Netizen: Goldman Sachs

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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Things, Stuff

The Sectors Where the Internet of Things Really Matters

The Internet of Things is emerging as the third wave in the development of the internet. While the fixed internet that grew up in the 1990s connected 1 billion users via PCs, and the mobile internet of the 2000s connected 2 billion users via smartphones (on its way to 6 billion), the IoT is expected to connect 28 billion “things” to the internet by 2020, ranging from wearable devices such as smartwatches to automobiles, appliances, and industrial equipment. ..... five key verticals where the IoT will be tested first: Connected Wearable Devices, Connected Cars, Connected Homes, Connected Cities, and the Industrial Internet........ Within the vast Industrials sector, the IoT represents a structural change akin to the industrial revolution.

Monday, December 10, 2012

This 140 billion should have been part of the first stimulus. And if it was not, it has to be done now. This is the new interstate highway. Google showed the way. And now the US federal government has to step in and make it happen.

COLD WATER FOR GOOGLE FIBER FANS: COVERING THE WHOLE COUNTRY COULD COST $140 BILLION

it would cost Google an estimated $140 billion or more to make Google Fiber available to the rest of the United States. Since Google has “only” $45 billion on hand and since its annual CAPEX budget is $4.5 billion, it’s highly unlikely that Google Fiber will be rolling into most peoples’ neighborhoods in the near future

Thursday, January 13, 2011

FinTech: I Am Loving The Term

This is not the first time I am feeling like Fred Wilson stole my idea.

Fred Wilson: Calling All Fintech Entrepreneurs

Chris Dixon: Predicting The Future Of The Internet Is Easy: Anything It Hasn't Yet Dramatically Transformed, It Will.: Facebook’s “private” IPO with Goldman Sachs ..... the dot com crash of 2000 disillusioned many .... Already transformed: music, news, advertising, telecom. Being transformed: finance, commerce, TV & movies, real estate, politics & government. Soon to be transformed (among many others): healthcare, education, energy. .... The modern economy runs primarily on information, and the Internet is by orders of magnitude the greatest information mechanism ever invented. ..... People, companies, investors and even countries can’t stop this transformation.

I have ready many blog posts by Chris Dixon, and the content of most of them have been super, but the title of this blog post stands out. This is the best title to a Chris Dixon blog post yet of all I have read yet. It is bold, it is obvious. There is no beating around the bush. It is simple. Simple enough that makes you feel as to why you yourself did not push out that blog post title. You could have had it to your name.

This is Chris Dixon's best blog post of all I have ever read, and I have read a few.

Microsoft Doldrums

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...

Image via CrunchBaseThe chances of Microsoft coming from behind in the mobile phone space are slim. The chances of Microsoft coming from behind in the tablet space are slim. The chances of Windows and Office getting the sexy back are also slim. So what is a company the size of Microsoft supposed to do?

How To Date An Indian: Andrea Miller

Amitabh Bachchan via last.fm

This blog post by an Andrea Miller normally would not fall in tech and biz categories - technbiz.blogspot.com - except that she is an entrepreneur, and this blog has touched upon the world of online dating before. Besides, anything goes. And this post seems to be Miller's first and only post at The Huffington Post. She comes across as a fairly accomplished individual. Most people start at the collective level. Individual spark comes later. That is why so few of the relationships out there are cross-cultural, inter-racial, even in a diverse city like New York.

Online Dating Newsflash: Race And Religion Matter

Andrea Miller: Bio

.... founder and CEO of YourTango ..... a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School ..... positions with Goldman Sachs, ICF Consulting and Enron’s international finance team. While with Enron, Andrea was based in Mumbai, India for three years. ...... a frequent panelist and guest speaker in classes at Harvard University, Columbia University, Fordham University, The Wharton School and New York University. .... a licensed private pilot, and is a passionate karate practitioner ..... one of the original co-heads of the New York Chapter of 85 Broads, an independent global network of female professionals and students. She actively seeks to promote entrepreneurship among women; she is the co-founder of the Women Entrepreneurs Network, an active network of females who represent some of the tri-state area's most talented and promising young entrepreneurs.

