Hyperloop VC presentation

The following is a hypothetical conversation between Elon Musk (EM) presenting Hyperloop and a Silicon Valley VC (SVC).

SVC: Good Morning, Mr. Musk. So, tell me a little bit more about Hyperloop.

EM: Hyperloop basically would transport passengers in individual aluminum pods powered by turbines and solar energy in above-ground tubes.

SVC: Seems like Science Fiction.

EM: Have you read the white paper?

SVC: Can't say that I have read all 57-pages cover-to-cover. But I did glance through it. What would this cost to build?

EM: This is actually spelled out in the paper, on Page 6. It would cost around $6b to build.

SVC: Have you built a prototype?

EM: Not yet. It is theoretically proven and thermodynamically feasible.

SVC: So, you would like us to fund an idea that you hope will turn out to be commercially feasible. How long will this take to complete?

EM: It would take 3-4 years to build a working prototype and then 4-5 years after that for the full-scale working version.

SVC: So, 7-9 years before you start realizing any revenue

EM: Your math is good

SVC: How much are you looking to raise?

EM: It would cost around $100m to build the initial prototype.

SVC: I am sorry, Mr. Musk. If you had a working prototype, we would be willing to take the risk and make an investment. At this stage, your idea is unproven and may not be realized. It is too risky for us to invest now.

EM: That is okay. I will probably fund this myself. If I charge just $20 for the ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the current traffic of 7.5m people could well increase to 10 - 15m people. This will result in breaking even in less than 10 years.

Homage to a Departed Soul

Click on image for a larger view

I write this with a heavy heart and deep sadness. The kindest person that I have known is no more. On Monday, July 29 my mother, Mrs. Sharada Krishnamoorthy left for a heavenly abode. She was feeling unwell for a few days – which is not unusual in and of itself. She was certainly not in the pink of her health. She would have her good days and her bad days – certainly not unexpected for a 73-year old. Which is why her sudden passing due to a pulmonary cardiac arrest was so unexpected and a complete shock.

She had three passions in her life:

•  Family / Children / Grandchildren
•  Music and art
•   Devotion and Religion

As it happened, she was able to “check off” all three passions in the last few months:

• She spent time in North America with her children for the last few months culminating in a family reunion that we had in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
• She rushed back from California to be able to attend a “thread ceremony” function – where she was able to meet the extended family
• This was immediately followed by her attending the “Thiruppugazh Aanmeeka Peruvizha” (Special function for "Tiruppugazh Anbargals") in Chennai

She passed the way she wanted. Her God granted her that wish. She did not want a long and protracted illness. She did not want to be a “burden” on anyone. She has, nonetheless, left a void in our lives - a void that is going to be hard to fill.

A Facebook Page has been created for you to share your remembrance of her. Please add your respects / remembrances / condolence to https://www.facebook.com/SharadaKMoorthy

Panel discussion on Design-Led Innovation

Sitting from L to R: Sashank, 

Sandeep, Greg, Rachel and Steve

TiE Silicon Valley organized a panel discussion on "Design-Led Innovation: Key to building successful Products" on Tuesday, July 23rd. The topic was clearly of interest - as there were 100+ people in attendance.

The panel was moderated by Sashank Deshpande, Co-Founder of Clarice Technologies. Being a graduate of the premier National Institute for Design, Sashank was most certainly qualified to lead this august panel. Sashank offered some brief opening remarks that laid the foundation for the discussion:

• Designs that bring meaning to our lives
• The importance of talking to users
• How do you measure the impact of UX (User Experience)

Sashank went on provide a historical perspective of Usability and Human Computer Interface (HCI) - right from the first compute systems in the 1950s. The initial focus was on B2B systems and the evolution of the Design aspects moved from Usability -> HCI -> Interaction Design -> User Centered Design. As the world started shifting attention to B2C transactions, the center of gravity for Design moved from Visual Design (What is your first impression) to UX or User Experience (is the product triggering the right emotions).

