Category: Startups

Growing pains – comical excuse for the truth

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Just saw this today :: http://www.mumbrella.asia/2016/11/hooq/

Senior staff churn at Hooq put down to startup growing pains as OTT firm parts ways with CSO

What does parts ways mean anyway? I won’t get into that line but man the spin machines are running on high speed today.

Startup spends lots of money recruiting good talent.

CMO from Flipkart

CTO from Spuul (okay not a big name)

CSO from NatureBox and Netflix.

CFO from Electronic Arts.

CTO gone. CFO gone. CSO gone.

See a pattern here?

Lots of middle management and worker bees gone as well. Lots. 

I myself have never seen churn like this and it is not about being a startup.

Sad. It could have been much more.

Tools

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Will leave this right here:

I posted this page yesterday which I will keep updating as I go. Nothing groundbreaking but figured this was easier than banging out an email each time someone asked about Singapore. 

http://www.nokpis.com/singapore-101/

Carrying on. 

What a glorious time to be in the tech biz when it comes to all the tools being made for tech. I will leave on the table for a future post another subject to cover which is all the tools made for non tech and the investment opportunities that will provide.

I tend to break things down into speciality tools (like sketch for example), white collar tools (slack, office) and blue collar tools (stacck).

The white collar tool space is on fire and it is amazing to see old stalwarts like Microsoft make a comeback. Personally have always loved office and the iOS office stack is pretty killer. Makes Google docs look like toys for the most part. One of the crummy aspects of going iPad Pro only as been how lame Google docs is on iOS. Now with Microsoft shipping teams, I am curious to play with it and see how it goes.

Link on FB about all the troubles people are having trying to used teams :: https://www.facebook.com/dsobeski/posts/10157747558430008

As to Slack. I am a fan and have been using it for the past three companies, but honestly it is feeling stale since not much has changed with it over the last year or so. I think they should have moved faster to deal with docs better since no matter how deep I am into slack I still have to find another tool for documents. And for me that default is office. I think Microsoft knows the score here. Slack should have used their cash to buy their way out of this problem. Or innovated. Now I am tempted to check out teams since I already use office.

Google. Well. Not a fan anyway but docs works and is great for collaboration but again it is so stale. Not much innovation and the mobile side of it generally sucks. I would dump it in a heartbeat.

There are other tools I have tried but I just don’t stick with them. Asana is one of those. I give it a whirl each time but it’s just overkill and I usually drop it.

Trello seems to be a winner and I should probably get better at using it. 

Facebook for work I have not tried and I probably won’t. I get it and I can see they have put some work into it but Facebook doesn’t care about the enterprise. Which means this is not a focus for them and I doubt it ever will be.

Personally I have used for a long time and will keep using Evernote but I don’t do the group stuff with it. It’s just my personal brain and I like it that way.

I am sure I have missed some other stuff. However I generally find that email is still a killer app and under utilitized. I think AI is going to make email even more powerful and people will realize that everything as chat is not the answer.

Use the comments to obviously prove me wrong. 😉

Interesting times.

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Alibaba buys Lazada.

Amazon supposedly tried to buy Redmart. For the record – I would have took that deal.

Now Lazada buys Redmart. I don’t know the deal specifics but clearly this was not a sale from a position of strength. Redmart needed cash and I think this was the best option – versus going out of business.

Now Amazon announces they are coming to Singapore. Personally I am stoked. It is hard to not want some sort of Prime Singapore situation. I buy stuff from Lazada from time to time but it is kind of a crappy experience. It works but it is not amazing. Give me fresh, books, video and Alexa all working locally and I think it will be awesome.

Globally no one is equipped to rival that. No one. Sure Alibaba has some of the pieces and they may weave together something similar from the remnants of Lazada, Redmart and all the other products/properties they own but I doubt it can rival Amazon. I also doubt I will have any interest in it.

Some may see this a harbinger of things to come – the global guys coming in but for me I see this as something deeper and far more exciting. SEA is now on the map big time. It’s an ecosystem big enough to care about and if you happen to be here, building for this scene. Cry tears of joy.

Carry on.

Empathy

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments


When I had the chance to answer this question for the Today newspaper –

What traits do today’s leaders lack most?

I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. I was thinking of techy stuff. Then was thinking about the future.

But then I started thinking about people.

This post hints at why :: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/venture-capital-is-about-human-capital-4d51da6b2b87#.limhpd6rw

So I tell people we’re fundamentally in the people business. Our core skill is being able to identify talent and how to persuade the most talented people with whom we have access that we would be valuable to work with. We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes.

I am learning. I am a VC in training, but I know everything is about people.

I think we are all so spoiled sometimes that we forget how lucky we are.

That is what my answer to this question was and is, empathy.

I suggest more of us should put empathy first. It makes everything better.

🙂

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.