Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium

4:15PM, Wednesday, November 3, 1999
NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B03

START-UP INCUBATION:
The latest form of corporate Research and Development

Charles C. Wu
Panasonic Digital Concepts Center
About the talk:
Charles C. Wu, Managing Director of Panasonic Digital Concepts Center (PDCC), will be focusing on "START-UP INCUBATION: The latest form of corporate Research and Development". The Panasonic Digital Concepts Center was started in November 1998 with financial backing from Matsushita Electric Inc. (MEI), one of the top five product companies in the world. PDCC was formed to act as a window into Silicon Valley trends and startup companies for Matsushita. It provides services to startup companies ranging from pre-seed incubation services to mezzanine-stage direct investments. Our goal is to accelerate the development of technologies into society by combining the innovation and entrepreneurial strengths of Silicon Valley with the manufacturing and distribution strengths of Matsushita. To further strengthen the PDCC team, the Panasonic Internet Incubator has created an Internet Advisory Board of savvy Silicon Valley insiders to provide entrepreneurial wisdom and strategic advice to successfully accelerate the growth of these startup businesses.

Mission
PDCC's critical mission is to develop and invest in emerging technologies, best-of breed business processes and value-add software services and applications that drive toward connecting consumer electronic devices to each other and to the Internet.

Organization
The Panasonic Digital Concepts Center offers the first technology business incubator directly linked to a corporate venture fund. PDCC will utilize its team's experience in Silicon Valley and Matsushita's global resources to identify strategic investment and partnership opportunities to complement MEI's core business of consumer electronics. To accomplish its goal, the PDCC possesses the following core resources:

-Panasonic Internet Incubator
-Panasonic Ventures
-Panasonic Global Network

About the speaker:

Charles C. Wu, Managing Director

An industry veteran with more than 15 years of tech sector financial experience, including investments, acquisitions, IPOs, corporate sales, and MBOs, Wu combines his investing acumen, network of contacts and the backing of Matsushita to help tech start-ups deliver exciting new products and services.

With direct involvement in 33 tech investments throughout his career -- acting as principal on 20 -- Wu has helped companies whose activities range from networking to operating systems and from online gaming to LCD flat-panel displays.

Before joining PDCC, Wu was a vice president at Vertex Management, a global venture capital operation with offices in California, Singapore, and Israel. Vertex is funded by Southeast Asian financial and corporate institutions. A lead investor, Wu was also responsible for Vertex Management's marketing message to the US investment community. The combination of investing and marketing allowed him to develop relationships with leading venture-oriented investment, legal, recruiting, consulting, banking, and accounting organizations.

Before joining Vertex Management, Wu was a project manager at RSA Data Security, the world's leading provider of encryption solutions. He previously worked in investment banking in the technology group at CS First Boston, where he was involved in more than $2 billion of West Coast technology M&A activity. Wu has additional experience as a software engineer, engineering project manager, and in business development at Raytheon E-Systems.

Wu holds a Bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Masters in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Charles Wu is the centerpiece of the PDCC team and he brings an extensive amount of experience and expertise to the PDCC.

Contact information:

Charles C. Wu
19925 Stevens Creek Blvd., #200
Cupertino, CA 95014
408-861-3900
cwu@vc.panasonic.com