a byte of me

Back in the game

2008-02-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

Am back again! Life has been hectic. I am trying to accomplish a lot at work and have a few coding and other projects going on in my spare time. The days seem short. The months seem short too. Every four or five days I look at the calendar and it just feels like it was yesterday. Today morning, the phone rang, the alarm cried and honestly, I felt like I had just slept five minutes ago. But it was true, I had slept for four hours almost. It didnt feel like it. So thats how life's been!

Honestly, today I got motivated to write this blog because of the ridiculousness happening over in India. Local politicians in Bombay (now called Mumbai) are making a big deal because a prominent Bollywood star chose to donate money to start a school in a different state. In a rash of regional politics, people have been rioting and making life harder for common citizens like taxi drivers. Read about it here and here.

Honestly, where is all their common sense. At least some place that didnt have many schools got one. Mumbai already has a lot of schools, doesnt it? But there are many places that could use one. But apparently some politicians are too keen on using violent tactics to obtain popularity. Too bad, the state government is a pussy too!

Traveling for Work

2007-10-29T22:48:00.001-07:00

The Television is playing in the background, my favorite show, Donny Deutrich's "The Big Idea" is on. He's interviewing Martha Stewart in a marathon session today as opposed to the five or six entrepreneurs that he usually flies through in one hour during a normal show. Its kind of sad since they're blabbering about just about anything. At one point he asked her what she wears at night and she replies a Night T-shirt, only to be followed by three ridiculous questions about what kind of a night shirt it is. I cant believe it is so pointless today. However, this is kind of good. Since I'm trying to get work done and useless blabbering in the background helps concentrate (believe it or not!). If it was interesting, I'd be watching the TV instead of working.

So I've come to a different city on an out-of-town client engagement. This is my fifth client within the first three months that I've been on. Most all clients engagements that I've been on so far have been two to three week engagements. Its nice because this one is in Olympia, the state capital of Washington. Its far enough from Seattle to not warrant a daily commute from home and so I get to live in a hotel. Its close enough that I can drive here. And I've brought a ton of stuff with me!

I've got more than three paper grocery bags worth of stuff which includes six books that I'm reading, lots of fruits and some food that I cooked in a marathon session on Sunday. And I've learned a few things about traveling and working.

* Staying in a hotel: Try to ensure you dont have to share a room. I cant emphasize how important this is in helping you spread out and make the room just the way you want it. Especially if you're going to be there for the next four nights. No matter how well you know your co-worker, sharing a room is still slightly awkward. This is usually a given for us except for trainings, when we have to share rooms with a randomly assigned colleague.

* Bring food: Bring lots of food, especially fruits that you like and convenience food like chocolate or nuts. I've brought it all, since I had my car and the convenience of my trunk space. I cant believe how fun it was working from 8:00 pm onwards while munching on grapes (my favorite fruit)

* Bring lots of stuff - if you're driving by car to the engagement and will be living in a hotel for more than three days. Spread out in the hotel room. Make it feel like home and you'll enjoy it. Keep in touch with friends.

* Bring as little stuff as possible - if you're flying. Flying is horrible and what makes it worse is lugging a lot of stuff and/or waiting for baggage claim. I absolutely hate traveling and only carry one carry-on as long as it is for one or two weeks. I have been carrying five pairs so far every time I've had to fly but on a coworker's advice, I'm just going to carry two pants and three shirts and just recycle them in different combinations. Anything to reduce the luggage.

* Play random television in the background - it helps make it feel like you're around people, if thats what you care for. Dont put on sensationalistic news. They're usually too good at catching your attention and retaining it. Dont watch reality television. I got caught watching that dance reality TV show while trying to work and guess what - I got no work done. I got more work done in the half hour when Donny and Martha were talking random stuff than I did in the entire hour and a half of the dance show.

* And last but not the least, bring at least one meal with you. Preferably cooked or whatever you have when you're home (even if its ready to eat stuff). Eating out grows old very quickly, no matter how expensive the restaurants you can afford to go to.

Thats pretty much it for today - maybe I'll write more of my experiences later on. For now, I'll get about an hour more of work in before calling it a night. Good bye and good night from the state capitol Olympia!

User Generated Content Goes Mainstream

2007-10-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

With the growth of User Generated Content (UGC) phenomenon that You-Tube and many other sites have brought about, there are definitely interesting after-effects to observe. One such case is of Nick Haley, an 18 year old freshman at a UK university who made an advertisement for iPod touch out of his love for Apple and its products. He uploaded his video on YouTube and it was so good that when Apple Marketing execs viewed his ad, they wanted to go main-stream with his ad and called him down to Cupertino, CA. They made an HD, production quality video out of the ad Nick had produced and now its running on major television networks during football, World Series Championship and Desperate Housewives.

Interestingly enough, there are copyright issues surrounding the issue - the fact that Nick was not commissioned by Apple to create the ad and used the soundtrack "Music is My Hot Hot Sex" by CSS as well as images and video clips from Apple.com. However, in a major boost to UGC and this entire realm, Apple acted very maturely by choosing to not make a big deal out of this and embracing this fan's creation. I can imagine a hundred other ads popping up for products people love to use in daily life. (Heck, even I feel like making an ad for Saturn, the brand of my trusty little car). New York Times ran a story about this on October 26th. "That's the whole point of advertising; it needs to get to the user," Mr. Haley said in the article on Times. "If you get the user to make the ads, who better?". Wired also ran a story on this, which also lists a couple of interesting observations and lessons from this.

The ad that Apple produced, kept the content almost the same (thankfully!), except for some advanced editing and better footage in some of the sections where the iPod touch plays the videos and the web-browsing. Its better aligned to the music, the production version, but the Nick Haley version itself is mind-blowing too. I kept watching it over and over again about 8 - 10 times tonight when I found out about it, its so good! The music is pretty catchy too!

Below is the original ad that Nick Haley posted on YouTube. Heres the link to The Apple Production Version that has been playing on television.

Isnt it cool? I told you so. Now check out the other version. Link: Apple's Edited, Professional version.

Mind-blowing, that this happened, isnt it?

Life in Seattle - Part 1

2007-10-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

Okay... its been long since I've blogged, but felt like I may post a few things today -

Work: Its coming along well. Kind of putting in 12-13 hour days around this time. Having fun while working hard.

KPMG - Jill, Shubham, Brandon, David. In Los Angeles.

I haven't traveled much out of town yet (other than training) considering this is a consulting job - which is good and bad. Bad because I'm not getting to see new places and do the traveling bit while I'm single, rack up miles etc. Good because its given me time to slowly get settled in Seattle, get to know new people, make new friends, get involved with an organization, make new contacts and so on.

Pike Place Market @ evening

Life: Have been going out to Seattle last few weekends. The last time I went, I remembered to take my camera with me. It was an interesting evening. I did some shopping on 5th Ave shopping district. Mostly over-priced, then marked-down some, clothes for work. Also walked towards the Pike Place Market and although the action there is mostly in the morning, it was interesting. It got pretty late, and as I was going back to my car, I ran into some homeless people and some drug dealers wanting to sell me drugs. One tried to ask where he can get drugs in India - I told him "Not sure" and made it out of there as fast as I could.

Puget Sound, just after the sunset

Otherwise, life is kind of hectic, managing so many things - grocery, cooking, cleaning, ironing, staying in touch with friends and family during weeknights and weekends and work 12-13 hours a day during weekdays - all on my own. My room too often turns into a mess. Heres a picture of my desk which virtually looks like that all the time. It gets cleaned every week and takes about one day, thats it, to get back to this shape. On the screen is playing The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC every nights at 10pm PT. Watch it if you can, its fun.

