PETER Hebert, a 1999 Syracuse University graduate, had what he calls his “‘Eureka!’ moment” while taking an introductory course in entrepreneurship in the Whitman School of Management at SU. That moment of entrepreneurial self-discovery led Hebert to become co-founder and managing partner of Lux Capital Management, a Manhattan-based venture capital firm specializing in next-wave technologies, less than a year after graduating from SU. “We resolved to carve out a niche and become a leading venture capital firm by focusing on advanced materials and nanotechnology,” Hebert says.
Within its first few years, the firm created Angstrom Publishing, the first investment research publication on nanotechnology, and spun off Lux Research, launching the first publicly traded nanotech fund, Lux Nanotech Index, and the PowerShares Lux Nanotech Portfolio. If Hebert’s rise in the venture capital world seems meteoric, imagine the pace of growth he anticipates as the promises of nanotechnology are realized. “I think it’s only a matter of time before manufacturing products becomes as cheap as copying files,” he says.
