Internet Satellites? Now You Have My Attention, Elon

Mars is esoteric to me. I already know what's on Mars. Earth is way more exciting. Glad to have you back on earth, Elon.



$100 Billion Plan To Save The World
Elon Musk’s Next Mission: Internet Satellites

Elon Musk shook up the automotive and aerospace industries with electric cars and cheap rockets. Now, he’s focused on satellites, looking at ways to make smaller, less-expensive models that can deliver Internet access across the globe ..... launching around 700 satellites, each weighing less than 250 pounds ...... it would cost $1 billion or more ..... hopes to bring the cost of manufacturing smaller models under $1 million

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My New Startup

My new tech startup is in the mobile gaming space. I could call it the first tech startup of my life.

In 1999 I was a founding member - not the leader - of a tech startup that did really well for a few rounds until the nuclear winter hit and it was Gone With The Wind. We were trying to build the top South Asian online community. In early 2008 I met the stated goal and raised 100K for my startup whose vision was what the Chromebook is today. In early 2009 me and my Co-Founder gave the money back to the investors in the face of an extremely ugly economy: we did not see us raising round two money. This is my third attempt. Third time is the charm. When you have four borderline genius developers working towards a private beta product for equity, you know you got something.

There is a huge culture clash between the tech startup world and the rest of the economy. When you try to raise money from people who don't "get it," are not from this world, it is like you accidentally touched naked electric wires. Wow, what was that? You get all sorts of weird reactions.

The Angel List is a great starting point. Although I am in mind to pay Fred Wilson a surprise visit. Very likely I will show up and he will be "away" at one of his 100 Board meetings, either elsewhere in the city or on the Left Coast.

I feel like he owes me money for all the comments I have left at his blog over the years.

Fred, I have had your curiosity, now do I have your attention?



From The Angel List I have a short list of about 50 angels who have (1) listed themselves as interested in mobile gaming, (2) are in or near NYC, although not all are, and (3) who are not too far down in the ranks at the site. I am going through the list, and I am like, I'd want to know and hang out and converse with these people regardless of if they gave me money or not. They just come across as so very interesting people.

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Seeking Head Of State Like Powers

Image via WikipediaIn seeking to create a for profit, high tech microfinance startup, in seeking to lead it as Chairperson/CEO, I seek to create head of state like powers for me that I hope to put singularly to the cause of microfinance. I am confident the technology that is the Internet is already ripe for such possibilities.

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Microfinance Alone Can't Cure Poverty
Microfinance: No Substitute For Good Governance

I have said time and again, good governance is the number one factor in tackling poverty. It is not microfinance. And riding a microfinance outfit would give me a way to take close looks at governance structures around the world.

For instances, I am gripped by the street revolutions across the Arab world. Few things are as exciting to me as a democracy movement. There is no better display of people power.

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Five Books

Image via WikipediaAutobiography
Me: Author

I have talked about writing a 50-100 page autobiography, and I am going to do it, I have already started work on it. But I have come to realize I would not want that to be my first book to go public.

Instead I have decided on putting out five volumes of Topics In Tech based on my posts at this blog. Going to Amazon Kindle Self Publishing. Price $2.99. I think I get two bucks, Amazon keeps the other buck.

This is tempting. I already got the material ready.

This is tempting. The question you find asking yourself is, will the books sell? If they do, I could take bootstrapping to a whole new level.

One Step Behind

My startup is a tech startup, but it is not a tech startup that has come up with or is trying to come up with the next big thing in tech. But it is first and foremost a tech startup. A for profit, high tech microfinance startup that will get the last mile done under its own brand name. That is the proposition.

Sean Parker, Billionaire, Was Really Poor Once

“You have got to be willing to be poor [as an entrepreneur]. There was a time when I was living out of a single suitcase. I had a rule that I wouldn’t stay on one person’s couch for more than two weeks because I didn’t want to become a bother.” - Sean Parker

Passion For Microfinance, Passion For Social Media

Image via WikipediaWhen you are gelling the DNA of a young company, when you are laying down the rudiments of its culture, when you are slowly building a team, there are decisions you have to make.