New People: I've heard of the phenomenon called "Seattle chill" from quite a few people so far - the attitude locals can have towards new-comers, strangers. I kind of have experienced it, kind of not. I havent because I truly havent met any strangers yet! Other than the drug dealers and the homeless, ofcourse. The people I've met who I've known somehow or through someone have been truly awesome.

I met Sashi of Zonkmimi today morning for coffee and discussed a variety of things. I found out that he built a boat for himself out of fiberglass and that kind of excited me. I am motivated to explore this hobby, maybe build a model or so of some of my car designs... Seems like the dream of KMCL - Kumar Motors Company Ltd - when I was in 8th grade might come alive again. I'm going to look into this more as a potential long-term hobby.

I also have become good friends with Will, a colleague from work, who sort of shares the same passion for entrepreneurship, kind of go out there and do it attitude. We've hung out a couple of times and have had fun. Other colleagues from work are fun too. Most everyone is very warm and involving. Everyone mostly remembers I'm vegetarian when we all go out and thats kind of nice.

People in Seattle that are from the same Kutchhi community that I hail from have been great too. They've called me for dinner get-togethers a few times. I enjoy these a bunch! I feel like I relate to them. Also yesterday night, I went to Garba and Dandiya last night organized by the Seattle Gujarati group. It was a ton of fun.

Garba and Dandiya Raas in Seattle, celebrating Navaratri, an Indian Festival worshipping Goddess Amba.

Involvement: I've been involved with TiE recently, which is a Seattle-based chapter of the larger TiE that started up in Silicon Valley some years back with a focus on South Asian entrepreneurs and professionals. I'm involved in the PR capacity. We have the Funding Forum event coming up soon and if you're interested in covering it or attending or presenting a business plan, let me know.

I've been volunteering at the various company events for community involvement. One weekend we went and raked and cleaned the yard for a local school before schools began. There was a heart walk for the American Heart Association that I participated in. I'm also participating in the Junior Achievement, in which I get to go and teach a 2nd grade classroom for a whole day, teaching them about the "community", outside of home, that we all live in.

Home: I share my home with four other people, all at different stages of their lives. But everyone is nice, professional and independent. And we're beginning to have some good, fun times, interesting conversations and lots of getting to know each others. One is a Mensa smart, another is a coding geek, the third is very knowledgeable about herbs, healing and alternative medicine and the fourth is into many things like fixing-up houses, condos, real-estate in general as well as coding! Quite a variety. Its a big house and I love the feeling of living here. The best part - kitchen with a glass ceiling which lets the daylight in and makes it look bright and happy (you have to remember, this is in Seattle). Oh, and its got a gas stove too, which rocks!

Today evening, I made a red soup from beet, carrot, red cabbage soup (see above). It tasted pretty good. Pretty good? Heck it was awesome. It took my three hours, from the time it was conceptualized, to things boiled, to the time it was prepared, eaten and finally the utensils cleaned. All of us (three of my room mates and I) gathered around the kitchen counter and had it. Now thats called bonding.

Traditional Indian/Gujarati Meal I made last weekend - Chapatti, Red Cabbage Curry, Aam (Mango) Ras

I've been cooking at home more often than eating out. Which is good. Some of my experiments have turned out pretty well, others are well, just that - experiments.

Everything else is coming along pretty well. About to call it a night - it was a fun weekend, and I've had a good time in Seattle so far. I'm still trying to get to know more people and make more friends around here, but am happy the way things are going for me right now.

Jainism

2007-09-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Its been fifteen hours since I've eaten anything. Thats right, fifteen! And I'm planning to go on for another twently one hours. What, am I nuts?

Today, begins the Jain festival of Paryushan. Let me tell you a bit about both as I know of it. Jainism is an ancient religion of India, still practiced by less than 1% of the population. Today, Jains are strewn all over the world, although the majority still reside in India. It is older than Buddhism and reportedly Buddha was born into a Jain family before renouncing his kingdom, family and the world and heading out on his own. Hence many principles of how he lived his life originated in Jainism and then found place in Buddhism also.

Jainism

The primary tenet of Jainism is non-violence to all living beings. Lord Mahävir preached universal truth for all times to come when he said, “One who neglects or disregards the existence of earth, air, fire, water and vegetation, disregards his own existence which is entwined with them”. The following ancient Jain aphorism is refreshingly contemporary in its promise and forms the basis of the modern day science of ecology.

“Parasparopagraho Jivänäm.”

It says, All life is bound together by mutual support and interdependence.

Paryushan

Paryushan is the single most important festival in the Jain religion. It is observed for eight or ten days by different sects. This year it is observed from September 8 to 25, 2007 with different beginning dates for different sects.

The purpose of life according to Jain teachings is to realize oneself, to experience wholeness, peace and reverence for all life. Therefore, the real purpose of Paryushan is to purify our soul by observing and correcting our own faults, asking for forgiveness for the mistakes we have committed, and taking vows to minimize our faults. During Paryushan we are expected to strive to minimize our worldly affairs so that we can concentrate on our true-selves.

Fasting is one way where we take our minds off the daily routine of figuring out what we will eat that day and what we will do. It is expected that the day is spent in a low-profile manner with some or very little activity. Fasting for the day actually begins at sundown the previous day and ends at sunrise the next day. The fasting is strict, so no food should be consumed during the period. Boiled water is allowed, although its consumption is also reduced. So since 7 pm yesterday night I haven't eaten or drunk water. I plan to drink water if I need to at some point later in the day. Since the focus is on self, I cannot look forward to it. I cannot think about drinking water or how I will relish the food when I break the fast. If I do so, the fast is considered broken when the thought enters my mind. Hence the focus is not just on improving yourself physically, but also concentrating on the inner self, the mind and the thoughts we have.

Personal Business Development

2007-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Normally I'd already be in at work at this time. I usually get in at 7:30 am. However, from today onwards I'm trying a new schedule. As usual, I woke up at 6 and was ready by 6:45. I decided to spend an hour doing business development today. Well some business development for my firm, and some personal development. I'll call it time spend doing 'Personal Business Development'.

I had a few emails I wanted to send out for a project I'm on at work. A few others were personal growth and making new connections in Seattle area. Today, I'll get in at about 8:30. I'll try this schedule for three days a week and see how it works out. So far I've enjoyed devoting one hour of my morning to projects, both personal and work related that I'd like to see get ahead, but don't get much time at work for.

Labor day weekend was fun. A few friends and I went to Bear Lake in Utah. Its a beautiful lake. The water was so blue, I call it the Mauritius Blue. Check it out in the picture below. We boated and swam. And overall, had a great time.

Upates from work

2007-08-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well not really from work... I'm at home right now and its 10 pm. I'm now living in Seattle and its almost cold and rainy everyday. It even rained on my first day of real work - this past Monday. I considered it wishes from God above so I do well. Others consider it to be a natural process when clouds formed out of water vapor condense. Oh well, to each unto his own.

First week was local office training and orientation. Finished a few online trainings. Second week was spent toasting in 110 degrees in Scottsdale AZ for national new hire training. While the weather made it harder, all the great people I met from all around definitely made it nicer. I met so many people, I can't even recall everyone's names. Although, I'm getting better. I've invited most if not all the people I spent a few hours or more with and got to know closely on either facebook or the in-company-social-networking site our company has started. I hope to stay in touch with everyone. This is the third week.

