Investor Avie Tevanian on the importance of creating great platforms

Avie Tevanian joined investment firm Elevation Partners today as a managing director. Tevanian spent more than a decade at Apple before he retired in 2006. He is credited with helping turn around the company as the chief software technology officer, in charge of Apple’s vaunted OS X operating system, which is now used on everything from the MacBook air to the iPhone. At Elevation, he’ll rub shoulders with the likes of U2’s Bono, investor Roger McNamee, and former Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson. We caught up with him for an interview.

VentureBeat: What made you want to look at technology from the investor’s side?

Avie Tevanian: I was happily enjoying retirement from Apple for almost four years. I have known people at Elevation since even before I left Apple. I have known [Elevations partner] Fred [Anderson] for many years. I have known the other guys for a while. Last year, they wanted to add members to their team. They brought (former eBay executive) Rajiv Dutta on board and were talking to me. I really like these people and working with them. I really like the opportunity to find companies to invest in. I decided to take the plunge.

VB: Were you investing on your own?

AT: Not in any significant way. Just as an occasional angel investor.

VB: How does the technology landscape look to you now?

AT: The part that interests me is the consumer side. I love what has gone on since I left Apple. There has been a complete revolution in social networking on the web. Mobile is totally different. We had cell phones and now we have smart phones. The things we do are just incredible. These things are just starting.

VB: Apple’s fortunes have turned around and you were a part of that. Are you surprised at how well they’ve done?

AT: The company has done phenomenally well. I don’t think any of us could have predicted it could have done this well. But I always believed that the things we were working on would have a big pay off. To see those things come to fruition is incredibly gratifying.

VB: Do you think phones are a great place to invest, or is this the domain of big companies?

AT: There are companies of all sizes involved in mobile. It’s still possible to have a small startup, but mid-size and large companies can do it.

VB: It seems like industrial design has really taken off. Where will that go?

AT: One of the things we did at Apple, and Steve Jobs was one of the first to pick up on this, was that industrial design mattered to a whole lot of products. Purchasing decisions have moved from being based on technical specifications to a world where decisions are based on an emotional connection to the device. A lot of that emotional connection comes from industrial design and how the software works. Here we are, many years later, and everybody else is finally starting to figure that out. Everyone now knows that is important.

VB: I just came back from the Consumer Electronics Show. There was a big presence for 3-D TV, eBook readers, and tablet computers. Are these on the right track?

AT: I am on the board of Dolby. It’s a reasonably big player in the 3-D space, although that is not well known. There is definitely a trend there. It is very early on and it remains to be seen where it goes. The tablets and eBook readers are still very early. There is something in those spaces. In tablets, it is in the very early innings and we should be watching what Apple does. They have a good track record in solving tough problems.

VB: What do you think of cloud-based computing?

AT: The cloud is now a new opportunity. It’s where new services will be created by new companies. It’s going to be an open landscape. We have to watch it and watch how the infrastructure grows to support it.

VB: What do you think of Silicon Valley these days?

AT: It’s always been the hotbed for technology. I don’t think that’s going to change. It’s a wonderful place to live and it’s a wonderful place to have our office. I will look at things internationally, but that is opportunity based. My primary focus will be local.

VB: What did you learn from the Mac OS X experience?

AT: To me, the lesson of OS X is that platforms are important. They are big investments and you can build on them. When we first created Mac OS X, I don’t think anyone envisioned it would be on a phone. We saw it, eventually. It shows a good platform can evolve into things that were never anticipated. It can be a really good investment.