Tony of Zappos has a few things to say about the topic. One thing Tony does is after he trains people, he offers them 3,000 dollars to leave. Another thing he does is he lets go the top talented people who deliver when they don't fit into the Zappos corporate culture.

Two obvious things I have figured out are that you have to have a passion for microfinance - duh! - and you have to have a passion for social media if you want to belong on my corporate team.

Going High Tech: Selfish Reasons

Image by liewcf via FlickrOne big reason I want to go super high tech with my microfinance startup is because I want me and my small core corporate team in New York City to be able to see all aspects of all our operations in near real time. I want my lenders - people who might put in that $100, that $200, at no interest - to be able to see much of the action in the field. I want them to experience that last mile as much as possible.

We are in microfinance, we are not in some kind of a data collection business. But I'd want my folks doing the last mile to think we are in a data collection business. People in the last mile collect data. People in the middle mile - us, the corporate team - make sense of that data. People in the first mile - the lenders - get served some of that data in palatable ways.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Image by Austin Yoder via FlickrAt this blog I want to switch to talking primarily about microfinance and the technologies and business practices primarily related to microfinance. The idea is to keep a steep learning curve. The idea is to communicate. The idea is to enter into conversations.

I have done a lot of reading and commenting on broad developments in tech, and I want to keep doing that, but so far that has been the primary thing by a wide margin. I want to narrow that margin. I want to start talking primarily about microfinance.

The three broad conceptual jumps I have made - moving from a non profit model to a for profit model, moving from a low tech model to a very high tech model, and doing the last mile under the same brand name everywhere through the franchise concept - have to be visited again and again.

Aggressive Fundraising, Aggressive Recruiting

I sent out this tweet to an angel investor yesterday.

A FinTech StartUp With An Edge

Image via WikipediaWhat I have is a FinTech startup. It is a tech startup. But it is not a tech startup that is trying to come up with the next big thing in tech. That we will leave to the companies that are first and foremost web tech companies.

But we a-r-e going to stay on a constant lookout for developments in tech to see what new developments we can put to the use of microfinance. So we are going to keep our antenna up. But then that is not true only of web tech. We are also interested in the developments in clean tech, bio tech, nano tech. If there will be developments in those sectors that we can possibly put to the service of our microfinance efforts, we will go in with both hands.

Kiva And My Outfit: Three Major Departure Points

Image via CrunchBaseI am a huge fan of Kiva. They went from raising $5 million five years ago to raising over $100 million last year and are projected to raise close to a billion dollars in five years. But that would still be a drop in the ocean. Global poverty is no small challenge.

There are more than 10,000 MFIs - microfinance institutions - in the world today. But global poverty is as big as ever. It looks like a virgin terrain to me. There is so much work to do.

Going To Kickstarter For My Microfinance StartUp

Image via WikipediaSome of my friends have been urging me to go to Kickstarter to raise the first 100K that I need to raise for my microfinance startup, a for profit, high tech proposition. And I am getting excited by the day about the idea. Actually I think I am going to go ahead and do it.

With this 100K I should be able to do enough work to be able to raise a few million dollars from the microfinance fund that Vinod Khosla is working to set up.

I know Kickstarter best for Diaspora. I believe Diaspora also raised 100K - it might have been 200K - when Facebook was mired in a major privacy controversy.

My microfinance startup is way more promising than Diaspora. I am not even in the same league.

Visionary Entrepreneurs Will Recreate The World

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

That Plateau Feeling

Unless the political leadership gets the fundamentals right, there is not too much room for the entrepreneurs to play. Warren Buffett has said he could not have done what he has done if he were not in America. The soccer field is necessary. The referees matter fundamentally. The paint buckets matter to the artist. But great soccer is played by great soccer players. I compare visionary entrepreneurs to great soccer players.



Visionary entrepreneurs will lead the green tech revolution. Visionary entrepreneurs will create the next generation financial institutions. Visionary entrepreneurs will make it possible for the world to pour a trillion dollars into microfinance. Visionary entrepreneurs will create the next generation jobs, companies and industries so that Brazil, Russia, India, China and others maturing economically is good not bad news for America.

Political leaders have to provide the soccer field. It is good to see them hard at work.

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