I've left UVF, but not really. I'm away only physically. I still feel quite a part of it. I sent over a deal just recentlyto UVF and am in touch with many of the friends from there even now. It feels such a close part of me - the whole UVF experience. Its definitely the icing on the cake of my Utah experience. The awesome people there make it so good for me and then comes the experience, according to me. Very few other places in the world (or even United States) can a bunch of college students get to work with real entrepreneurs and real, big-time VCs and wheel and deal, so to speak. No, really. I've been involved with Jared, the managing director, in negotiating terms with a company we funded and later helping that company negotiate good terms with another company it was partnering with to provide its services and so on. I dont think even an MBA student at a prestigious school gets this kind of experience for a year, unless they're from Wharton, where UVF recruits and has a branch too. So Utah was definitely the right choice for me. At this point, I plan to go to B-school in a few years and know that the UVF experience will definitely help me get into one of the top notch schools. I do hope sometimes that the entrepreneur bug catches me before that. :) (and makes me successful enough to skip the b-school thing in between).

(By the way, Jared introduced me to two people, including the CEO from Unitus a few months back. Unitus is a micro-finance fund that funds MFIs - micro finance institutions who help poor people break the cycle of poverty by funding special projects for them - in India, Argentina and a bunch of other countries. They're based out of Seattle. Check out www.unitus.com. Its pretty neat. I'll get back in touch with them to see if I can volunteer and be of any use. I think I can use my deal analysis and other skills from UVF pretty well at Unitus and do things similar to UVF and be happy. PS - This line is straight from their website - "Unitus fights global poverty by using a venture capital model to increase access to microfinance". How about that? Perfect fit for me.)

One of my goals, for both short term and long term is to be really good at what I do. And no, I dont mean it as loosely as it is usually thrown around. I want to be so good that I can create content regarding that subject. I want to be the authority regarding it. To be able to spot new trends, consequences of current events and such things spot on. I know it still sort of sounds like fluff, but I feel like I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do.

Another goal for the short term is that within one year I want to be promoted and sent to an international engagement or an international partner firm. I'd love to work with my firm in London, India, Japan, Vietnam or Australia. Suggestions of other countries where I'd like it are welcome too. But off the very top, why I picked these is because each of these is either a place I'm facinated about and have always wanted to go, or is a very rapidly up and coming country and work experience there would be fantabuloustic!

With that, its about time to go to bed, so I can get up tomorrow morning, go for a nice jog, then get ready, have a breakfast and go to work early. I got there earlier than my senior today and that was good. Score 1. He was pleased and so was manager. Things are going well at work and the people I'm working with are some of the funniest people I've met. Work day passes really quickly. I remember a time, three or four years back, when I was interning somewhere, and I'd look at the time and it was like noon. I'd look back at the time after three hours and it'd still be 12:15. Time went slowly. Here, time goes so quickly, that first time I look at the clock after lunch is 4:30 and I usually am surprized so much time has passed. So thats a good thing.

Signing off for tonight. Will be more regular from now on. :) Especially for my friend in Utah who regularly checks my blog and pesters me to update.

Wish me luck - first day at work

2007-08-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my first day at work. I'm excited, yet nervous. Not that working is any new to me - I've worked at UVF the past year, had an internship last summer doing the same thing I'll be doing from now on, and also held a few internships in my undergrad.

But the difference between what I'm starting tomorrow and what I've done in the past is that this is my full time commitment. In the past, I've always been in school and work has been part time or intern-type, albeit full-time. Tomorrow, I begin my career . Where I take it, is all in my hands. So wish me luck for my first day at work. :)

2007-07-31T21:44:00.001-07:00

Sold my desk, sold my chair. Sold my microwave and sold my bed! Also sold my friend's car. And then I packed and moved out of my apartment.

The last week was frantic, getting so many things done every single day. Today's my last day in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow, I head out farther west on my journey that started from Ohio after exploring Utah for two years in the middle. I'm headed to Seattle.

Yesterday, I went to UVF and said my good byes to fellow venture capital junkies. Said bye to Jared, Mark and Emily - members of the management who I got to know so well. Emily is getting married this week - good luck to her. Sorry I'll miss your wedding. Bid farewell to the guy whose family ventures office I worked in this summer - my boss, a good friend by now. These are places, experiences, people where I've learnt a lot, gained a lot of experiences and made friends for a lifetime. I will miss Utah.

Utah Rocks. For more reasons than one. Some of those, are above. The rest I'll explain in my next post. Seattle, here I come. Till then...

Goog411. Experimental.

2007-06-27T10:50:00.001-07:00

Location: Seattle, WA. I'm there to find a place to live for my upcoming move.

Situation: Helping my newly married friend buy things from WalMart. He doesn't have a car yet. I'm driving on I-405 south from Bellevue. There's a lot of traffic, especially for a saturday.

Problem: I can't remember which exit to take to get to WalMart. I've been there before, but that was last summer. I remember its in Renton, which is around exit 4, but the surroundings after taking exit 4 dont seem familiar. I would remember if I saw the street the exit leads to.

Solution: Immediately, I think of Goog411. I dial 1-800-GOOG-411. I'm just getting back up on the freeway from exit 4.
"Goog411. Experimental. (pause) Please say the city and state." says the voice on the line.
"Renton, Washington" I say. It recognizes what I said and repeats to confirm.

I'm already loving this.

"Please say the business name or category"
"Walmart", I say. Again it recognizes the name in first try. It comes up in the first result and connects me. I talk to the lady at Wal-Mart and find out they're off of exit 2, thank her and hang up.

I have found out which exit I need to take in such a short time that I have just merged back into the highway from exit 4 and its not even exit 3 yet. Its beautiful. Trust google to take technology and existing way of life to new heights.

For one, The voice recognition on GooG411 is better than any other company's that I've used so far. And I've used it many times already in at least 5 different cities, for different purposes, from locating a car dealership to calling an Indian restaurant. Its recognized names perfectly every time (except that you have to say Indian names in an American accent).

Secondly, they've taken the existing 411 concept, which is expensive and manual and converted it into a free service and automated it. I love it. I only wish the existing 411 services before Google came were not $1.49 per minute. If they were cheaper, like 10¢ a call, I figure more people would have used it. Oh well, Google is here now, to set them straight.

I sincerely hope, for Google and for the humankind, that this service comes out of the experimental stage, here to stay. For those who haven't used it yet, heres a cheat sheet. Go have fun.

Try again

2007-06-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

My first listing with Prosper.com didn't fund completely. I waited for seven days, the length of the duration of the listing, and watched the bids pile in one by one. Ultimately, I was able to raise 32% of my asking loan amount of $6500. But the interest rate I had offered was not enough. In fact within hours of posting my listing, I had received emails from at least two experienced prosper group leaders that the rate I was offering for amount I was requesting was too low. I decided to stay on and see what happens for experience sake, anyways. Now I'm planning to offer another listing, this time under a group, for a lesser amount (of $4000) and at a higher rate (of 9%).

I also had my wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. The doctor is good and my teeth were already erupted, so it wasn't too bad. But extracting wisdom teeth hurts the most out of all other teeth. I've been recovering for the past two days. My boss is so nice, he called me today morning and asked me to take today off and recover even though I was planning to go to work. My work this summer, an internship at a local family office, doing venture capital and some buyout due diligence as well as some technical help with their IT is coming along great. I'm getting to learn a lot and meet many new people. I'm also getting to spend some time at UVF.

