Male engineer’s rant on female founders

Male engineer’s rant on female founders:

the more we find out about them – they suck
very non deterministic
when we need to speak to them
they don’t return their phone calls
when we tell them they have to pay even a little amount of money
they won’t do it
but it’s an ‘emergency’ for them
they don’t think they’re getting the amount of support they need
but when we want to sell them a support package
they get mad
irrational
they tell us they have major bug
and it needs to be fixed
then we rush to fix it
then email them
and they don’t respond
we give them rational fees and fixes
for their problems
and they debate it with us
in short
they’re kind of crazy….

….sigh

Results and awards

Just Do It – is a great slogan.

In life and business, every time I fail, the cause always links to action:

- action never taken
- action taken too late

Too much talk (or I call it strategy) and no action (taking too long to decide).

I am such a huge proponent of execution, getting things done, show real results and accomplishments, rather than fancy and at times never ending strategy talks. I learned and keep learning from my failures. I believe action, execution and results is an ongoing process. One can have skills and tools, but not all answers and immediate results at all times.

While I do believe in execution and real results, I also know that achievements are not always tangible, that ability to bring people together and to influence is hardly an empty talk but even a more so profound achievement. Dale Carnegie valued this ability more than any other skill, saying that he could teach any man any trade, but he cannot teach someone to lead and influence people.

President Obama received a Nobel award today, which created a lot of controversy. Talks about whether or not he deserves it; whether or not, Barak Obama has results and achievements to show.

When Obama won elections, there was a mention that momentum was built and the world was changed, and even if Obama does not do anything for the entire period of his presidency, he has already done much…

Let me say that I am proud of president Obama nominated as a Nobel prize winner.

President Barack Obama wins a Noble prize

Once again media is highly irrational.

Why Obama?

Quite simply, if we ask who brought about most change and influence this year?

What did Obama achieve?

Obama leads the world and our country in a consistent, uncompromising way.

Obama’s speech, the acceptance of a Nobel prize was ideal – it is an affirmation of US leadership, and inspirations it created throughout all nations.

Bringing about any change in the world and people lives is always hard no matter how you go about it, at whatever scale. People seem to diminish ability to influence, to motivate others to initiate change and improvement in themselves and their communities. How is that less important than hands on work in the field?

It is easier to look in the past to assess, that is why so many leaders are recognized looking back, by the next generation. It is hard to see and assess while in the midst of things and this is what might be happening now.

Obama’s points of view are unambiguous, clearly stated. Will he solve all of humanity problems in his presidency term or lifetime? When we look in history, Dalai Lama has been fighting for Tibet independence all his life and Tibet is still under China… Martin Luther King fought for equality mid last century, we only see some of the progress now, it is not entirely solved… Chaplin was brought back to America from exile only when future generation recognized his contribution and ability to influence through art.

What is an achievement and will we always see the results we expect right away?

People always want to see things change for the better faster than is possible. We want wars and conflicts that lasted decades to be solved overnight. Wanting to see results immidiately is human nature, changing is not human nature, it takes a long time and is resisted. Change is a process of overcoming, realizing, evolving and understanding. We are not going to have fast results.

Obama stands strong. His courage to step up and remind the world of our priorities and his ability to influence is what is rewarded today via Nobel prize.

Obama calls every one of us to be a better one. Abraham Lincoln said “Whatever you are, be a good one”.

Is this reward premature? May be if we can give him a reward now, he will get things done faster?

McCain certainly believes it is an advance for the future work, implying that Obama is now obligated to deliver. Obama is on his mission, and will be whether rewarded or not.

Is the resume always a decisive factor? Does a person with a thick resume is always the one who influences most?

We know that biggest leaders are the ones who are passionate and dedicated to their missions. Brin did not have a thick resume when change internet to no return by building Google.

Is a Nobel committee a bunch of people notorious for misjudgment? Hardly.

Noble prize committee sent the world a message today and the world got this message. Ability to influence is a result and is what is awarded.

I only wish the humans are more rational and visionary…

Congratulations America on a Noble prize!

Where to start a company?

