“Let’s just say I dare to dream bigger dreams”, said a spunky student when the rest of the class was done with introducing themselves. Quite a few sunsets and students later, the dreamer called again. This time he wanted to be a sponge and observe in first person the special sauce that made a technology…
Category: Startup
Stepping out of your comfort zone…
2003 was a good year in many ways. On 1st of January we came back home after 4 moves in 4 years, one addition to our family and pitstops in London, New York, Southern California, Tokyo and Northern Virginia. 2003. 10 months later we were a team of 4 people, significantly cash flow positive, still…
After thoughts…
Sometimes it may be just cheaper to build a pool and buy a ping pong table. But then where would I get the material for my next book.
Things they never taught me at Columbia Business School…
Despite my numerous comments about how much I owe Bruce Greenwald, Mark Broadie, Don Sexton and Ralph Biggadike on this blog, there are a few thing that they didn’t get around to covering in my all too short stay in school. Here is my list The link between dropping kids to school and closing deals…
Gary Travnicek
It was a Tampa, Florida type of a day. Hot and humid! I could also say bright and shiny but the thick air that hit you when you stepped out of your cool room didn’t leave space for any other reaction. Hot and humid, it was. Gary came to pick me up from the Holiday…
Evul Boss One – Arrival
With due apologies to Omen One, Star Wars III, First Blood one, Evil dead one and all the other ones out there, Alchemy Technologies proudly presents their new widescreen hit – Evul Boss One Brought to you by the daring camera work done by the team from the first floor Scene One – Alchemy Campus…
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…
How to catch a bad pitch – SI 7 – Karachi – one
Just follow FQ’s reaction as Yusuf Jan, Jawwad Farid, Owais Zaidi pitch their wares at the role playing session on pitching and trip miserably. Faisal played the rude and rough customer role, riding all over our combined egos and our pitches on Saturday. Luckily we were only able to get Mr. Zaidi’s plight on camera….
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…