I started looking at some places in Seattle on craigslist for my upcoming move. I emailed a few people regarding their listings, but haven't received any replies yet. I did receive one from a very paranoid person who wrote back very rudely about not wanting to give out their phone number. The listing didn't mention any pertinent details about the house, even where it was located in general, such as bellevue or renton or so on. There were many other details missing. Instead of writing a list of questions and sending it via email, I asked the person to send me their phone number and also gave them my own in case they preferred to call me so we could discuss more on the phone instead of emailing back and forth. They wrote back saying they will not give a total stranger her phone number. It was totally ridiculous. I had included my full name in my email to them. They could have googled me and known more about me than they were revealing about themselves by giving me their phone number. And I had given them my phone number too. Oh well, there are such super nutcases like that who want to find room mates online, but are even afraid to talk to strangers on the phone. Weird.

Apart from that, I have been reading about Casey Serin recently, the twenty four year old who tried to be a real estate investor and make fast money by flipping properties and the housing slowdown crushed him with a $2M debt load. He has rapidly become the most hated US blogger. I am not one of the haterz, the community of people who have taken on as job to hate him and his mistakes, neither am one of his supporterz, as he likes to call them. I cant decide whether to blame him or not. On one side, what he did is plain stupid. He deserves the blame for it. But on the other hand I pity him as well. Partly maybe because I relate with him and his big ambitions. I have also read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other such books on real estate investing, that he fell for initially. He went deeper by attending the seminars that those authors hold and actually tried to do what they preach. I can see how someone can fall for their strong sales pitch and pressure and feel real estate investing is easy. I felt that myself when I was reading those books. But I didnt go down that alley like he did, maybe because I am less risk averse than him, or less stupid. Who knows, what will happen of him? Right now he is in Australia, maybe hiding from the authorities, although he doesnt say that, but I'm interested in watching what happens.

Peer 2 Peer Lending with Prosper.com

2007-06-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

Prosper.com brings forward the concept of peer to per lending on their site where people like you and me can borrow and lend money to other people. Borrowers have to reveal a lot of information regarding their income, expenses (voluntary) to get people to bid on their loan listing. Using the social security number, prosper polls the credit agencies to derive the credit worthiness of the borrowers, ranking them from AA (best) to E and HR (worst). Those borrowing with an AA credit get the lowest rates (usually between 8% to 10%) whereas those with the worst have to pay quite high rates. Lenders bid on loan listings, usually a part of the asking amount, about $200 - $1000 each. Multiple lenders bid on a listing to fill up the entire loan. If the listing is very popular, or low risk, many people bid and thus drive down the rate offered by the borrower so as to gain a piece of the pie.

Its a beautiful concept and I would like to be a part of the p2p lending community. I have created a listing to help me repay my higher interest college debt replacing it with a lower interest loan. My credit history is rated AA, have a pretty decent job that I start from August and my expenses are pretty low compared to my current income (as well as future income from August onwards). I am a pretty low risk investment and am offering 8% interest. I'll make every payment on time and will most likely pay the loan off early. If you'd like to help me out, please head on over to my listing here, sign up with prosper and bid on my loan any amount you feel comfortable investing in me. Thank you for reading and helping me out.

Summer of the Third Sequels

2007-06-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Has anybody else also noticed the plethora of movies that are releasing or have released this summer that are third of the sequels. Its an amazing coincidence that there are so many of them. Just counting off the top of my head, there are at least six of them.

Shrek the Third
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
Spiderman 3
Rush Hour 3
Bourne Ultimatum
Oceans Thirteen

Then theres also Harry Potter, which is not the third, but the fifth. Its awesome. And these are all series whose first two movies were major hits. I can't wait to watch all of them.

Speaking of which, I watched Ocean's Thirteen yesterday. It was pretty good, better than Ocean's Twelve anyways. But I think Ocean's Eleven trumps the thirteen still. What I like about thirteen is that it isn't lame like the twelfth. Also it is filled with detail so that you can watch it over and over again and deduce more about the plot, just like the eleven. You couldnt do that in the twelfth. Even though there were multiple twists in the story line in Ocean's Twelve, it wasnt filled with detail that gets used later in the movie and you make the 'Ah!' connection when you see it again.

Warning: Spoiler ahead. What I like about eleven better than thirteen is that they sweep clean. At the end of the movie, there is very little incriminating evidence if any. In this one they leave many at the end. George Clooney tells Al Pacino that he can't come after Clooney because "All the guys you know, I know. And they like me better". Well yes, except for the police. Which will come, since you've left so much evidence behind. All that said and done, its still a thoroughly entertaining movie and one I expect to watch again.

Tough Decisions in Venture Capital

2007-06-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

As glamorous as venture capital can get, it is also a very difficult profession. Unlike other professions, where one may need great in-depth technical knowledge in one field like chemical engineering, venture capital is a whole different ball game. You do need solid financial and due diligence skills, but you can get people to do that. We, the associates at my venture fund are the backbone that does that. But as I have risen above in the last few months, led teams, interacted with management at start-ups and partners like other venture capital groups, I am realizing that the whole game is different from the top.

More than any other industry, other than politics probably, venture capital (and private equity) is built on relationships and decision making skills. The entire deal flow in a venture capital fund comes from knowing other people and who knows whom. Thats almost driven by the top management, since they are the one who know many people in the industry that the young start-out employees don't. The top management get the deal from their contacts, make a decision whether to pursue it or not and then pass it on to the associates to start cranking out due diligence on the ones they decide to pursue.

But as I am discovering, that decision to pursue or not, can often be very difficult to make. For two reasons. One, is the fear of making a wrong decision and losing out on the next home run of the century. The second is the decision you have to make when it is associated with short time lines or other pressure.

For the first, the fear of losing out on the next home run, it doesn't really matter what decision you make. If you're good at what you do, you will do reasonably well even if you miss out on the next big run. Have a look at Bessemer Venture Partners' Anti-portfolio. The anti-portfolio is their candid way of admitting that they wrongly passed-on on many of the companies, like HP, Apple, Ebay and Google, that later were huge successes. But they're Bessemer. They're really good at what they do and have done reasonably well for themselves. But you and I, if we do that enough times, we can easily find ourselves on a losing game.

The other is the decisions you have to make under pressure. I just had my first experience on that and I surprizingly found myself between a rock and a hard place. In the end, I made a call and I really hope it was a good decision. Here is some detail without revealing too much. We were working on a deal that was referred to us by a great partner VC firm. We've really enjoyed working with them in the past and respect them too. We were asked to make a decision whether we are sure to move forward on the deal on a very short notice. Given it is summer and that we have to go through two different committees for investment, it is hard for us to make such a decision without polling a few of the various parties involved. Besides, the type of investment that this company would have been was absolutely new to us. So there was some fear regarding that at our fund too. But I have looked at the company before and like it a lot. I believe they have the potential to go out and capture a significant portion of the industry. In the end, I reluctantly made the call to pass-on, even though I didn't want to, to support our partners and to ensure that they don't lose out on the terms they've obtained by trying to squeeze us in. Oh well.

Its All About Perspective

2007-06-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was discussing Mitt Romney as a president with a friend at UVF and an interesting question came up that I haven't thought about. I live in Utah and most of my friends are Mormon. Romney is also a Mormon. So far, I have not come across a single Utahn who is supporting anybody other than Mitt yet.

Not that I can vote here or anything, but if it counts, I am supporting Mitt Romney too. I am not a Mormon (though a friend from Boston is convinced I have turned into one after living here. He often starts our IM chats by calling me that). I usually lean towards the democrats, but for this election, I really think that Mitt Romney is the best candidate we have so far. I don't care so much about his leanings as much as I care about his experience.

