Month: October 2016

BEA and Warburg Pincus

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Had a great time at the Deal Street Asia Event :: http://www.dealstreetasia.com/events/

I think my panel went pretty well and hopefully I can join the crew in some way again next year.

To my left, your right, is Jeffrey Perlman who is the MD for SEA Region of Warburg Pincus.

In talking to Jeffrey I was reminded of my BEA years and working with Bill Janeway. I told Jeffrey about my BEA experience and he immediately commented that this is still one of the single best returns that Warburg ever had:

In 1992, the firm funded the launch of OpenVision Technologies, which subsequently merged with VERITAS Software in 1996. In 1999, Warburg Pincus also was the founder and sole investor in BEA Systems. Warburg Pincus eventually distributed its positions in both companies to its limited partners, realizing total returns of $750 million in VERITAS shares and $6.5 billion in BEA shares on investments in each of approximately $50 million.

6.5 billion on 50 million. Insane. 

Has to be one of the best deals not only for Warburg but for the industry.

I wrote this exactly 3 years ago today…

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

http://www.nokpis.com/2013/10/07/a-startups-secret-weapon-customer-service/

I think a lot of startups still can’t seem to figure this out.

It was awesome to get this from the First Round email today :: http://firstround.com/review/the-case-for-startups-to-put-cx-at-their-core/

There are many ways to leave an impact but at the core of your business is your customers. Figure out a way to delight them and your business will find a path to success.

Congrats to Moglix

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Pretty excited to see this news finally come out – Moglix has raised their Series A round.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280920

We are obviously a new firm, SeedPlus, and have a long ways to go but it is nice to see some early traction. One of the new challenges I am facing in being a VC is just being patient and constructive about playing the long game. When I was shipping product it was always pretty easy to get some short term satisfaction by shipping something, measuring it’s performance and then tweaking along the way to shipping an update.

Dashboards were my crack.

Now I have to just keep going, be patient and work with my team to shape the long game. It’s fun, but challenging.

So with Moglix raising an A we get a chance to celebrate a small milestone. It is also a nice example of the SeedPlus network at work with Ratan Tata, Accel and Jungle all playing vital roles.

If you are interested in learning more about SeedPlus – contact us here :: http://www.seedplus.com/contact/