Sashank offered a theory on how product design affects us intrinsically. He used the following diagram to explain his point.

Greg Petroff, GM for User Experience at GE spoke next. He encouraged everyone to make products that are meaningful for everyday people. "Always look at the bigger picture," he said.

Rachel Powers, Senior Director of UX at Oracle spoke about the importance of having engineers go out and talk to people that they are building products for. It could completely change the perspective of what they create.

Steve Portigal of Portigal Consulting, who has written a book on  "Uncovering Compelling Insights by Interviewing Users", talked about the importance of talking to users. This leads to mindset changes and allows you to discover and act on new insights about your customers and yourself.

Sandeep Datar, Senior Director of Design, Yahoo provided a Metrics perspective to Design. 

Sandeep mentioned the ASERT framework to measure the impact of design:

• Acquire / Onboard users (sign them in with a single click)
• Surprise / Wow / Amuse / Intrigue (you get one opportunity)
• Engage and Retain
• Revenue (convert the user from free to paid)
• Task simplification - through out the product

The panel was very informative and offered some deep insights from folks who have spent 20+ years in the business. There was 100+ person years of User Design experience amongst the speakers. I felt that having a startup CEO on the panel would have helped invigorate the perspective.  I am sure Tony Fadell or Jonathan Ive would have had a completely different view point. I believe that products should be centered on design. While the panelists were talking about how UX has "turned the corner" and is now an integral part of every product team, Aaron Patzer may have said product teams should build the designs created by the UX team!

At one point, Greg Petroff said, "Jeffrey Immelt does not know me by name. He knows of me as the UX guy". I think that is a problem. Steve Jobs (and I am sure Tim Cook now), on the other hand, would talk to his UX guy every day. Companies like Apple, Nest, Mint and several others have proven that design-centered development can win. 

I am not a designer, but I think designers should be forced to better communicate their thoughts to other team members. They should think more about the problem, rather than opting for the first thing that pops to their mind. This is harder to "enforce" in a Facebook "Like" button world, but it leads to better communication and therefore better products.

Is it all about money?

All of us are professionals and get paid to do what we love doing. Some of us are, however, more "successful" than others. Of course, there is the eternal debate on the definition of "success". For now, let us circumvent that debate and focus on one area, sports. Here success is clearly defined - winning the ultimate prize, the championship.

The question to ask is what is the "secret" to the success. What motivates the ones who excel. A recent interview of Rahul Dravid by Sanjay Manjrekar triggered me to ponder the question, "Is it all about money?".

Here is a link to the video of the interview after Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in an IPL game:

The Rahul Dravid interview starts at the 3:52 mark of this post-match presentation. When talking about their next opponent, Mumbai Indians, Rahul says, "The pressure is on them". Sanjay responds with, "I like how you are playing the underdog card." Rahul brushes this off contemptuously saying, "It is the reality, Sanjay ... Look at the amount of money that they spent and CSK spent ...We are a Moneyball team."

Sanjay should have asked, "Is that why the players in your team looked for supplemental income?" (in response to the match fixing scandal involving three players from the Royals team) - but that would be hitting below the belt. I wish he had instead asked, "It is not really about the money, is it? It is about bringing out your best effort to the game. It is about who is more motivated. After all, one of the more 'expensive' teams, Royals Challengers Bangalore, are not even in the playoffs. "

I think all the teams have the raw talent to win the tournament. In any team sport, all players have a role to play. Even the "super stars" need a support cast and cannot function well without all the members fulfilling their respective responsibilities. The winning team has the right management, right coaching and training staff and a positive environment.

So, no, Rahul Dravid, it is not just about the team that spends the most. There is a reason why  MS Dhoni commands a $1.8m payday. However, that money is left at the entrance to the stadium. He needs to bring his "A" game to the match just as you need to.