Mitt founded Bain Capital and led it for many years. He came back to Bain & Co (the management consulting company) when it was floundering and in one year turned it around to profitability without cutting any jobs. He led the 2004 Salt Lake Winter Olympics to profitability that no other Olympics in recent times has been able to do at least since 1984. He did a great job as Massachusetts governor as well. Nothing of this is new. But I really think that Mitt will be able to undo some of the mess President Bush has made including turning around the National Budget Deficit.

At this point, my friend was surprised that I care about America's deficit. Being from India, he thought that I would have cared more for Indian interests and wouldnt want the deficit to be turned around into a surplus. I can see some logic in it, but am confused whether that line of thinking truly holds at all? There are multiple questions here. First, Is America's deficit realy better for India's interests? I would argue No but I am sure that a counter argument exists. Also, so far my line of thinking has been to think about whats good for America - in an objective sense. Second question, should foreigners in another country care really about what is good for your own home country in terms of world economics or world politics? Do Americans living in other countries only think about whats best for America with regards to events in the country they are living in? How do other foreigners living in America think?

Weekend of Fun

2007-05-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

This long weekend, we went to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. It was fun hiking along the beautiful canyons. The sun was out and it was hot. But we had the huge lake and its cool water to complement the sun.

We camped by the Colorado river one night and on the beach of the lake another night. For camping at the beach, when we were trying to find a spot to put up a tent we got our car stuck in the sand. It took a lot of revving and five muscular guys to get it out.

We hiked and swam in the water. We kayaked and the best of it all - went jet skiing. It was just beautiful.

Public Transport Nightmare

2007-05-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

I was traveling by bus number 8 to downtown today morning to work at UVF as usual. I got down at the State Street stop and just as I had bid the driver goodbye, a man asked me to show my ticket. I reached into my pockets and fished out the UTA pass and handed it to him immediately. UTA pass is the public transport pass that is given to University of Utah students that allows us to travel on the city buses and the light rail system (TRAX) for free.

No sooner have I handed it to him, that I realize what I was doing. Handing over my valuable pass to some stranger. Oh no! I consider snatching it back and running. Only then I look up to see the man wearing a blue shirt with the UTA logo and his name tag under that. Then I realize that he was the ticket checker from UTA. I relax. My pass is valid till September of this year and so I expect him to hand it back to me. Instead he squints and starts reading something thats apparently written in fine print on the back side. He then says "Sir, the card says 'Not valid for travel on bus routes'". I say, "What the heck? Let me take a look", and he hands over the card back for me to look. To my surprize, it indeed says that. Weird.

While I'm considering how that went unnoticed by me for so long and how could it have happened, he has begun adding up the fines on a device and says "Sir, your fine will be three dollars and ten cents." I am surprized that I have to pay a fine, but not so much so by the amount. $3.10. Measly three dollars and ten cents of fine. Never heard of that before. I think that normally, the fine would be $25 or even $50. I consider paying it off and walking away, but I couldnt comprehend the surprize of the "no bus routes" mystery completely yet. I keep looking at the card, turning it over and reading both sides again and again, questioning myself, almost ignoring him. How could I have missed that fine print until now? How do my friends travel to school using this card - we all have similar cards after all. How did I get by using this card on the bus until now - for almost two years. I make it a point to not let him know this detail, lest he fine me backdated for all these two years.

I'm still in my own world thinking all this, that the man reminds me again "Sir?". I put a hand in my front pocket again, grab a few dollar bills and am about to fish those out when I notice that the picture on the card is not mine. Now memory comes back and I figure out that card is not mine at all. In fact, all the differences between this card and my card are more apparent now. My card is horizontal and this one is vertical. I realize that this is someone else's card. In the excitement, I tell this to the ticket checker. Bad move. He points out that I have been using someone else's card to travel and tacks on another fine to it. Oh no! How stupid?

He mentions the new total "Its $13.65 with the additional fine, sir". I just find the amounts too ridiculous and am about to pay him when I decide all this feels just wrong. I decide this is unjust and am not going to hand over my money so easily. I will try to prove him wrong and find any excuse if that doesnt work. And if nothing works, just plain bargain. Yes, this whole affair feels so wrong, that it feels worth fighting for. So I try to explain my situation to him.

ME: "Sir, I am at University of Utah student. You must surely know that we all get a free fare pass. I obviously grabbed my roommate's card by mistake". I lie. I have no clue who the guy is in the picture. But why add another layer of complication. "Can't you excuse me this time, please?"

HIM: "I am sorry sir. I can't trust you on your word. Can you prove you are a University of Utah student?"

ME: "I sure can."

Then I think of how I'm going to do that. I instinctively start opening all the pockets of my backpack that I am carrying, hoping to find something. I cannot find anything that relates me to University of Utah in all the small pockets of the backpack. So I open the last and the largest pocket. It has my laptop. By this time, all my stuff from the backpack is out there lying around. It feels like I am wasting everyone's time and creating a big deal for no reason. But I decide to pursue this anyways now that I have started.

So, I take out my laptop and turn it on. As the desktop shows up, I see a folder called "Graduation pics". I am excited and show it to him. "Sir, you see this graduation pics folder? I just graduated this May and that will prove to you that I was a student and that'll prve that I do possess a card that is valid until September." I double click the folder icon to open it and look at him with pride of victory in my eyes. For some reason, he is getting madder. His eyes keep getting wider to the extent that his eye balls might pop out. I can't comprehend. So I look towards my screen. And I see that the Graduation Pics folder has opened up and all the pictures in there are not what I thought at all. In fact its filled with porn. My face grows pale. I'm embarassed to no extent. I have no idea how this happened. It seems like some sick joke someone's playing on me. The ticket checker seems angry. I seem to have offended him.

I decide to call quits and just pay him. I mutter "I'm sorry" slowly and I shut the computer and put it back in the backpack. I gather all the stuff lying around, dump it in my backpack too. I am still embarassed and can't look him in the eye anymore. I put the backpack on my back, pull out two ten dollar bills and hand it over to him. He hands me back my change. I feel lucky to have not been fined like a hundred dollars for traveling on a fake card that is not even valid for bus travel. I accept defeat. I begin to walk away and the man walks in the opposite direction. I look at my watch, its been half an hour. What a waste. I feel like a failure.

We are ten feet apart when lightening strikes my brain. Again. "Oh shit", I say to myself. How could I have been so stupid? "Wait!", I yell out to the man. He turns around, looks frustrated, but says nothing, almost wanting to ask "What now?" I fish out my wallet from my back pocket. I feel really stupid now. How could I have forgotten that I carry my own bus pass in my walet and I am indeed carrying it right now. So what, if I was carrying someone else's card? I am also carrying my own. I shouldn't be fined at all. With full confidence, I walk towards the man, open my wallet and show him my card, which is valid for travel on bus, train, everywhere. Heck even space. I feel confident. I feel victorious. He is mad. Almost furious. But he hands over my money back without saying anything. This feels so good. I am so happy. Victory at last.

And then, I hear something ringing. Its my cell phone. I find myself in bed, trying to find my cell phone on the side table with my hand. I wake up with a splitting headache. I can't comprehend. Was all this a dream? Its 10:30 am. The room is dark. Past fills my head. I decide that was a dream. I am in the reality now. Then I remember. I had woken up at 7:30, showered, gotten ready, had breakfast and decided to take a nap because that was way too early. All this had to be a dream. I wash my face and picked up my backpack to walk towards the bus stop to go the UVF. No ticket checker asks me for any thing when I get down. Was all that really a dream? Nightmare , really, if you ask me. But I never remember my dreams when I wake up. And not to this level of detail anyways? Could it be that that was the reality and this, what I was living right now a dream? This world is weird. I wonder how these fantastic dreams come about?

