Author: BEC

I asked this question on Hacker News last week to understand the shifts in software development over the last 20 years. From 1995 to 2015, there has been a dramatic change in the developer ecosystem. I thought I’d summarize all the changes and try to make sense of the trends. In this post I am only going… Continue reading What Has Changed For Developers In The Last 20 Years

As a child (and even now) I was a huge fan of Asterix and Obelix. I would spend hours reading and re-reading Asterix and son and imagine what it would really be like if I had special magic powers. The possibilities were endless.The names were funny. The fights were amazing. The adventures were awesome. I did believe… Continue reading The Perfect Startup Team: Asterix And Obelix

“If you got it, flaunt it”, would be the best way to talk about the traction slide on your overview. In fact, show it early, often since in the absence of other stronger parts of your business, traction trumps theory. Progressively, % growth is the easiest to show if you have small numbers or have… Continue reading How To Present Your Traction Slide with 7 Samples

I have been clear in my preference for hacker / developer / engineer founded companies. I prefer developers since they can actually solve the problem using tools at their disposal without having to “hire” people they dont understand anything about. The biggest challenge of backing hacker founders, though is that once every so often (more… Continue reading Its a “marketing Problem”, The Product Is Actually Good – The Engineer’s Myth

I have mentioned several times that working in a startup is like a sine-curve, or a roller-coaster rider. Its multiple ups and downs every hour, day, week and month. It takes a special kind of maturity to handle them as they come and not lose focus of your goal or the near-time milestone. I have tried… Continue reading How To Survive The Sine-curve Of Emotions At Your Startup?

I met an entrepreneur on Monday who is a young (fresh out of college), enthusiastic and a quick learner. Over the last 6 months, he and a friend from college have started working on a very interesting idea in the eCommerce space. Both came in and presented “what they had done so far” – to… Continue reading 5 Steps To A Good Market Analysis For Your Startup

I love Israel. Having been there 7-8 times over 5 years when I worked for a company (Mercury Interactive, acquired by HP) that had its development center there, I believe they have some of the best developers, product thinkers and execution oriented folks. They are also amazing at marketing. They have successfully convinced the world… Continue reading The Indian Startup Ecosystem Should Look At Israel As A Role Model

Envy. That’s the word of the day. Try to avoid keeping up with the Kevin’s. That’s the digital entrepreneur equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses. I know many entrepreneurs who are constantly comparing themselves to other fellow founders and wondering a) how did they raise money for “xyz” company, or “how did they raise money… Continue reading Self Inflicted Wounds Cause Burnout Among Entrepreneurs

$OAKS Acorns, a consumer banking, savings and investment company has agreed to go public via a SPAC $PACX for $2.2B. The company did $71M in 2020 revenue and is growing at over 70% YoY. $OAKS / $PACX will have $465M cash for the company post the merger. $OAKS Acorns doesn’t allow its 4+M users to… Continue reading New Spac Acorns $Oaks – #Fintech Company with Investments

One of my top 10 posts is one about how to get a job as a Venture Capitalist. It is worth a read, but much has changed since 2012. What has changed? 2. There are now over 100 Venture funds with Scout programs. What is a Scout program? Scouts are individuals who are empowered to invest small… Continue reading VC Scout Programs – How To Make A Career In Venture Capital