Andrea Miller: How To Date An Indian

Indians are the true Chosen People .....There are obvious reasons one would want to date an Indian, such as how successful and professionally desirable they are. Indians dominate as engineers, doctors, lawyers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. They make up a large proportion of our graduate students -- just walk around the campuses of Harvard, Columbia or Stanford or and you will see these incredibly attractive brown people all over the place....... Indian people tend to be really good looking. ..... According to Wikipedia*, "India holds the highest number of Miss World winners, only to be tied with Venezuela." ...... Most Indians are innately gracious, social creatures; they highly value friends and family and have a calendar filled with various holidays and occasions to celebrate, which they typically do with gusto. Those endless jubilant dance numbers in Bollywood movies pretty much channel the Indian soul. Moreover, Indian men love to dance. If for no other reason other than you want someone to dance with you (or without you for that matter), date an Indian. ....... learn seven things that should ingratiate you with them. The first five have to do with Bollywood. Indians take Bollywood and their celebrities very seriously. ....... If you bust out something like, "Yea, I loved Kuch Kuch Hota Hai," you are very likely to get a second date. .... Major bonus points if you suggest seeing a Hindi movie together. ...... Bhangra ...exhibit the right dance moves, i.e. patting an imaginary dog while screwing in an imaginary light bulb. ..... Indians love their food. Probably more than they love dancing. ...... Indians love when you speak their language. ..... there are several iPhone apps that will give you translations .... I hope Laxmi, Goddess of Prosperity, smiles on you as you endeavor to date one of her people. ..... one more big bonus when it comes to dating an Indian: communication with cabbies. Think I'm kidding? New Yorkers: Just imagine if you could stop a taxi during the 4pm transition time and your date could say, in Hindi, "Hey brother, will you please take us to Spring and 6th?"

Okay, so this blog post is not what I thought it might be. I came here hoping to get all defensive. But this is quite a flattering piece, and, I must say, hilarious to boot. This post is as entertaining as a Bollywood masala movie. The blogger's description of Bhangra is the most hilarious I have ever seen: "Bhangra ...exhibit the right dance moves, i.e. patting an imaginary dog while screwing in an imaginary light bulb."

The post is funny but she is curiously right in some ways. I guess it takes an outsider to get you some perspective. Bollywood movies were stuff you did not watch too much of when I was growing up: good students watched movies only moderately. I came to America and the Bollywood movies became my culture.

She is to the point about food. During my road trip across America I realized I missed Desi food more than my family.

"I hope Laxmi, Goddess of Prosperity, smiles on you as you endeavor to date one of her people." Hilarious. A college friend once said to me, it was a green card, gold card swap.

That cabbie part. I never thought that was an advantage. I mean, I am very much a subway person. But when you talk to a brown person, you might as well talk Hindi. They appreciate it. White guys similarly have advantages on Capitol Hill and Wall Street. Although I am not so sure about Wall Street. Goldman Sachs is one third brown. And we are about to send Reshma to DC, so we will be good there too.

Reshma 2010, Square, And Pro.Act.Ly

Okay, so this picture is me right out of high school. You can see I was trying hard to imitate Amitabh Bachchan's hairstyle. If you don't know who that is, you are an illiterate. He just so happens to be the most recognized face on the planet. You don't have to date an Indian to know that.

There is Hindi, and there is English. There is Bollywood, and there is Hollywood. There is democracy, and there is democracy. We are breaking even. I am all for cross-cultural understanding. Peace and love.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

The United States Of Entrepreneurs

Visionary Entrepreneurs Will Recreate The World
That StartUp Mentality (2)
That StartUp Mentality

