We met Wilson Tan on a trade trip across China. In just over a week, thirty technology companies from the Asia Pacific region covered 3 cities and one hundred Chinese partners, trying to understand the opportunity that was China. Wilson was the President of the organizing body, (the outgoing President of Mercury interactive and on…
Category: Desi Back to Desh
home through desi return eyes
Funding for dummies…two
It’s not that money is not available. Or that you can’t raise it. Or that it’s a fairytale that come true for only a select few. Truth is a lot less absolute; there is no black and white, only shades of grey. Let’s take a look at how and why a 37 year old, father…
Funding for dummies…one
You dream, you write, you pitch. If you put your heart in it and have an idea with merit you collect, build, sell, retire and live happily ever after. You never have to ask, borrow or steal another dime since the millions of dollars you have put aside as a result of your efforts are…
Things to do in a down market when you are not dead…
We were lucky that the downturn hit us early. In July 2008 we lost two of our largest clients; within a week of each other and on a week’s notice… It made for interesting internal conversations and a scramble to conserve cash. We were luckier still that between attrition (top heavy), expense management (read: extended…
John LeCarre, this country, and the elections in November
I am a sucker for happy endings, nachos and cheese with Jalapeños. As a young adult I used to dream Bond movies in full color (though I finally got to watch my first Bond movie well into my 20’s once Pierce Brosnan took over as the new Bond). On odd weekends you can still find…
The state of the Pakistani Economy – part ii
(This post follows on the comments made in my previous post “The rise and fall of the Pakistani Rupee“) Entrepreneurs are the most irrational of all creatures. We see hope and optimism, when the rest of the world sees doom and gloom. While our internal outlook at times may turn to despair (we never have…
There goes your coolant; here comes your core…
Running a small business is difficult. No one ever said it would be easy. You sleep less and work harder and that is the part you actually enjoy. Everything else is a struggle. If your small business is a technology company it just upgrades your nightmares to a different class – your personal nuclear reactor…
Kill your ego…
When I first met Don Sexton, Mark Broadie, Ralph Biggadike and John Whitney at Columbia, a few things stood out at once. All four were very successful, well established and well respected professionals. They had touched professional peaks I couldn’t even dream about and had nothing left to prove. All four changed my life. 8…
Hamaray Zamanay main (In our times…)
When I came out of school There was no PASHA. There was no Startup Insiders. Access to MIT was an expensive unreachable vision. The internet existed but we weren’t aware of it. A high end computer was defined as something with the cutting edge x286 processor in it. And yet, some of us still went…
MIT BAP, Ken Morse, TAN and Pakistan
The setting was a small conference room at the Marriot in the year that was 2006. We had heard Ken Morse was making a brief stopover in town on his way to Isloo and Nida my MIT sister had managed to pick up four invitations from the MIT Club in Karachi. We were a very…