Hacker News 47 – An Evening with Nathan Myhrvold

Our August Meetup will feature Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO,
and present Cofounder/CEO of Intellectual Ventures, a $6 billion
invention capital market.

From his article on Intellectual Venture’s purpose & business model:

“We’re really trying to create a capital market for inventions akin to the
venture capital market that supports start-ups and the private equity
market that revitalizes inefficient companies. Our goal is to make
applied research a profitable activity that attracts vastly more private
investment than it does today so that the number of inventions
generated soars.

A functioning invention capital market and industry can enable inventors
around the globe to create hundreds of thousands more inventions each
year than are being made today. Sure, some of those inventions will be
silly or useless. But what matters is the top 1% that will make our lives
vastly richer and better. Create an invention capital market, nurture an
invention capital industry, and the resulting virtuous cycle will surely
transform the world.”

– http://hbr.org/2010/03/the-big-idea-funding-eureka

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Official Bio

“Dr. Nathan Myhrvold founded Intellectual Ventures (IV) in 2000 after
retiring from his position as chief strategist and technology officer of
Microsoft Corp. During his 14-year tenure at Microsoft, Myhrvold helped
spearhead many of the company’s most successful products and
founded Microsoft Research.

Today, Myhrvold is focused on building a market for invention, where
inventors realize the value of their ideas. IV manages one of the largest
and fastest growing intellectual property (IP) portfolios in the world, with
more 40,000+ assets and $6 billion+ in total committed capital. IV’s
investors include many of the world’s most innovative companies and
renowned academic and research institutions.

Myhrvold earned a postdoctoral fellowship from the Department of
Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University
while working with Professor Stephen Hawking on research in
cosmology, quantum field theory in “curved spacetime” and quantum
theories of gravitation. Before Cambridge, Myhrvold earned a doctorate
in theoretical and mathematical physics, and a master’s degree in
mathematical economics from Princeton University.

Myhrvold is an avid inventor himself and holds hundreds of issued
patents.”

– http://www.intellectualventures.com/about/leadership/nathan-myhrvold

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Schedule

5pm: Doors Open
6pm: Speaking begins