The Economist: The United States Of Entrepreneurs
Special Report

Heroic entrepreneurs Azim Premji, who transformed Wipro from a vegetable-oil company into a software giant ......... entrepreneurship as a powerful force for doing good as well as doing well. ...... in almost all instances it involves not creative destruction but creative creation. ... The lights may have gone out on Wall Street, but Silicon Valley continues to burn bright. ....... TiE was founded in Silicon Valley in 1992 ....... Wipro’s Mr Premji, was educated at Stanford ....... somebody who offers an innovative solution to a (frequently unrecognised) problem. ....... “the bold and imaginative deviator from established business patterns and practices”. ....... “the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control”. ....... entrepreneurship, like all business, is a social activity ........ flourishes in clusters. A third of American venture capital flows into two places, Silicon Valley and Boston, and two-thirds into just six places, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and Austin as well as the Valley and Boston ........ Harland Sanders started franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65. Gary Burrell was 52 when he left Allied Signal to help start Garmin, a GPS giant. Herb Kelleher was 40 when he founded Southwest Airlines ........ the average boss was 39 when he or she started ....... Venture capitalists fund only a small fraction of start-ups. The money for the vast majority comes from personal debt or from the “three fs”—friends, fools and families. .......... Brin and Page founded the company without any money at all and launched it with about $1m raised from friends and connections. ....... some of the most successful entrepreneurs concentrate on processes rather than products ....... Jack Welch tried to transform General Electric from a Goliath into a collection of entrepreneurial Davids. ....... Microsoft works closely with a network of 750,000 small companies around the world. Some 3,500 companies have grown up in Nokia’s shadow. .......... downturns can act as a “good cold shower for the economic system”, releasing capital and labour from dying sectors and allowing newcomers to recombine in imaginative new ways. ....... The information age is making it ever easier for ordinary people to start businesses and harder for incumbents to defend their territory. Back in 1960 the composition of the Fortune 500 was so stable that it took 20 years for a third of the constitutent companies to change. Now it takes only four years. ....... advanced economies are characterised by a shift from manufacturing to services. Service firms are usually smaller than manufacturing firms and there are fewer barriers to entry. ...... Microsoft, Genentech, Gap and The Limited were all founded during recessions. Hewlett-Packard, Geophysical Service (now Texas Instruments), United Technologies, Polaroid and Revlon started in the Depression.
Managing entrepreneurship
Time for entrepreneurship
The United States of Entrepreneurs Google and Facebook barely existed a decade ago. .... America was the first country, in the late 1970s, to ditch managerial capitalism for the entrepreneurial variety. .... willing to sacrifice old certainties for new opportunities ...... the world’s most mature venture-capital industry ..... Highland Capital Partners receives about 10,000 plausible business plans a year, conducts about 1,000 meetings followed by 400 company visits and ends up making 10-20 investments a year, all of which are guaranteed to receive an enormous amount of time and expertise. ......... Stanford University gained around $200m in stock when Google went public. ..... 52% of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants, up from around a quarter ten years ago. ...... In 2006 foreign nationals were named as inventors or co-inventors in a quarter of American patent applications, up from 7.6% in 1998. ......... “patent trolls”—lawyers who bring cases against companies for violating this or that trumped-up patent ........ rising xenophobia is making the country less open to immigrants. ....... wealth-creating universities, such as Harvard and Stanford ...... Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs, who cut their teeth in Stanford and Silicon Valley, are now returning home in ever larger numbers, determined to recreate Silicon Valley’s magic in Bangalore or Shanghai. ......... Goldman Sachs is spending $100m over the next five years to promote entrepreneurialism among women in the developing world ...... —the EU and Japan—are far less entrepreneurial. ....... only 5% of European companies created from scratch since 1980 have made it into the list of the 1,000 biggest EU companies by market capitalisation. The equivalent figure for America is 22%. ....... different cultural attitudes ...... When Denis Payre was thinking about leaving a safe job in Oracle to start a company in the late 1980s, his French friends gave him ten reasons to stay put whereas his American friends gave him ten reasons to get on his bike. In January last year Mr Payre’s start-up, Business Objects, was sold to Germany’s SAP for €4.8 billion. ......... cultural problems are reinforced by structural ones. ..... A depressing number of European universities remain suspicious of industry, subsisting on declining state subsidies but still unwilling to embrace the private sector. ......... America has at least 50 times as many “angel” investors as Europe ..... In the 1990s Silicon Valley’s moneybags believed that they should invest “no further than 20 miles from their offices”, but lately the Valley’s finest have been establishing offices in Asia and Europe. .............. technological breakthroughs are being made in many more places ....... applying American methods to new economies can start a torrent of entrepreneurial creativity. ........... The success of Skype, which pioneered internet-based telephone calls, was a striking example of the new European entrepreneurialism. The company was started by a Swede and a Dane who contracted out much of their work to computer programmers in Estonia. In 2005 they sold it to eBay for $2.6 billion. .......... the Japanese have been less successful than the Europeans at adapting to entrepreneurial capitalism
Entrepreneurs in India and China Bollywood produces 1,000 films a year that are watched by 3.6 billion people (the figures for Hollywood are 700 and 2.6 billion). .... In 2003-05 some 5,000 tech-savvy Indians with more than five years’ experience of working in America returned to India. ...... The British introduced the ideal of meritocracy to India; Jawaharlal Nehru gave it a technocratic twist by launching the Indian Institutes of Technology; and India’s natural love of argument did the rest. ......... When Wu Yi, the country’s then vice-premier, visited America in 2006, she took more than 200 entrepreneurs with her. About 60 Chinese companies are now traded on NASDAQ. ....... So many Chinese expats have returned in the past few years that Valley-slang has given them a special name, B2C (back to China). ....... Baidu is a Chinese Google; Dangdang is a Chinese Amazon; Taobao is a Chinese eBay; Oak Pacific Interactive is a mishmash of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and Craigslist; Chinacars is a Chinese American Automobile Association. .......... Baidu’s founder, Robin Li, raised funds from American venture capitalists and offered stock options to his earliest employees. ......... Jeff Chen has developed an internet browser which has attracted venture capital from Denmark and is available in 20 languages. ......... Some of the most innovative entrepreneurs are working with mobile telephony ....... the Chinese reportedly maintain three sets of books, one for their bankers, one for their accountants and one for the government. Businessmen often neglect their firms because they spend so much time cultivating political connections.
Lands of opportunity
The formula for entrepreneurship would-be Silicon Valleys: Silicon Alley in New York, Silicon Glen in Scotland and even, depressingly, Silicon Roundabout in London. ........ the anchor-firm model ........ People become entrepreneurs when the economy stops supplying jobs. ....... the local-hero model ...... culture makes almost all the difference ....... economic policies matter too .... culture can be changed ..... India and China have become the second and third most entrepreneurial countries in the world, trailing only America ......... a vibrant higher education system .... openness to outsiders. Emigrés have always been more entrepreneurial than their stay-at-home cousins: the three most entrepreneurial spaces in modern history have been the ones inhabited by the Jewish, Chinese and Indian diasporas ........... they mix and match knowledge ........ Shai Agassi, an Israeli-American businessman based in Palo Alto, California, is promising to upend the car industry by going electric ........ local cultures matter
Entrepreneurs doing good
The entrepreneurial society

