Mobile Disruption & the Rise of the Local Web
Commerce is entering an era of democratization, changing the way people purchase and distribute goods and services. At the heart of this shift is the rise of mobile devices, which have helped revolutionize commerce by providing a platform to identify, locate and pay for goods and services. Customers can order services directly and have them delivered in near real-time, while local merchants can communicate directly with their customers. Still, a huge opportunity for disruption exists as much of the $3T in annual revenue generated from local services and commerce is offline.
Harry McCracken of TIME will moderate a panel with local commerce industry leaders, including Chi-Hua Chien, partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Bo Fishback, Co-Founder and CEO of Zaarly and Logan Green, Co-Founder and CEO of Zimride, to discuss how the local web is reinventing the way services are purchased and delivered and its implications for consumers, providers and the future of commerce.
Presenters
Chi-Hua Chien is a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He joined the firm in 2007 and focuses on investments in consumer technology. Chi-Hua serves on the board of directors or works closely with the teams at Booyah, Chegg, Chill, GOGII, Inspirato, Klout, Path, Reputation.com, Spotify, Twitter and Zaarly.
Before coming to KPCB, Chi-Hua worked with Accel Partners as a venture advisor and associate. He originated Accel’s investments in Facebook (FB) and AdECN (acquired by MSFT) and worked on the firm’s investments in AdMob (acquired by GOOG), fbFund, Glam, Trulia (TRLA) and YuMe Networks. Before becoming an investor, Chi-Hua was an early employee or co-founder of several startups, three of which achieved successful exits between US$30 million and US$300 million. Chi-Hua was the director of marketing at Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), where he led the marketing and inside sales teams and served as interim CFO for Coremetrics through two rounds of venture funding. He also was part of the early teams at MyListo (as a founder) and eCoverage.
Chi-Hua has an M.S. degree in industrial engineering, a B.S. degree in industrial engineering and a B.A. degree in economics, all from Stanford University. At Stanford, he was named a Mayfield Fellow and President’s Scholar. Chi-Hua also earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Chi-Hua was named one of the Top VCs Under 35 by VC Journal and a member of the Elite Eight VCs To Watch by Forbes.
Harry McCracken is an editor-at-large for TIME. He covers personal technology for the magazine and for TIME.com.
Prior to joining TIME, he was the founder and editor of Technologizer, an award-winning independent blog that is now part of TIME.com. He also spent 14 years at PC World, the world’s largest computing publication, serving as editor in chief of the magazine and website from 2004 to 2008.
McCracken is a winner of American Business Media’s Timothy White Award. He was honored as one of min’s 21 Most Intriguing People and was on Folio’s Folio 40 list of media movers and shakers. TechRepublic said he was the No. 1 techie to follow on Twitter, and Kiplinger Personal Finance named him as the best tech-gadget guru.
A graduate of Boston University, McCracken lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Marie.
Sunday, March 10