A European entrepreneur who lives in Europe would probably start a company like everyone else, out of his apartment, then coffee shop etc. until he needs to raise capital. “It is tougher to raise a C round in Europe” says Alex Fries of Ecosystem Ventures, “Start here in Silicon Valley, raise a C round here, then open an office in Europe if needed”.

Olya's iPhone

Alex Fries, Ecosystems Ventures

Why? Many European VCs are based here or have a significant representation here. “We want to be involved and be a business side in a tech company, founders can do the building of a product, engineering”, he explains, “we do not see if an entrepreneur is building the right team in Europe, prefer to work closely with local teams.”

Alex specifically emphasized the fact that Ecosystem Ventures want to lead a business side. “Entrepreneurs come here (to the States) and say that they need an attorney. Then they spend a month looking for one, talk to ten of them, then still get screwed.” Ecosystem Ventures is an early stage investor, up to 1/2M, offers experience and full business infrastructure with attorneys and other professionals on staff.

Although, corporations based in Europe have tax advantages, in some countries more than others. Ireland, for instance, is a great place for corporations.

Ecosystem Ventures isn’t really looking at investing in Russia, and have one company in their portfolio Spectralos.

Some companies are transactional and are not that intersting to investors. Meaning, they get started with a help of some angel capital, quickly become profitable and keep status quo, keeping profitable, yet unable to grow rapidly thus create more revenue. Investors still would like to get thier money back and out of the investment plus return. The company keeps sitting in VCs portfolio, founders do not want to sell it, being comfortable with generating steady revenue.

VCs want to have exit of some kind. They like mergers and aquisitions. They prefer to have one or two rapidly growing companies to become big corporations in thier portfolio.

Watch outs for entrepreneurs: some early stage VCs offer to invest 50K for 10% ownership, which is a wrip off – cannot take a company from an entrepreneur for 50K. VCs have thier own risks. “Twice” Alex says, “we had very little money in the bank, died almost, 15 partners firm. Then were saved by angels bringing in cash to the firm’s fund.”

Angel and Venture capital in Europe, Stanford University

Angel and Venture capital in Europe, Stanford University

Olya’s iPhone

Economy: now what?

A few VCs shared their views on why the economic crash happened and what entrepreneurs and investors plan to do about it.

We all suffer from deregulated banking.

Credit was not properly regulated / priced. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were buying any notes originated, much of which was subprime. Street did not care feeding the beast, as James Anderson, President of SVB Analytics said.

Promod Haque, Norwest Ventures, believes that it is not all banks deregulation – it takes two to tango. We have become a culture of debt. Casinos, instant gratification, “have it now pay later” attitude, behavior of banks – all contributed to developing a consumer expectation that they can have whatever they want.

Storm Duncan, Credit Suisse, believes that traditionally America stands for innovation and growth and to cultivate that we need leverage. Somewhere along the way, we turned into a culture of consumption – that vs investment is what broke America. China is a vendor in US: they provide vendor financing!

The Book “Limits to growth” talks about various predictions on how the world and specifically its natural resources will be. It was predicted at the beginning of the last century that oil resources are exhausted by 2005.

Innovation and technology proved the prediction of the book wrong. They allow us to consume less. On the other hand, innovation is what allowed humanity to expand beyond our natural capacity. Population grew from 2 billion in early 1900s to 7 billion now.

For now, it is too early with what is going on to see effect in VC market.

Venture business model will change going forward. Using cash wisely seems to be a most common and natural word of advice.

Post .com companies are more capital efficient than in a before .com boom. Many companies are multinational from the way they start.

Many tech companies ie in social networking are not that capital intensive to start with.

James Anderson, SVB Analytics, and Storm Duncan, Credit Suisse

James Anderson, SVB Analytics, and Storm Duncan, Credit Suisse

VC is puzzled now about how to solve liquidity problems in a timely manner. Moving forward, things will be funded differently. If it were a two party start up scenario before – including a tech partner and a business partner, now it will need to include a financial partner to solve all the funding issues and challenges.

In the 2nd quarter there were zero venture backed IPOs. The average venture partner has lost money. VCs expect now to get 10-12% return on their investments instead of 25-30%. Valuations have dropped.

What do you advise companies in Silicon Valley?

James Anderson advices companies to remain liquid as long as possible. Liquidity will help your company last while your competition dies.
Storm Duncan advises companies to consume less and innovate more.

Promod is hopeful about what VC and entrepreneurs can do together. Anything will get demonetized. He advises entrepreneurs to focus on innovation, rather than about product or service ideas that are not innovative and are simply an efficiency improvement of about 20% more of an already existing product or service.

A possible venture scenario will be something like this: a VC will take a start-up, group of entrepreneurs, and buy out an existing similar process or service applying the entrepreneurs’ innovation. Existing business will bring the necessary infrastructure. Entrepreneurs + existing business = current business model.

Advice to small companies: you cannot go public, you have 20M – let’s go buy something that is 10M, grow a larger company and then go public.

The word is “Caution”.

Entrepreneurs go on a financial diet

How do entrepreneurs and investors adjust their strategies in a sucking economy?

Private equity investors are looking at growing exit multiples and stay conservative. Equity investment is similar to mortgages. Put money into equity, raise debt and count on return as value grows. Equity investors invest into education sector, into products bought by colleges and universities all over the world, and other projects that are worldly.  In smaller business services they are looking at strong internal expertise and experience staying afloat in any economic situation before they decide to invest.

Google corporate development believes they are in a good position with the current market situation. It is a buyers market.

Deal selection and due diligence hasn’t really changed for buyers. Attention should be paid to current contractual relationships and obligations – licensing agreements, support agreements, affiliations. Does Google want to go through an acquisition where they are get into a position to now be responsible for execution and fulfillment of the existing agreements, providing maintenance and customer service? Probably not.

Or, if a company’s current exit strategy is IPO – it is unlikely now.

It was certainly easier to set up an auction atmosphere when selling a company. Now, start-ups are expected to compromise. Acquisition process takes longer to close a transaction. With a lack of money, for some start ups things might be worse in terms of being at the end of their round A funding and now nobody is going to give them round B.

Entrepreneurs are expected to stay engaged as their request for funding is turned down.

All across, payroll suffers. Entrepreneurs should develop ad-hoc policies to reconsider employee compensation including stock and bonuses to conserve cash.

Obama-nation! Obamanate now!

“I can see Russia from my house” is not a foreign policy doctrine.

Palin is paranoid, cannot exist peacefully because of what she sees. Either move and calm down, or better else, change yourself, so you are not bothered by what you see. This is higher level of intelligence and human capacity though and there is a journey to get there, that starts with awareness. Palin is not there.

She puts women one step back. To be a leader, providing leadership that is received and followed is a requirement. Hillary could have showed more leadership if took a high road and not attack Obama as personally as her campaign did. Palin is a joke, a waste of time.

Arianna Huffington is a fantastic woman who does a pretty good job covering politics. Subscribe to Huffington Post Twitter for a sufficient education in politics.

Obamanation!

Obamanation!

Given, I am concerned about democrat’s socialistic tendencies on certain issues. I think Warren Buffet is more qualified than anyone to be a president, but he does not want a job.

Join MoveOn.org!

Social networkers – add Obama Facebook app.

Nation, given the situaion, we have no option, the choice is clear – the country needs a leader. Obamanate now!

Capitalists

I believe in capitalism and market economy.

So far, it proved to be the best economic structure unless ruled and solely regulated by incompetent administration, that consistently makes costly mistakes and bad decisions, ignoring the signs of worsening econimic health.

Country needs a leader. I agree with Warren Buffet on that. After some research about this man – I am a biggest fan. He endorsed democratic party. You think the richest man in the world may have done his research to do so and knows a thing or two? Unlike Trump, endorsing McCain on Larry King’s show “because he likes John.”

Warren is a true leader, and if he was a president – we will all be rich! He is determined – does what he loves for 50+ years, humble – still lives in his old house and drives an old town car, not changing his lifestyle with acquired billions,  enthusiastic and energetic.

While it is good to adopt Warren’s advice on being and thinking like a capitalist, I hang out around capitalists, and entrepreneurs.