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Early Stage Venture Capital

The term venture capital reminds me of the go go 90s. Detractors kept giving credit to Alan Greenspan and what not, but Bill Clinton was the one steering the ship. His leadership was key to the new horizons you started seeing.

Venture capitalists do it for money. But the very idea reminds me of micro credit. Venture capital is micro credit for the rich. You have no collateral, just the intangibles like maybe an idea, or a basic product, a basic team.

I have looked at some goliath companies like say Microsoft or Dell and wondered why they don't cash out some at their peak and then put that money into venture capital. The ego gets in the way. They think they are going to keep churning out new stuff.

Venture capital is going to India and China. There is hope.

Self interest is a good thing. That Adam Smith invisible hand thing is a point. A lot of people driven by self-interest end up doing public good. The market works great most of the time.

And this thing about going public. Sam Walton one day just showed up at Wall Street. He walked into a firm and asked the receptionist who he should talk to. He wanted to take his company public. He was deep in debt at the time. She lead him to this lone guy from Arkansas who was at the firm.

For every rock star status band, there is one in every town hoping to be one. Hugely successful companies come only a few in a generation. It is hard to figure out which. But then there are numbers involved. Progress can be measured.

On the other hand, money is not enough motivation. Groupthink can set in. Ego can come into play. But if you are a painter, you will paint, no matter what. If you are an entrepreneur, you will jump into the river, no matter what. You will do it. You will seek and find your groove.