Farewell, my friend

It is with immense sadness that I learned of the passing of a classmate and good friend, Rajiv Agarwal - a victim of colon cancer. Rajiv is survived by his wife Radhika and two college-age daughters Devika and Sameera. Our prayers are with the extended family as they somehow need to find the strength to see themselves through these troubled times. Rajiv's health had been deteriorating steadily over the last month. So, in a sense, his passing means that he is probably in a better place. Yet, we were all hoping and praying for a miracle that he will be able to beat this deadly disease. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. May your soul rest in peace my friend.

Rajiv was a swash-buckling, fun loving guy. He made friends easily with his open mindedness and disarming smile. He was always fun to be around. His spirit of joy will sorely be missed as our circle of friends regroup in the future. Friends and visitors would constantly be swarming at Rajiv's house. I would often wonder how he found the energy to socialize as much as he did.

It is ironic that just yesterday there was an Op-ed in NYT by actress Angelina Jolie about the preventive measures that she took to fight breast cancer. Modern medicine certainly provides alternatives for each of us to evaluate and consider.

I would certainly like to see the day when the discussions on cancer revolve around combating it and defeating it - not just preventing it. While it will not bring Rajiv back, it will certainly stop this senseless, "why-me" disease from taking away lives of wonderful people like Rajiv.

TiEcon 2013

This year, TiEcon 2013 will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center on May 17th and 18th. As in the past, there is an army of volunteers working round-the-clock to deliver a successful conference.

Last year, I was the Co-Chair for the MentorConnect event - where Mentors (who are VCs / successful entrepreneurs / high profile Corporate Execs) were paired with Mentees (conference attendees). We had a semi-automated way of pairing the Mentees. The feedback that we heard was unanimous. Mentees wanted a more "intimate" setting and, most importantly, to have more control on who their Mentor is.

My role in this year's TiEcon (at MentorConnect) is to steer on the systems side. The co-chairs are two highly accomplished, excellent Charter Members - Sanjaya Kumar and Ravi Amble. Early in the process, the TiE Silicon Valley Systems Lead, Deepak Bhagat, and I evaluated MentorCloud as a possible solution provider.  In order for MentorCloud to work, there was a list of changes that needed to be done to the platform. Understandably, the CEO of MentorCloud, Ravi Gundlapalli, was not keen on doing "one-off" tasks for TiE. Nevertheless, he was quick to see the potential benefits (to MentorCloud) of working with TiE. Ravi and his team worked tirelessly with us to roll it out successfully. The proof, of course, is only in the pudding and I don't want to "declare success" before the event. I will certainly blogging about the "on-the-ground" experience after the conference. Nevertheless, the user experience is undoubtedly improved from last year.

Given the availability of this platform, the TiE Silicon Valley team, led by Venk Shukla, mobilized some very high profile mentors to participate. I am really happy to inform that we have 100+ eminent Mentors registered and available to Mentor TiEcon 2013 attendees during lunch on the days of the Conference. The list of Mentors include Vinod Khosla and Kanwal Rekhi. This is a unique opportunity to meet these folks and learn from them. They have all been successful in building public companies or having substantial exits.

TiEcon offers so much more than the MentorConnect opportunity to the attendee. Here are a few more reasons to attend TiEcon.

1. Inspiring keynotes from Jeff Weiner, CEO LinkedIn, Manoj Bhargava, CEO 5-Hour Energy and more! See the full list here.
2. Discuss the latest trends and meet the hottest companies, entrepreneurs and VCs in these high growth tracks - BigData, Mobility and SW Defined Infrastructure
3. Meet some innovative companies in the Expo Hall.
4. Listen to 18 lightning round startup pitches and meet the TiE50 winners

With prices starting at $275 (using discount codes) TiEcon certainly offers best value for your money. I believe the prices go up on May 1st. So, register today to what promises to be an exciting conference. When you register, be sure to check the "Interested in MentorConnect" box. In case you are already registered, and did not check that box, you can back and do so. This will allow you to participate in MentorConnect and get mentored by some awesome Mentors.

