEx Foundry values candidates with certain profiles, all candidates are at the same level when entering the SigEx Foundry. Team leaders step up to taking the lead and will need to prove and show their ability to lead, recruit and attract customers and capital. Not all candidates will make it through the SigEx Foundry (into a successful project) as not every candidate will manage to reinvent himself to Enhanced Communications. Other options are available to those candidates.

The management team includes a director to oversee the day to day operations, an IP/Patent specialist to manage intellectual property within the Foundry projects, translators to ensure localization of all documents, a recruitment person, a strategic communications person working in conjunction with our communications agency and assistants and MIS people.

SigEx Foundry trainers are not necessarily full time and provide the necessary courses on technical, economic and business material that the team need to understand for their projects.

The SigEx Ventures investment fund provides pre-funding for all projects presented to the Foundry. Dedicated fundraisers will be hired in the Foundry to support the constant fundraising process around Enhanced Communications projects.

By providing Distance Learning, the SigEx Foundry will enable multi-Foundry collaboration, access to course material not available locally and services to other locations on courses provided in the SigEx Foundry.

Professional services is a consistent activity of the SigEx Foundry to address immediate customer needs and project deployment needs. Candidates will be recruited from within the SigEx Foundry for these groups.

Research is an essential part of making progress on Enhanced Communications. Patents and publications are generated on a regular basis and collaboration with existing scientific labs as well as PhD programs is promoted.

Origin of candidates

In its search for excellence, the SigEx Foundry will seek a large number of candidates to allow everyone a chance to be part of an Enhanced Communications project core team. This team will in turn grow through success and hire other candidates in the process.

Candidates need to fit into one of the three following profiles:

Engineers and researchers (60% of candidates) with little to significant experience/expertise in telecommunications, electronics and/or computer science (C++, Java, Microcode).


Business (20% of candidates) already experienced in high technology fields, capable of delivering business plans and build and present revenue models.


Strategic communications (20% of candidates) capable of building and communicate strategic plans in collaboration with a network of public relations agencies.


The origin of candidates is therefore as diverse as the situation they can currently be in.

Retraining process

The retraining cycle of the SigEx Foundry is a three month process with the ability to go back to the beginning of the process on a case by case basis. The process starts again every month (thus three cycles are always under way). The goal for each candidate is to get out of the SigEx Foundry as soon as possible, if possible as part of a successful team that has been validated by the process.

The validation process is a very intense and competitive one in order to select only the best to lead the Enhanced Communications projects. Only small teams of excellence can provide sustainable growth and lead the industry into this paradigm shift. The projects developed in the Foundry are all pre-funded and are sustainable for a period of 12 to 18 month. Each budgetary decision within a project needs to comply to this sustainability rule.

The process is composed of three phases, each lasting a month:

First phase: validation by peers

The first phase includes a lot of training material. Complete projects (business plans, strategic communications plan, presentations, executive summary) are presented to the candidates in different pieces. The candidates are recruited by a project leader and the team must make the project its own, by reconstructing the business plan, presenting models (revenue, business, technology and cultural) to the other team leaders.

Each project has three teams working on it in order to create competitiveness and complementarities. At the end of this phase, the peers decide on which team has earned the right to move to the second phase. Other teams either quit or may, on a case by case basis, start the process again.

Second phase: market validation

Once successfully selected by their peers, the projects are presented to the founders' strategic customers (see biography and other projects). The customers will confirm the validity of the project and the ventureability of the team. Strategic customers will then enter into an alpha/beta deployment contract regarding the development and deployment of the particular technology.

Third phase: investor validation

At this point, the teams present to SigEx Ventures shareholders and other interested investors (local investors for instance) for final validation. All these investors have had the opportunity to follow the validation process and approve of the team they are being presented with.

At this point, the project is ventureable, the team is hired on indefinite contract with stock options and bonus program.