Future Perfect Technology

When you think of infrastructure, you probably think of roads and bridges. Maybe if you’re familiar with Harbor, you think of connectivity or even the supply chain. What might not be top of mind is the cold chain – a critical delivery and storage infrastructure for refrigerated goods and pharmaceuticals (including the Covid-19 vaccine). Cold storage and transportation are critical to human health, ensuring food, medications and vaccines are delivered safely. But there is a lot of room for improvement in the cold chain – our analysis over the last several years indicates that between 15-20% of global fresh food production is lost annually due to ineffective cold chain technologies and systems. Truly efficient cold chains require an integrated ecosystem of open data, data sharing and data management across a number of disparate systems.

Here is a modern-day take on the classic fable, "The Tortoise and the Hare." An R&D company challenged an early-stage company to a race: who could get acquired for more than a billion dollars first? The R&D company went through a long, iterative process. Minimum-viable products were created, tested with users, and then sent back for revision. Meanwhile, the early-stage company decided they could circumvent the entire development cycle. Instead of building a product, they built an idea and used social media to create hype around it. Whether the product existed or not, they could show a large number of people wanted it.

So, who wins this race?

Harbor sat down with Matthew Smith, CEO and founder of Fathym, a micro frontends platform for delivering future-proof web projects and applications, to talk about the lessons large companies can learn from startups on innovation, how to avoid overly hyped meme technologies, and the technology trends he’s most excited about.

What can OEMs, telcos and large enterprises learn from the world of startups?

We sit down with Jennifer Vancini, general partner at Mighty Capital, to discuss the importance of a product-first strategy, the challenges of digital transformation, ecosystems, the evolution of key roles and the emerging technologies that she is most excited about.

Mighty Capital stands out as a female-led venture capital fund with a diverse portfolio of technology companies in segments like AI healthcare, streaming services and blockchain. Jennifer Vancini is a General Partner of Mighty Capital. Jennifer has been investing for >10 years, and prior to Mighty Capital® built a family investment office where she achieved a 15x cash-on-cash return. Jennifer has held executive roles in corporate and strategic business development, especially in the high-growth security and mobile sectors with companies such as Telefonica, Symbian/Nokia, and Certicom, which she helped take public in Canada. Jennifer is currently the Vice-Chair of a Dean’s Advisory Council at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where she completed her MBA.

How do you predict the next big thing, the next unicorn, the next transformational technology?

We sit down with Lee Feldman to discuss the importance of true digital transformation and how that applies to Microsoft, the economies and business models being built around data, and the transformational technologies that are coming together in Web3 including blockchain, NFTs, augmented and virtual reality, digital twins, crypto, AI and more.

Lee Feldman is a senior strategist for M12 based out of the greater Seattle area. He is responsible for technology trend analysis, thesis development, and opportunity analysis influencing investment activities. He also conducts market and technical diligence for deals in areas of focus, including National Security technology, brain-computer interface (BCI), cybersecurity, data and AI, IoT, and enterprise IT.

He joined M12 from Microsoft’s corporate strategy team, where he advised Microsoft senior leadership on topics related to the business health and growth of the company. He also led strategic projects and customer engagement programs for Microsoft’s executive vice president of corporate strategy and core services engineering and operations.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Lee was a management consultant where he helped traditional software companies transform their business models towards XaaS models. He has a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a certification in entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan. Lee also sits on the board of directors for the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP).