Oct 6th, 2008 | 1 Comment
Category: Ideas, San Francisco

Trying make sense of what is happening around the world can be a bit challenging and stressful and you really don’t know where to turn for answers. On top of that trying to make sense of the current economic situation and what the consequences are for us is even more stressful. Where previously there was hardly any debate on the economy and the shadow banking system now there is no dearth of commentary and analysis of what went wrong and what needs to done moving forward to rescue the economy. Every newspaper, TV stationmagazine, commentator, economist, talk show host and citizen journalist (myself included) have a point of view on the current economic situation. But, the sad truth is none of us know the answer.  In spite of the information overload I find that we are like seven blind people trying to describe an elephant, i.e. the economy. Everybody is describing their bit, but nobody is able to describe the whole picture. Where is the wise one? Where is the all-knowing guru?

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Sep 23rd, 2008 | No Comments
Category: Bangalore, Entrepreneur Interviews, Ideas, India, Internet and Telecom, Interviews, Podcast, Start-ups, Technology, Venture Capital

TeliBrahma headed by Suresh Narasimha received $2 million as its Series A funding.  Inventus Capital Partners, a VC firm headed by Kanwal Rekhi invested $1 million and with this investment Kanwal and his team make their first investment in India.  I have an interview with Kanwal, where he talks about his new company Inventus and about entrepreneurship in India. Watch out for the interview.

Last year I did an interview series with Suresh, or the Bluetooth man as I call him. Suresh feels very strongly about his startup and their offering and why he is working outside the walled garden. What struck me was Suresh’s desire to build a product company from India, and what it takes to build one.

You can listen to Part-1 and Part-2 of the interview.

Technorati Tags: TELiBrahma,Suresh Narasimha,entrepreneurship,startups in bangalore,startups,bluetooth,mobile in india,ad network,ideas,india

  

Sep 22nd, 2008 | No Comments
Category: Ideas

I am back on the road again as the famous Willie Nelson song goes. Broadband has been restored and laptop has been fixed, which means I will be ramping up slowly and get back to my regular schedule.

What a month this has been. To say that September has been an eventful month would be an understatement. The financial carnage and bloodbath reminded me of the dotcom bust that took place here in Silicon Valley a few years ago.

Was it only a few days ago that we were all caught up with up with the surprise announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain’s choice for VEEP? It seemed like every TV channel was constantly analyzing the lipstick comment and obsessed over every gesture, move and word that Sarah Palin spoke. But all that changed suddenly with the economic crisis that imploded on us last weekend that has been dubbed as the Financial Crisis of 2008 and also sounded the death knell of the investment banking houses in the USA.

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Sep 18th, 2008 | No Comments
Category: Bangalore, Ideas, India, Start-ups, Technology, Venture Capital

Watch out for an announcment of two Bangalore-based companies that have got funded by two Silicon Valley-based VC firms that have connections to India. One of them is in the mobile space and the other is in cleantech space.

Like one on the VCs pointed out cleantech in India will mean a totally different thing when compared to the US or Europe. I suspect we will see a couple more cleantech investments by the end of the year.

Stay tuned.

Sep 16th, 2008 | No Comments
Category: Books, Movies, Music, Televison

Thanks for stopping by. The broadband issue is being sorted and I hope to be back in action by end of this week. I guess it does not help that my trusty laptop also decided to go on the blink! Murphy is operating in full force, and instead of letting his law take over my life, I am busy doig other things that will help me ramp up once I am back in the virtual world.

In the meantime, I am busy meeting people and recording interviews or attending events.  For instance, I saw Yahoo’s Flickr bike over the weekend and was completely blown away by the bike. I spotted the bike at Yahoo’s hack day in Sunnyvale last weekend.  

Thanks for your support.

Sep 12th, 2008 | 2 Comments
Category: Diaspora, Ideas, Internet and Telecom, Interviews, Podcast, Technology, Venture Capital

Earlier today I spent a couple of hours talking to Yogen Dalal, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund. Yes, I was there to interview him,  and he was such a gracious host and spent an extra hour talking on a whole range of topics not directly related to the interview. Yogen is a fascinating conversationalist and I always come away learning so much from him.

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