SV Angel Team Counters Chamath Palihapitiya’s Startup Skepticism: ‘Innovation Is Not Dead’

Michael Arrington began moderating a panel at Disrupt NY today with Ron Conway, David Lee, and Brian Pokorny of SV Angel by noting that he was “pissed off” by investor Chamath Palihapitiya’s comments on Monday that startup quality is at an “all time low.”

“I don’t agree,” Lee said, explaining that he thinks the ideas in the last 12-18 months have been bigger and bolder than those before them, rather than “just mobile and social.”

“Innovation is not dead,” Conway added, explaining that SV Angel just added two new target sectors, education and the “Internet of things,” a term they’ve coined for hardware devices that are constantly connecting with the web.

Lee explained that SV Angel has had the opportunity to invest in a lot of exciting medical and biological startups thanks to the explosion of genomic and genetic data.

“There’s the chance to turn biology into a software problem. We think that’s really exciting,” he said.

Pokorny differed from Lee, explaing that he still sees huge markets for “fun” apps like Vine and Snapchat.

“It’s a messaging platform,” he said about Snapchat. “It’s massive. It’s the quickest way to send a message.”

“This is all bullshit, right?” Arrington countered, arguing against the ability of angel investors to really decide if something is a new trend that they want to invest in.