Jackson Pollock's Galaxy, a part of the Joslyn Art Museum's permanent collection. Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v.2.0

Tagged: Dreams, Personal

Discussion of Cerberus purchasing Chrysler

2007-05-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

You have to check this out. NPR's show called Open Source had an hour-long discussion on private equity and the Daimler Chrysler-Cerberus deal in particular. Cerberus bought Chrysler (for $7.4Bn) in what is certainly not the largest private equity deal, but certainly going to be the most talked about deal.

There are many angles that people are exploring with regards to this deal. Some of these are: the deal structure and how in essence Daimler has actually paid about $145M to get rid of Chrysler, how if Chrysler gets revived under private hands it would be such a mega victory for private equity. Also how people are misconceived about private equity being just cut, slash and sell type of job where as in reality it is much more than that. Private equity is being compared to the leveraged buyouts of the 70s and the 80s and how people are misconceived that only financial types are running the show. Today's PE deals are mega-team works which involve not only the finance types, but also strategists, operations gurus and core engineers who have experience in the same field itself or a close enough field.

Even if you're not interested in private equity, but are interested in business, you have to check out and listen to this discussion online. It features Daniel Primack of PEHub who I have written about earlier, Josh Lerner, Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School and Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

Tagged: Private Equity, Chrysler, Cerberus

Random ramblings about today

2007-05-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today I pitched my first company to the investment committee at the venture fund. The investment committee is formed of three seasoned venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. These three, because of their experience, are so sharp that they tear apart even the most reasonable sounding business plans. To get past them, the investment has to be "really" good. Luckily, I was able to do a decent job (even though the rest of the team I had worked with wasn't there) and they are favorably inclined towards investing given I provide them with some data that I didn't include in the presentation.

After the presentation, I felt a huge relief and also felt quite good. But then came the bad news. My future employer with whom I start a job in August called to say that my H1-B visa petition was not selected in the random lottery. I hadn't received my master's degree by April 2nd, when they had to apply and hence my application was subject to the regular cap of 65,000 visas for which they had received over 130,000 applications within two days. :( :( :( Its very depressing. I have been in this country for six years now and contributed to the economy (spent) well over a hundred thousand dollars towards my education, living etc and yet it seems the country doesn't want me of my education. Its very depressing. As NPR said in one of their stories, its essentially a deportation order for US educated foreign graduates.

To the credit of my firm, they are committed on still hiring me and continuing for one year on OPT. When that runs out in May '08, who knows what will happen? They have said they will apply for H-1B again next year under the Master's cap, which they expect I should get without any problem. But there is a gap between May (when my OPT runs out) and October (when the visa is issued effectively) where I cannot work in the US legally. I can only hope that they will still keep me on the payroll and send me to work in the UK or India.

Although this year the Master's cap took a whole month to get filled, I am fairly certain that next year, even the Master's cap will be filled in one day (just like the regular cap did this year).
In the unlikely scenario that I have to leave the country and go home, its not too sad. I am fairly certain that with the experience in VC and an MS degree I will qualify for some great jobs in venture capital or microfinance in India or elsewhere around the world. That one thing is the only surety and helps me sleep soundly at night.

Nevertheless, from the point of view of a US educated foreigner, the whole H1-B fiasco is very frustrating. Its very disappointing to have this uncertainty looming over my head though.
Besides, I also dont like being called an "Alien" by the USCIS in all their press releases and materials. Are we really aliens? Foreigners - yes, but aliens? Its ridiculous! I really hope that this great country they called the United States of America, which itself is built on immigrants, thinks about this long and hard, brings about reform and learns to treat its foreign-born students and workers better.

After the disappointing H1-B news, I couldn't concentrate on work all day. There wasn't any work anyway. Everybody who was at the investment committee meeting today morning, felt the blues later on in the day after all the grilling in the morning. I ran into PacMan on iGoogle and played it for a bit. It brought back some happy memories of myself as a sixth grader glued to my green and black monochrome computer monitor for hours playing pacman. Decided to end the day early, came home and just tried to cope with the sad news by sleeping for two hours. Got up at 7 pm even more depressed and since it was still sunny and bright outside, I ran two miles at the liberty park. It was refreshing. Then I hit some tennis shots against a practice wall at the park, then came home and had dinner.

Thats pretty much for a lousy day that today was except for the successful investment pitch in the morning. That is the only thing that I really like about today.

Update: Isn't there any regulation that frees up h1-b multiple visa allocations wasted by people like this, who applied for and obtained more than one visa, possibly through consultants and dummy employers and are grabbing away opportunities from countless others? I'm beginning to get really disappointed with all this happening.

Tagged: Personal, H1-B

Into The Real World Now

2007-05-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

I am glad to announce that I have left the safe cocoon of academia behind (at least for a few years now) and plunged into the real world!

I have been absent from the blogosphere lately. OMG!!! I havent posted anything for more than two weeks now. I've been very busy working towards my final exam and projects. On May 4th, I graduated with a Master's in Computer Science. Its been a great experience, a roller coaster ride most times. I learned a lot during the last two years and feel very different from when I graduated with my bachelor's, only two years ago. I feel a desire to go out and do something. I have a job that starts in August. I have a million ideas of things I want to do. Business ideas I want to start a company with. Social organizations I want to start or join or work with. Things and methodologies I want to learn. Books I want to read. I'm already overwhelmed.

I have the summer ahead of me. I have talked to a few places for an internship, but am not sure what if anything is going to work out. If something does work out, great I'll get paid to live over the summer. If I don't, thats fine too for now. I can invest my time in working on a business idea. I will also continue working on deals at the Venture Fund. Yesterday and today, I sat at the fund trying to get the startup going, but accomplished very little. There is so much that needs to be planned and so much that needs to be done. I feel so shackled because I feel things move slowly. I need to be more patient and wait for a few months while I continuously work away on the idea to actually start doing business.

In the meanwhile, I just returned from Omaha, NE from Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting. Sadly, I am not rich enough to be a shareholder yet, but some day will definitely be. Its shares are currently trading at $108,500 for the BRK.A share and $3618 for the BRK.B share (which is 1/30th of the A stock). It was held at the Qwest Center and it was packed with 30,000 people, all there to hear pearls of wisdom from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. It was a great experience overall because I felt so motivated. I wish I can be like Buffett some day, own a large, successful company that is revered by so many around the world.

Tagged: Personal, Graduation, Warren Buffett

The Power of Proactivity

2007-04-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note about how proactiveness or proactivity can work wonders. Its just a matter of realizing that by being proactive, one gains a chance at obtaining what is wanted. I do consider myself proactive, but an experience today morning just pushed my level higher and I realized the tremendous power of proactivity all over again.

So I was walking with my girl friend towards a bus stop in the morning. I was hoping to catch a bus to go downtown to the venture fund and she was to carry on walking to the university from there on. Suddenly, one block away, I saw two buses coming - one that stopped at the stop I was walking towards and another that stopped at a stop where the buses were at that moment. I was 20 steps away from my stop when I started running to make it there on time. Unfortunately, I didn't make it and the bus driver didn't stop at the bus stop since there was no one waiting there. I dont think he even saw me running. Had the bus stopped at all for someone to get down, I would have gotten the extra few seconds and made it to my bus.

