Correlation’s Coats headlines upcoming PC West event in Half Moon Bay

What’s hot, and what’s not?

The question will undoubtedly be top of mind when more than 400 VCs, LPs and others gather for the annual PartnerConnect West conference at the Ritz-Carlton on Oct. 10-11 in Half Moon Bay, California.

The array of investors who attend will get lots of chances to network and to hear the latest in what’s new in the environs of professional investing.

One of the eight VC-focused panels scheduled for the two-day event is appropriately titled, “The Top, Blistering Hot Sectors Venture Capital Likes Right Now.”

Scheduled to appear on the opening panel are investors Kyle Lui from DCM Ventures, Kathleen Utecht from Core Innovation Capital, Alberto Yepez from ‎Trident Capital Cybersecurity, and Brian Yee from Sherpa Capital.

In addition, David Coats, founder and managing partner of San Diego-based Correlation Ventures, will present a keynote address at the conference.

Correlation is among the new breed of VC firms attempting to bring computer analytics into the mainstream of the deal-making process.

Coats and his investing team at five-year-old Correlation make most of their investment decisions using calculations derived from an in-house database of more than 80,000 deals from the past quarter century.

The deals represent nearly all of venture investments that had been made over the past quarter century.

Coats said the analytics crunched from repository has enabled Correlation to closely examine long-held common wisdom about the most profitable investing strategies.

Coats said he’ll delve into the “many widely-held presumptions about U.S. venture capital.”

“I’ll explore the actual data to see which of these presumptions are true, and which are not,” Coats said. “I think you’ll be surprised!”

Some of those presumptions include such widely held beliefs “that the vast majority of the most successful winners in venture are led by a handful of venture funds; that West Coast venture investments have outperformed East Coast investments and that tech investments have outperformed healthcare investments.”

PartnerConnect West features three sector meetings in one, Buyouts West, VCJ West and the Private Real Estate Summit West, as well as a Family Office Symposium.

The event is organized by the editors at Buyouts Insider, publisher of VCJ, PE Hub and Buyouts.

Action Item: For a complete list of the scheduled panels and panelists who have agreed to speak click here: http://bit.ly/2jPuojY

Photo of David Coats courtesy of Correlation Ventures