A Conversation with Fred Wilson and Carlota Perez

Carlota Perez. British-Venezuelan researcher, lecturer and international consultant, specialized in the social and economic impact of technical change and on how it changes opportunities for growth, development and competitiveness. In her acclaimed book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages she presented a theory of the role of finance in the creative destruction process brought about by technical change that has helped understand the boom and bust episodes of the last two decades. She is Professor of Technology and Development at the Technological University of Tallinn, Estonia, Research Associate at CFAP/CERF, Cambridge Finance, Judge Business School and Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Economics, both at Cambridge University, U.K. and Honorary Professor at SPRU, Science and Technology Policy Research, School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex, U.K. Her articles from the early 1980s have helped understand the relationship between technical and institutional change, between finance and technological diffusion and between technology and economic development. As consultant and lecturer she has worked for various public and private organizations, for major corporations (IBM, Cisco, Ericsson, Telefonica, etc,) and for governments in Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia as well as for the EU, the OECD, the UN and several multilateral agencies. In the early 1980s, when acting as Director of Technological development in the Ministry of Development in Venezuela, she founded the first venture capital agency in the country. She is frequently invited to participate as keynote speaker in major international academic, public policy and business events.

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Fred Wilson began his career in venture capital in 1987. He has focused exclusively on information technology investments for the past 17 years. From 1987 to 1996, Fred was first an Associate and then a General Partner at Euclid Partners, a New York based, early stage, venture capital firm founded in 1970. At Euclid Partners, Fred was responsible for a number of investments, including Freeloader, Multex, PowerCenter Systems and UCA&L. In 1996, Fred co-founded Flatiron Partners. While at Flatiron, Fred was responsible for 14 investments including, ITXC, Patagon, Starmedia, TheStreet.com and Yoyodyne. Fred currently serves on the boards of Alacra, Comscore, iBiquity, Return Path, Instant Information and Tacoda Systems. Fred has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Fred is married with three kids and lives in New York City.