Category: Business
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Advice for startup founders: Periodic Investor Updates
Context The executive leadership team at big companies often have to do quarterly report outs to the board of directors and investment community. Often they have the luxury of full service departments (finance, communications, project management) to help them prepare for the same. Not just at big companies, such a model is valuable for the…
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Change – an opportunity in disguise
“Change is everywhere! Change can be outside you! Change can be inside you! Change is always happening! … Remember, Change is everywhere!” So read the note about Change in my 3rd grader’s notebook at his school. We had gone into the class room for the usual curriculum evening to learn about what the kids…
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Book: “Grit” – encourages one to persist and persevere
Often I carry books to read in the flight. But this Monday I did not have any book to read. And there was a 5 hour flight ahead of me. Browsing through the stores, I found this book – Grit. It was compact and encouraging. I was thinking through challenges my son had to go through…
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A new era for Software on the PC?
Today’s announcement from Microsoft was BIG – billion units big. A massive internal reorganization of (Software) Engineering Organizations inside Microsoft results in big rethinking of the placement of Windows Engineering. See New York Times Tech News Coverage talking about the shift to fuel Cloud and Productivity missions. I have personal experiences of being a massive user…
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Summer 2018 Internships for High Schoolers
Over the holidays, a local high school junior student said, “Uncle, I am interested in the SparkSIP internship“. I am always glad to hear the interest to do internships from high school students. I was however surprised to hear this ask because we had not even started the discussion at our advisory board for SparkSIP.…
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Pulse of Cloud Computing and SaaS Businesses
Over the past decade there is a high volume of discussion about Software-as-a-Business (SaaS) business model. It is amazing to see how many software parts and software driven experiences (Ex: Netflix, gmail) are purchased online. There are novel products that are only cloud native now unlike in the past. About fifteen years back, I was…
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Annual Revenue for select companies
Yesterday night I was reading about the upcoming earnings season. There was talk about how the stocks of some companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook that have soared in the current year. I got curious to understand how the revenues had grown in these companies. The chart illustrates quickly the trajectory of revenue for these…
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“Netflix On Us” offer from T-Mobile
Two weeks back I heard about the “Netflix On Us” offer from T-Mobile. Being a T-Mobile ONE customer with multiple lines, this is an attractive offer for us. Plus we are already a Netflix customer paying monthly fees. I had concerns about how this offer will be to sign up and get started. Today I…
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Wheel of Retailing and path for Fortune
Last week I read this business case about Amazon vs. Walmart and the Wheel of Retailing. Over the past two centuries of retailing there have bene several repeat instances where a new comer grabs mindshare and marketshare through discounted offerings and differentiated experiences. Soon this incumbent grows up and wants to get revenue share and…
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Cash – less in the future?
In my work on eCommerce, several times I had dreamed up having cashless transactions enabled at lower costs. The dream is coming alive. I am excited to read about the cashless systems in China – NYTimes: … cash is rapidly becoming obsolete. In India, applications like Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), PayTM, etc., are set…