Susan Wu: The First Virtual Venture Capitalist

Susan Wu is a VC at Charles River and is one of the judges for the Edelman/Electric Sheep Second Life Business Plan contest. And she is a blogger.

Susan describes what she is looking for in business plans:

1. The team, and its authenticity and empathy for the user experience.
2. Unfair advantage.
3. Attractive market.

Susan also highlights the value of virtual goods:

1. Virtual goods can confer real economic utility,
2. It can be much cheaper to buy virtual goods than procuring them via more traditional methods - such as actually spending the requisite time necessary in-game or in-world,
3. Virtual goods can generate attractive investment returns.

Ultimately Susan sees problems for Second Life. "I also think that their high technical barriers to participation and the fact that SL is a closed standards system ultimately deters them from reaching mass market adoption."