"When it comes to successfully identifying the likely success of companies, and steering an effective investment strategy, there is one organization that appears to be well ahead of the pack. The company is WR Hambrecht and the person guiding their analysis and decision-making process utilizing a proprietary software system he developed more than a decade ago is Thomas Thurston, Partner…
Clayton Christensen was exceptional, both personally and professionally. He impacted the world on many levels, and today I’d like to focus on how a narrow aspect of his work has proven to be amongst the most profound: profit-seeking. At its most basic, Christensen restated what we already know – businesses want to make money. (Although that’s sort of like saying…
This Saturday, Dec 21st at 1:30 pm ET on CNBC, WR Hambrecht + Co and Growth Science will be featured on Advancements hosted by Ted Danson. Bringing advanced technologies into the world of venture capital is changing the industry by combining the best of both humans and machines to help investors better find top startups, and to level the playing…
In this special guest feature, Bob Fletcher from Verne Global reflects on the recent HPC and AI on Wall Street conference. "While obviously the New York financial community was the focus for this conference one of the best presentations came from out-of-town. Thomas Thurston, CTO at San Francisco based WR Hambrecht Ventures shared an amazing use case for DNN training.…
Venture capital is a “hit business.” The relatively few hits pay for the flops. And it's the tantalizing possibility of a mega-hit that animates the industry, that keeps investors dreaming, prospecting and writing checks. For venture capitalists, it’s the hits and the mega-hits that make the high flop rate tolerable. But is frequent venture failure inescapable? Could a probabilistic approach…
Boston-based online diagnostic platform Buoy Health has recently announced the details of its Series B funding round. Buoy is a revolutionary health platform powered by advanced AI and offers users medical support in real time. “Based on our proprietary MESE™ models, Buoy’s impact relative to the amount of money they’ve raised is astounding, and we’re very bullish on their future,”…
The newly refreshed HPC & AI on Wall Street conference has selected WR Hambrecht Partner and Chief Technology Officer, Thomas Thurston to give an invited talk titled, “Using Data Science and AI to Guide Investment Decisions.” HPC and AI on Wall Street takes place September 11-12, 2019 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Thurston, a widely respected Venture Capitalist and…
As a venture capitalist/data scientist, I’ve spent over a decade arguing that other venture capitalists and innovators can improve their decision making (a lot) through data science. While the idea seems like a no-brainer today, 11 years ago it was heresy. Reactions to my work were historically hostile and emotional, and that’s putting it politely. Words like “data science” and…
Guest Post by Angelina Cheok Back in 2015, China’s economy appeared to be at a crossroads. Its slowing growth seemed to herald a death knell for the country’s start-up boom, while the outlook for its tech sectors look equally grim. Think tanks, academics and journalists like the Harvard Business Review and Foreign Policy published scathing critiques of China’s inability to…
Guest Post by Angelina Cheok Would you hop onto a scooter with a stranger? An act that would seem crazy just a few years ago is now mainstream in some parts of the world. It’s weird to remember a time before ride-sharing. Uber has become a verb. As Uber rapidly expands and plots world domination, it's met surprising success in…