By now, the other bus, which was one block away had already stopped at the other stop which was across the street to my left. It picked up its passenger, shut the doors and was about to turn. I had written off my chances of getting that bus as well. No, I am not lazy and usually live life proactively myself as well. But I was damn sure that I was going to miss the second bus too. Even if I ran to get to the stop, I wouldn't have made it. I was resigned to the fact that now I would have to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus. By trying to run to this different stop and missing another bus again, I didn't want to be disappointed twice.

I am sure everyone has felt this fear of being disappointed at some point and it has probably prevented us from getting what we wanted. Often we feel like being introduced to someone influential and we think to ourselves, how can I just go and introduce myself. We just give up an opportunity because we fear the negative outcome. Our fears could be coming across as foolish or silly, or being disappointed by someone's negative reaction about our ideas or just plain missing the bus. And by giving up like this, we are almost guaranteeing ourselves of the negative outcome. We will never get what we want if we don't try. However, if we try, we worry we will be disappointed and in that moment, for some reason, avoiding the disappointment becomes our primary goal shoving our primary goal in the background.

Here is where positive thinking and being proactive can be useful. If we keep our goal in mind and do not give in to our fears, chances are we might actually get it. And in the end, if things don't turn out as we expected and we don't, in most cases, we are no worse of than we would have been if we didn't take any action.

How did my situation turn out you ask? My girl friend suggested to me "well, can't you take that bus?". I said "yeah, I can, but its already too late to get that one". The bus was now waiting at the intersection, about to turn right. I still had to cross the road to get to the bus. It was not my right of way to cross yet and there was too much traffic to just jaywalk. And if I waited for my turn to cross the street, the bus would have gotten its green light too and would have immediately turned before I even reached half way across the intersection.

Unexpectedly, she said we'll just wave and see if the driver waits. And thats what she did. And surprisingly the bus driver had seen me miss my previous bus while he was at his stop and was actually waiting at the intersection to see if I wanted to take his bus all this while. If she hadn't waved and urged me to try to get this bus, I would have needlessly wasted this opportunity to get to work early. All because of my fear of missing two buses in one minute and looking like a fool. In the end, I boarded the bus at the intersection and my friend saved me not only precious morning commuting time but I also realized a few things about how lost causes are saved, just by a pinch of proactivity. (*Image courtesy: ldsuccess.org here and here)
Tagged: Proactive, Thoughts

The Biggest Problem with India

2007-04-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote how India is hot for VC and PE activity these days. But there is another side to this growth story as well. The story of what is hindering India from unleasing its true potential. And that according to me, is its politics, and the people running it - its politicians!

Image courtesy: Reuters Alertnet

In other news recently, it seems like US intelligence sources have published a report called 'India: The Islamisation of the Northeast'. Given that it is from Rediff, I am highly uncertain regarding the truth of the story. However, if it is true at all, it marks a very important step in India's progress for the following reasons. It is an acknowledgment from some agency that belongs to US that ISI is meddling with internal Indian affairs. Indians and Indian news have always claimed this, but it fails to make a stir in the international news and political circles. Granted that India doesn't need US approval for what it believes, but it helps every inch given that Pakistan and US have come closer and co-operated on George Bush's War on Terror. Even though it is just an intelligence report and nothing at the political/diplomatic level yet, its a step forward. Who knows, when in the future, this may help shape some US policy that helps India out in this regard.

To many Indians, this sentence - "some US policy that helps India out" may sound very harsh. But its time we admit it. Most of our foreign policy is blunder. In my opinion, India doesn't have cordial relations with any of its neighbors. It bent over backwards in helping Bangladesh gain independence from Pakistan. But then it failed to play its cards right and sadly for it, today Bangladeshi army and its intelligence is co-operating with Pakistan (Bangladesh's one time enemy) to work against India in the North East. Bangladesh was carved out of India's Bengal state by the British (resulting in West Bengal that belongs to India and East Bengal which is today's Bangladesh). These two regions, it seems, should be separate only in political boundaries. They share thousands of years of ties and common culture. They even share the same language. Shouldn't India and Bangladesh find easier to maintain friendship rather than bicker over religion? I blame India's leadership for letting this friendship wither.

India's brother country Nepal, who India claims important trade and political friendship with, also doesn't look up to India anymore. In undergrad, I met many Nepali's who would openly admit that almost all Nepalis hate Indians' guts! I don't know how true it is, but I think if some local says that, I feel like there must be some element of truth in it. The common man, the local on the ground is more in touch with reality no matter what the top level governments say. The saga of India having screwed its relations with Sri Lanka is no secret either. China is whole another story. After sharing so many friendly trade (the silk route), education (Nalanda university and the famous Xuanzang) and religious (Buddhist) links for thousands of years until the 13th century or so, how these two countries ended up hating each other completely beats me. And Bhutan and Myanmar - its other neighbors geographically or culturally, are too instable themselves. The sad reality is, India has no neighbors it can count as its best friend.

Now that we have established that, we have to look at some problems that arise because of these sour relationships. India is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the integrity of its own land. China and Pakistan claim entire states that have belonged to India in the past. There are many insurgencies going on within India itself - not only in its border states, but also states like Madhya Pradesh and Orissa which border no foreign country!

Given this state of the country, it is a surprise India is growing at all, let alone growing at 8% annually. And bulk of the growth should be attributed to the resilience and strength of the common Indian man and business-people, rather than the government (as it always takes credit). But this growth cannot carry on unless the government can figure out a way to stabilize the country internally as well as maintain good relations with its neighbors. One can only live peacefully and carry on with daily business if one doesn't have to constantly worry about his/her own life. If someone was waiting outside your door to bomb you the moment you stepped foot outside, would you even dare to go out to get milk, let alone go out to work? The answer is No!

Similarly, it will be increasingly difficult for India to conduct its own business with so much instability around in the future. Unless the top leadership takes things in its own hands and improves the conditions. This is an issue where businessmen cannot help. If they could, this would have been under control too! But this is entirely the realm of India's leadership. And for once, BJP and Congress - India's two leading national political parties - should stop bickering among themselves trying to pull each other down. They should work together to figure out what they as India's leadership can do to provide its countrymen the best conditions for them to conduct business within India as well as with the world and help keep India growing!
Do you think this will happen? Do you think the politicians will ever stop monkeying around?

Insurgencies in various parts of India
High & Low Intensity, Foreign Controlled Conflict: North (Kashmir) and Northeast
Internal Conflict: Central Parts (Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal)
(Image Courtesy: The South Asia Terrorism Portal.)
Article: Major terrorist groups operating in India

Tagged: India, Politics

India Hot Hot for VC activity

2007-04-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Rediff.com reports latest that forty VC firms have raised funds totaling $400M to be invested in startups in India. Thats great. Last year (2006) total VC and PE investment in India was $7.5B as opposed to just $2.2B in 2005. This year $2.4B has already been invested in the first quarter, leading me to think that this year total investment will top $12B or so.

I wonder where all this money goes. Working at VC firm in America, I see why startups in America raise funds in millions of dollars. Having employees on your payroll in America is very expensive. Especially if your staff is composed of top scientists. You can burn through a few million dollars in one year easily. On top of that, marketing and sales costs are typically much higher too.

Comparatively, hiring people in India is much cheaper and many costs that you typically see in American startups are either inexistent or way low. So, it is my guess - and its totally my guess - without any research into data about startup funding in India, that an average startup company might burn through cash much slower than an average startup in America - and thus the need to raise less capital.

So if we are on average investing less money in startups, we must invest in a lot more startups to invest all that money thats flowing into VC and PE funds in India. But where are all the Indian startups that we must see blooming already? If India Inc's startups gulped down almost 28% of US VC investing (VCs invested $26.5B in 2006 in US), where is all the money going?

