B u l l e t i n - Noble and Greenough School

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Supporting women is a subtle but
persistent theme in Fonstad’s pursuits.
In late winter, she was jumping on a
plane to Cambodia—but not to seal a
bold new deal. Instead, she was visiting
shelters for girls rescued from sex slavery.
The trip was her first as board chair
of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which
is dedicated to helping girls rebuild
their lives after slavery and prostitution.
“I believe that success is having
courage and staying true to your ideas,
beliefs, passions,” Fonstad says. “It’s
very hard to do over a long period of
time, but it enables you to make a difference
in whatever you do.”
oN the ecoNomics oF eNergy
“Clean tech is a very broad area,” Fonstad
says. “We identify companies that
can change their respective industries—and
energy is a trillion-dollar
industry that has relied on a business
model that is approaching a hundred
years old. Now there’s an opportunity
to invest in both choice—in terms of
where we get our energy and how energy
is generated—as well as in efficiency.
So we’re really disrupting existing businesses,
everything from fuel to our light
bulb.”
She asserts that dependence on oil,
gas and coal won’t go away, but sustainable
and renewable options have enormous
potential. “New investment markets
of this magnitude emerge once or
twice a century; here we are at a most
nascent stage—with all the opportunity
in front of us,” wrote Fonstad in an online
article called “Why Clean Tech
Matters” (www.thunderbird.edu).
Fonstad predicts that the next decades
in energy will result in a paradigm
shift. “I think you’re going to find
two key themes. Whereas in the past
we relied exclusively on oil or natural
gas, in the future you’re going to see
more choices. Having more choices will
put competitive pressure on costs and
ideally will lower the impact of our
strategic interest in oil only.
“The second theme is around a whole
host of interesting technologies for
managing more efficiently how we use
energy. And that’s particularly interesting
as you couple it with the Internet,
with mobile devices, with smart devices.
So many applications are emerging for
how you manage as a consumer, how
you manage as a business and how you
manage as a community. We will start to
see some fascinating opportunities.”
what’s excitiNg right Now
“I’m investing in a lot of mobile and
mobile application companies these
days,” Fonstad says.
“I love working with entrepreneurs
who have a great vision and helping
enable that [vision] and working with
them to build a company,” she says.
“They really do all of the work, but I
can help facilitate and advise. When
they are successful, I feel like I’ve
helped build something great.
“I’m excited about one company in
particular, a mobile application company.
They developed their business just
as the iPhone was being launched. They
provide services for application developers,
and their service is installed
through applications on 99 percent of
smartphones in the world. They track
how consumers use each application, so
every click you make on a game to get
from level A to level B to level C, they
track that and provide information
back to the developers.
“They can also deliver a cross-
promotional advertisement for another
application within the game or other
app and they share the revenue with
the publisher. The advertisement is
based on your demographics and psychographics
[and behavior on the app].
It’s that targeted. They are embedded in
160,000 apps. It’s called Flurry.”
FONSTAD SAYS SIMPLY THAT SHe GOT a
great education at Nobles—even if no
one told her she would become a powerful
venture capitalist. “Many, many teachers
were influential: Sculco, Coggeshall,
Swayze, Mansfield, White,” she says.
“I had some great teachers who really
brought [learning] to life and made
it very relevant to a young girl.”
—HeATHeR SULLIVAN
the Nobles bulletiN spring 2012 25