My first experience of technology entrepreneurship in India was in 1994 while I was still a grad student at MIT. The most vivid memory I have of that experience is that it took me 6 months to get a phone line. It was before wireless. It was, most certainly, before venture capital in India. Things […]
Google – Android Open Mobile Platform
PC sales in Japan have been sinking for the past 3 quarters and 40% of Japs are using their mobile to reply emails. (related news) I guess while the world is moving away from heavy weight desktops and seems like no one wants vista … I think google’s announcement for Android as Open Mobile platform […]
Amit Varma
He is a Mint columnist and I have not read all his columns as I have been rather busy but I remember reading one in August which I found amusing and instructive. Here is the link I hope to read more of Mr. Varma’s writing. In the US I was a regular reader of Walter […]
Inner Circle
Attracting talent is enormously important. I saw some earlier threads on this so I thought I would share how we are trying to do this at Eko. We created a pool of stock that advisory board members and early employees can invest in. This stock is issued at approximately 3X the founders round. The 3X […]
IT Magazine – Innovation in Startups
I wrote an article for IT Magazine outlining specific areas of innovation that we are seeing in startups on a systemic basis, and what seems to be most important aspects. Please find it here. Broadly, we see less of “invention” but more need to make incremental innovations on execution. The key areas for such innovation […]
Great read: SaaSy security suits small businesses
Absolutely credible and intuitive assessment of the consolidated and de-productized information security market by David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners. David has hit the bullseye here, beautifully explaining the current and underlying bottlenecks ailing the business of information security. Personally, I feel this is a brilliant take on the future of the IT security industry. […]
Sweat equity in new ventures
I recently read one article about compensation in early stage ventures. One of my friends is planning to invest in a startup where he is one the four partners of which two of them will be running the show while the other two will be just investors. The proposed equity structure is 25 percent each […]
Consumer Push on Mobile
Mint published an article (contributed by WSJ) Why Microsoft, RIM Fight Is Entering the Consumer Market “Already, Apple Inc.’s iPhone for consumers is forcing handset makers to rethink their own hardware designs. Meanwhile, Google Inc. is expected to jump into the mobile-phone market, hoping to court consumers by delivering software to handset makers and phone […]
Compensation in early stage ventures
Folks, I am not sure if this has been discussed before. If so, can you pls direct me to the relevant posting? I would like to know about the standard practices to decide compensation for early stage employees. Consider this example: I am planning to hire a person at the CxO level. My company is […]
Morgan Stanley on Technology
Morgan Stanley released this presentation on current state of technology and internet, and key trends that they see. Besides being a good overview, couple of things that I found interesting: The globalization of technology markets Consumers and not Enterprise is becoming key driver of technology adoption (not just the internet, but beyond that) The shift […]
EVS Report on VC/PE in India
Just saw this report from Evalueserve on Indian PE/VC market. Compared to recent data that we see on a regular basis, this report has a nice perspective on the history of VC/PE and how it has evolved over last 10-15 years. Also touches on the broad themes for investment and growth in India. Interesting read.
It’s about the People, People
This is motivated by the Alok’s post on “Miniaturization of VC†that asked what technologies would enable VC’s to manage a large portfolio of companies to moderate exits. My contention is that for such companies no armchair quarterbacking will suffice, no matter how good the remote control is. It is all about human capital – […]