Author: michael_msft

GM Microsoft for Startups APAC

(LINK) Don’t work in venture capital

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Don’t work in venture capital

What a read – I don’t agree with it all but a lot of it.

Pretty much all of what I know today is from making mistakes – lots of them.

I have done a bunch of different careers – so I speak from experience more than anything else.

I always get asked should I do this gig or that gig, should I start a startup, should I do VC or should I go work for google.

I think the advice I would give to my kids is similar to the advice I would give someone asking me these same questions.

The first bit of advice I have is gain experience in your chosen field. I knew early on I wanted to be in tech and I like to travel. So my first gigs were in tech – they were not great gigs but they were in the trenches of tech and I learned. With each thing that I learned I started to come to grips with what I wanted to do and what I didn’t. 

I loved tech but I did not want to be an engineer. Too lonely for me. Then I get into sales engineering and learned how to sell and traveled a lot.

Looking back though I have done some gigs I regret and there was moments when I think I wasted a lot of time doing stuff I didn’t like or realizing the gig was going nowhere but I stayed anyway. 

So I have a few rules that might be of use and these I will most likely share with my kids:

– Nothing wrong at all with working for a big company – it will pay well and you can see how things work but you may not get a varying sense of experience across different disciplines.

– For the varying experience try a startup but either work to becomes a C level where the equity counts or just do it for a period of time to get the experience you need. More than likely if you are being underpaid due to equity, chances are the equity will be nothing and you will work many years below average pay. Not a bad trade-off for a short term goal of learning a lot but don’t camp too long.

– If you want to do your own startup just wait till the time is right. That time to me is when you have some cash to rely on so you don’t have to raise money too early and when you have a great idea. Don’t force either one of these things – you will either not be convicted enough to follow through on the idea or you will give away too much of the company in order to raise funds.

– For VC – I won’t go into it much but my view is you also want to have some money prior to going in and you want carry – otherwise it’s like the startup scene in that you are not paid well and don’t have the upside.

And remember – the grass isn’t always as green as you may think it is.

(LINK) Dark emerges from stealth with unique ‘deployless’ software model | TechCrunch

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

There is always the promise of a new way of building stuff.

I am always dubious of a new way that requires a new language.

I also wonder how tweakable it all is once launched – can the devops person adjust it at the GCP level or is a roundtrip needed to go from editor to launch?

Interesting times.

Dark emerges from stealth with unique ‘deployless’ software model | TechCrunch

My own eCommerce experiences in Singapore

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

We see a lot written about eCommerce and what all the startups or vendors say. However let’s talk about my experience.

I basically swear by Amazon Prime when it comes to customer experience. I won’t argue for selection since that is personal preference anyway but all the basics I want are there and they get shipped to me 2 hours after ordering. The app shows the entirety of the process from start to finish. Bravo.

I also like how I can order stuff from the USA with no shipping costs. Plus I get Amazon Prime Video.

Every once in a while I use Lazada and it works but I think the UX sucks and I only order from official stores.

Shopee is the same for me but the website is better IMHO but stupid they don’t have an app in all the app stores so I can’t use the iOS app. I ordered from an official store recently and the item was in my hand 2 days later but the site and/or email gave me no updates at all. This is why I like Prime – I see all the steps.

Recently I was looking for a particular small appliance and it turns out the best price was at Courts and Best Denki but on my Sunday excursion I did not find the appliance it any of the stores. When I came home I ordered it online from Courts.

The website is okay but you just know that eCommerce is not their focus. My payment information was not there from the last purchase and there are too many steps to checkout. What’s silly is I get an email saying order is being processed. No information on date or delivery time. Today I get an email letting me know it is being processed – I guess they think I didn’t know. I replied asking for the date and time but was told that they have to process it first.

This is why Amazon usually wins. They use tech and they service the customer. Upon completing my order I know when the item will arrive. With Courts I don’t know until – they call me! Yes. I order online specifically so that I don’t need any human intevention to receive an item at my house apart from maybe saying hi the delivery driver.

This post was interrupted by the customer care call from Courts for me to pick my time slot. Wouldn’t have been easier to message me and allow me to click and pick my delivery slot. You did message by SMS and email to confirm my slot – why so hard to use the same tech to allow me to pick the slot? Better yet – why can’t I pick the slot during the order process?

Just to give you a sense at how bad the Courts online tech is:

Screen Shot 2019 07 29 at 10 51 29 AM

The first item is over 2 years old and yes it was delivered – one would think it would show that in the UX.

The 2nd item is the latest one which when I click on that doesn’t even show me my confirmed time slot or even options to let me adjust it.

Not sure what the purpose of the online ordering is since after you order they mostly conduct the TX over the phone which kind of defeats the purpose.

Courts – call me if you need some help. 🙂

Tech is coming folks – even for Courts.

🙂