Is there a flaw in my logic that I am not seeing? Or are there other factors such as Indian startups taking longer to gain visibility or something else? It will be interesting to see. In the meanwhile, I will try to find some data about Indian startups in 2006 and 2005. Anyone know any good databases or good data resources for Indian startup arena? I know of Venture Source, but I afaik it has data only for US, Europe and Israeli startups (yes, Israeli! I was surprised too when I first saw it).

Apparently, the data that all news sites are reporting is from a study titled "Indian PE/VC Market Firing on all Cylinders-Liquidity all round" by Assocham and Ernst and Young. I am trying to find this study, but it seems it is too new for search engines to have indexed it or its restricted access. If someone can find it and send me a link or the file at indyman 'DOT' blogspot 'AT' gmail 'DOT' com, that will be great.

Another interesting read: Surging economy sees private equity investment soar. Wall Street Journal - Investing In India. (.pdf)

Update: Today morning 04/24, data for Q1 2007 VC investing came out. VC investors in US have invested just under $7.1B. This number is higher than all other Q1 results for the past 6 years, indicating a good forecast for the economy.

Tagged: India, Venture Capital

Deadly Mumbai Local Trains

2007-04-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

(*Image Courtesy: Sebastião Salgado)

Picture of Victoria Terminus Station of Mumbai during peak hours. From Sebastiao's Exhibit titled 'Exodus'

Ask anyone who has lived in Mumbai about getting around in a local train and you'd likely get one of the following two responses based on who you are. If you are a local, people would assume you know the dangers of traveling it and give you the directions. If you are a foreigner, people would advise you to stay away from it or words like "once-in-a-lifetime" experience will be thrown around. Wall Street Journal carried a very interesting story on its front page today about the dangerous mumbai trains (Subscription required). There is also a video with it, which is embedded below.

Its no secret that Mumbai trains that are used by millions of city residents to commute to work and to get around are over crowded. During peak hours, the trains normally carry 2.5 to 3 times the number of people that it can safely carry. Thats about 550 to 600 passengers per car whereas the number to safely operate is 200 per car. Even during non-peak hours, the trains carry more than 1.5x the load.

This may seem like a feat accomplished, but it really is very dangerous. The train cars are normally packed like animals with no room to move your foot. If you shuffle your hands in or out of your pockets, you may get into a fight with the person standing nearby because you have just hit them with your elbow.

(*Image courtesy Wall Street Journal)

The trains are so crowded that to get to the door from inside the car, you have to plan three to four stations ahead and get up and start making your way outwards slowly. To do that, you also need to know which side - left or right - your station will arrive at. If one doesn't plan well, it is impossible to get out because if you try to hurry, the crowd will push you right back in. Besides there are people hanging on by the doors who may fall out if you push too much!

Every year many people die from crossing the tracks carelessly, but even more so from falling out of running trains overcrowded beyond capacity. Many people also fall between the platform and the train due to the jostle of getting in or out when the train arrives. You must be wondering how this could happen? Believe it or not, but many platforms are not aligned to the height of the train (due to repairs carried out on the tracks, which leave them elevated and the contractor didnt level them back down to save costs - i.e. more money in his own pocket). So on many platforms the train is usually a foot higher than the platform and there is a huge opening for anyone to fall through! (So much for the combined talent pool of India's millions of engineers)

No wonder when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie decided to hop on to a Mumbai train while shooting for A Mighty Heart, it made world wide news.

The train authorities are seen regularly on television boasting about the capacities mumbai train network handles. They use popular words like courage and strength to describe the commuters and win them over. Thats why, whenever I read someone from the rail administration being interviewed, I don't pay much attention. In fact, I run far from anybody who starts boasting about today's state of mumbai trains. (*Image courtesy: BBC)

I consider that both the Central Railway and the Western Railway (the two government agencies that manage Mumbai's entire rail network) have terribly failed the Mumbai residents. Its a failure of the top level management in not understanding the demands of a growing metropolis of one of the fastest growing nations. It is a failure of planners that are hired by the railway. It is the failure of the politicians who prefer united minorities who establish illegal slum-type settements over the tax-paying, honest but divided commuter public. The city authorities almost have their hands tied by these politicians when time comes to demolish these illegally occupied public lands next to railway tracks. Thats why new rail lines cannot be laid and the frequency of trains cannot be laid. (At least thats what the rail authorities like to claim). But as you probably see by now, these are just some of the many parties to successfully play the point-the-fingers game when blame comes around. And nothing ever gets accomplished. (*Image Courtesy: http://www.cbc.ca)

I am certain that there are many things that can be done if the railway authorities wanted to. In the next few weeks, I am going to gather some data on the railways performance in Mumbai and draw some comparables with other cities metro and public transportation. If anybody has smart suggestions as to what can be done, please post those in the comments. And if you are one of the affected Mumbai residents, please think about this deeper than usual. Lets not shurg and slide this as a part of life as many of us Mumbaikars have gotten used to doing.

Tagged: Mumbai, Mumbai Trains, Local Trains

Condolences for Virginia Tech Shootout Victims

2007-04-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

My heart reaches out to all the victims and families of the recent shootouts at Virginia Tech. In two separate incidents, gunman Cho Seung-Hui, a 23 year old student killed 32 students and professors before shooting himself. Two people of Indian origin - Professor G V Loganathan who hailed from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and first year masters student of architecture Minal Panchal from Bombay were also killed.

I have been very deeply affected by the tragedy. For the last two days, I have not been able to concentrate on anything other than the tragedy. I keep tuning in to the news, both on the television as well as on the net. Being a student at a large university, roughly the size of Virginia Tech makes things almost real. I can imagine how vulnerable we are to such an event here too. I can identify with how the university community at VTech feels right now. But the fact that I almost went to Virginia Tech and would have been there right now had I chosen it two years ago makes dealing with this tragedy even harder.

Two years ago, while finishing my undergrad, I had applied to schools to pursue a graduate degree. After being admitted to six schools, I narrowed the list down to two. The two schools I was choosing between were Virginia Tech and University of Utah. I had received funding from both schools and they were both pretty equally ranked. I was too undecided about my research interests at the time to make a decision sitting at home from their web pages. So I decided to visit both.

I had received an offer from both schools to visit their campus. I declined VT's offer because it was my last semester in undergrad and the visit weekend coincided with some really hard deadlines in my course work. I could attend the University of Utah's prospective grad student weekend the next week. I learned a lot about the school and met the people, who were all great and loved the mountains that surround the salt lake valley. But in my heart I didn't feel like making an unfair decision after visiting only one university.

So I emailed people at VT and decided to drive out there the next weekend. I visited the campus, met a lot of people. I loved the campus - the buildings are all made out of Hokie stone and look so pretty. It is a beautiful campus. But it is located in Blacksburg which is a small town, almost like the town I was already in doing my undergrad. I wanted to move out to a slightly bigger city and Salt Lake won there. But that was not the deal clincher. There were two or three professors whose research interested me but overall the grad student and research atmosphere at Utah looked better. That clinched the deal and I decided to choose Utah over Virginia Tech.

I keep thinking where I would be today, had I chosen the other. I am not sure that I would have been one of the people in Norris Hall had I chosen VT. But I am sure my life would have taken a very different path in many ways than it has here. It just keeps coming back to my mind, the choices we make at every turn and how they change every single that follows.

I hope no body has to go through what the people who witnessed the massacre had to go through every. More so, I hope no family has to go through what the families of the victims are going through today. My heart-felt condolences go out to everyone affected by the tragedy.

Tagged: Virginia Tech, Thoughts