As 2017 comes to a close, I think of it as the year of validation and gratitude, personally and for so many people around the world who have been marginalized and silenced in so many different ways. A year of validation for those who have lived as minorities in a world that has valued and … Read more
The past 10 days have been heady for anyone in the cryptocurrency space. The market cap of digital currencies increased to over $90 billion last week (a 50% increase in 7 days). Bloomberg put together the chart below to show relative value increases in major cryptocurrencies. There is also a lot of buzz about ICO’s, … Read more
This is not the story of another cryptocurrency coin offering, but of a product that is using a tangible, age-old form factor to manage and secure our digital and analog identities. I am pleased to announce that Future\Perfect Ventures portfolio company Tokenize has launched its latest product: Token, a ring that allows users to make … Read more
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a conference entitled “Business of Blockchains” that the MIT Technology Review and MIT Media Lab organized in Cambridge. One of the reasons I started investing in the blockchain space 4 years ago was the rush I got learning about the tech at my first bitcoin conference – … Read more
After a tumultuous week in global markets, today the US stock market ended higher on the session. On the heels of macroeconomic data that showed strong fundamentals in the US, along with overtures from China to slow its downturn, the Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 3.9% and the Nasdaq (which includes Apple, Google, Intel and … Read more
Impact investing, venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship are all areas in practice and theory that have been close to my heart for years. As regular readers of my blog know, I was born in Nairobi and grew up visiting the developing world in the 1980s, after my family moved to the United States. If I … Read more
I spent last weekend in Boulder, Colorado rock climbing for the first time in years. It was a reinvigorating weekend with a dear friend who had first introduced me to the sport. I reflected on why I love rock climbing so much and how many parallels I find to entrepreneurship. So many of us are … Read more
The last 2 weeks were notable for the world’s two most populous countries. If there was any doubt that the 21st century will be “The Asian Century” Jack Ma and Narendra Modi, an unlikely pair, lay those doubts to rest. On September 19, Ma led Alibaba to the largest IPO in history, listing the company … Read more
In 2011, I wrote about Jugaad, according to Wikipedia “a colloquial Hindi word that can mean an innovative fix or a simple work-around”. I noted in the blog post that Jugaad is “now an acceptable management technique…and also applies to any kind of creative and out of the box thinking which maximizes resources for a … Read more
A few observations from the just announced Google $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest, a Silicon Valley based company that sells “smart” thermostats and smoke detectors: – Build vs Buy: Even for a company with significant resources such as Google, it is difficult to innovate beyond core products . While Google was better than most companies … Read more