In The News

Earlier is Better for Venture Capital BusinessWeek Provenance said that it expects to make 20 to 40 investments ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 per company during the course of the fund. ..... 2006 is shaping up as a very active year for early-stage companies to receive venture capital funding. .... 74 startup and seed companies raised money from venture investors during the second quarter of this year, up from 54 last year. ..... entrepreneurs are willing to get out of their comfort zones and start new projects, and VCs are willing to back great talent ..... Sequeira ... 90% of his investments are in early-stage companies. .... the cost of doing business has decreased significantly. .... funds typically run in 10-year cycles. VCs want to get in on the bottom level, because by the sixth or seventh year a company will have grown to the point where it will be acquired or go public. ..... Right now is the start of a new cycle of funding .... This is a very good time if you are an entrepreneur looking for seed or early seed money
Making India a hub of venture capital CNET News.com, CA Chadha, who left Goldman Sachs in 2000 to form WestBridge ..... an unprecedented explosion of wealth in South Asia. ..... Venture capital investment in India surged 400 percent, to $3.6 billion, during the first half of 2006, compared with the same period last year ..... China outpaced India with $5 billion .... 124 transactions. ..... At least seven U.S. venture firms are raising funds specifically to invest in India. ...... India will emerge as "one of the core venture capital investing hubs in the world." ...... Rupert Murdoch's eVentures India .... Google angel investor Ram Shriram ...... the high quality of the entrepreneurs and the amazing pace of the market ...... a networking group, the U.S.-India Venture Capital Association .... Out of WestBridge's current portfolio of 25 companies, three are in the wireless domain, four are in consumer Internet and three in biotech. ...... Sequoia hopes to combine its experience in helping to turn start-ups into technology powerhouses such as Apple Computer, Oracle and Cisco Systems with WestBridge's knowledge of local market conditions in India.......
Venture capital investing in China doubles in Q2 2006 from Q2 2005 AltAssets 'Information technology remains the beneficiary of the majority of investment activity in China, as it does in the US and Europe, but it is also interesting to see pockets of activity in business and consumer services, healthcare, and even in alternative energy occurring in China.'
India, the Venture Capital & Private Equity Landscape American Venture Magazine, CA Aided by a growing domestic market and a projected 8-plus percent GDP growth rate, India’s stock markets are booming like never before making them one of the highest performing in the world.....
India hot on US venture capital radar Zee News, India over 44 US-based VCs have either raised or are in process of raising between 40 and 400 million dollars for early-stage investments in Indian companies over the next 4-5 years. ..... take the total funds to about 4.4 billion dollars. This amount is equivalent to investment worth 22 billion dollars in the us or Europe on purchasing power parity basis ...... traditionally favourite sectors like IT, BPO, telecom and internet
BusinessWeek.com, 8/3/06, "Before You Accept VC Funding…" Venture capital can be the best thing that ever happened to your company or your worst nightmare. ..... a term sheet—a document that details the amount the VCs want to invest, their conditions and requirements, legal rights, financial terms, and the controls they are seeking. ...... negotiating terms ...... No matter how sure you are that you're asking for enough, make sure more money is available if you need it. The odds are you will. ....... Do you get along? Are they a group of people you would want to deal with on a frequent basis for the next three to five years? ....... you are going to be branded by the VC you choose ..... Ask the VCs these tough questions and check their answers with others .... the VCs have as many warts as you do. ..... Some of the conditions may not seem significant now, but could come back to haunt you later. ...... used-car dealer tactics ....... the highest valuation may not be the best deal. ..... the longer the VCs wait, the more willing you become to accept their onerous terms. The best way to accelerate timetables is to create competition with other firms or via other funding options. ..... The key is to know what you're getting into and have reasonable expectations.
BusinessWeek.com, 8/1/06, "15 Things You Need to Score VC Funding" instead of soliciting venture capital for your new startup, you're better off buying a lottery ticket. You'll save time, money, and spare yourself a lot of heartache. But when you've reached the stage in your business where you have a product that customers love, a business model that works, and a strong management team, everything changes. ...... Their due-diligence process often takes months and is extremely rigorous. Most companies don't make it through. To prepare, you should look at your company the way they will. ......
BusinessWeek.com, 7/17/06, "Venture Capital: The Good, Bad, and Ugly" There often comes a time in the life of a startup when the founder must decide if it's better to own a small piece of a big pie. ..... there are many strings attached to this money—it's practically like getting married. ..... there are many strings attached to this money—it's practically like getting married. ...... It's always about who you know. ..... How can you tell if the VP of sales is more adept at selling himself than your product? ....... Good venture capitalists will support you when things get tough. ..... Venture capitalists are in it just for the money. Most are not out to do good for the world. ..... In their world, the need to create high shareholder returns always triumphs over personal relationships. ....... You could find yourself reporting to a new CEO, or be ousted from the company you founded. ..... They will have the right to sue you for all you own if you forgot to give them any bad news..... differences in opinion usually emerge and personal interests often come into play. It can be a full-time job for a CEO to manage VCs...... Disagreements about strategy often arise between the entrepreneur who is on a mission to change the world, and the venture capitalist who can do no wrong. Like entrepreneurs, VCs aren't created equal and they often know less than the entrepreneur about the product, customer needs, and market opportunity. ....... Your choice is to finance your startup yourself and stay small, or take the risk and raise venture capital. Just be aware that in this marriage, there is no divorce.

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