An evening with Kapil Sibal

[Disclaimer: The views expressed in this posting are entirely my own and are not, in any way, representative of TiE or the Govt. of India]

On Wednesday, January 30th, TiE Silicon Valley hosted a reception and talk by Kapil Sibal, Cabinet Minister of Communications and Information Technology with the Government of India. He had come to the Bay Area with a delegation that included the Secretary of Technology, J. Satyanarayana and the Joint Secretary of Technology, Ajay Kumar. Their mission was to communicate their vision of  embarking on a very ambitious agenda to develop the Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry in India. There are a number of incentives being made available by the Government of India to the right entrepreneurs and companies. They expect that India’s ESDM demands will be in the order of $400 billion by the year 2020.

Kapil Sibal was everything that I had heard of and read about - erudite, articulate and humorous. He started by talking about the current state of the GDP in India where the service industry accounts for 57% of the GDP; Agriculture is 14% and the balance is Manufacturing. "If India is going to survive as a Global Economy, the shift from Service to Manufacturing needs to happen. We need to move from Software to Hardware," he said. Getting there needs a change in mindset. People in India tend to live in the "glory days" of the past - how India's GDP was the highest in the world during the days of Emperor Asoka. They rue that all the wealth was looted by East India Company. "The past," he said, "is an impediment to the future." By 2020, they would like 65% of all electronics products to be manufactured in India

Next Ajay Kumar gave a presentation on the policy initiatives for promoting this vision. This presentation can be viewed here. The subsidies and incentives are very impressive and the plan seems to be very well thought out to allow them to reach the objective.

Kapil Sibal now took the stage to answer questions. The audience (of ~ 150 professionals in the Bay Area) did not hold back. I have attempted to paraphrase (to the best of my recollection) some of the questions asked and answers provided by Kapil Sibal.

Q1: We attempted to set up a manufacturing facility in India and shipped expensive equipment to Chennai. These machines were sitting in Customs for many months before we decided to scale down our operations in India and move the manufacturing to Singapore.

A1: I am not aware of any issues with importing machinery to India. People are doing this every day without any problem.

Q2: I tried for many years to set up my IT operations in India. It is just too frustrating because of all the red tape we had to face. While the presentation I heard today is very encouraging, my experience is telling me is that it is far from reality.

A2: I don't know the details of your specific problem. People are successfully setting up IT operations in India by the thousands.

Q3: What will it take to get subject matter experts to take on the important decision making roles in the Indian Government?

A3: Why don't you relocate to India and stand for the elections. We can talk after you win the elections.

Q4: Can you talk about the status of the UID project. I have read reports that this has resulted in Identity Theft and abuse of power.

A4: UID is very successful. It is merely a number. It is not possible to abuse it for anything. Don't believe everything that you read.

Q5: We are a Venture Capital firm with an India fund. We had funded companies in India due to some favorable laws. However, the laws changed and were applied retroactively. This resulted in unfavorable conditions for us. We are now skeptical about investing in India.

A5: There was just one law that we changed to be retroactively effective. This has happened numerous times in the U.K.  - where changes were applied retroactively. If you don't chose to invest in India, there are plenty of others who will.

At the end of the session, it seemed to me that Kapil Sibal was not used audiences who spoke to him at his level. It is not as if the questions were "hostile". They were genuine issues and concerns that people faced. I would have preferred if his responses were more along the lines of, "Your issue of grave concern to us. We have a grievance council set up. I encourage you to follow up with them - so that not just your specific issue is addressed, but we have a process and a knowledge base for handling similar issues."

I was reminded of an episode from BBC's "Yes PrimeMinister" (which I had seen many years ago) when Sir Humphrey Appleby rationalizes a significant pay raise to civil servants (in the wake of severe budget cuts in the Government) by simply moving civil servants from one pay category to another and showing that even after the pay increase, because of the reduction in staff (euphemism for lateral movement of staff) the actual salary budget for civil servants got reduced :)