Barry Eggers, Founder and Managing Partner of Lightspeed Venture Partners

Summary: Among other topics, Barry discussed the following issues with Metis Strategy:<br> <br> * Industry 4.0 as the digitization of the manufacturing sector<br> * The core technology trends that are enabling Industry 4.0, such as connectivity and computational power, intelligence, human/machine interactions, and digital/physical conversions<br> * Barry’s timescale for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies amongst large enterprises<br> * The degree to which established manufacturing companies understand and are responding to the threats and opportunities presented by Industry 4.0<br> * How Lightspeed, as a theme-oriented venture firm, approaches investing in the Industry 4.0 space<br> * How Lightspeed investigates technology themes and their applicability across sectors and industries<br> * How Barry thinks about the security implications of new technologies such as IoT<br> * The differentiating factors Barry looks for when making an investment, such as the management team and core technologies<br> * The genesis of Lightspeed Ventures, which Barry founded in 1999<br> * How the partners divide up themes and determine where each will focus<br> <br> Barry is a Managing Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm he co-founded in 2000 which focuses on disruptive trends in the enterprise and consumer sectors. At Lightspeed, Barry focuses on analytic platforms, cloud, IoT, networking, and emerging infrastructure. Barry currently sits on the Board of Directors of a variety of companies including Avi Networks, MapR Technology, Wearable Intelligence, and Mosaixsoft.<br> Prior to founding Lightspeed Venture Partners, Barry was Director of Business Development at Cisco Systems, where he developed Cisco’s initial M&amp;A program and led many of their early acquisitions and integrations.<br> Barry received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.<br>  <br>