I had a look at the new NewsGator Enterprise Server (NGES) product. Blogged a little about the market space, use-cases of RSS emerging (Sandy and I compared notes on what we were seeing), and the typical profile of the company that might use NGES. While I do not feel comfortable talking about the markets that NewsGator is targeting (because I might misrepresent NewsGator’s strategy), I found it interesting to note some prominent government and education sector customers. I speculate that it has to do with the intensity of information within these organizations. Anyway, check out my post here.
In Search Of The (Professional) Meaning of Life
On Fridays I tend to get a little more free-form with my thought, so I thought I’d reflect on professional choices that people make through a recruiting situation I encountered with a venture capital firm. This post should not be construed as either a right way or wrong way to either be interviewed or conduct an interview. It focuses on how one weighs one’s principles in tough situations.
Eight years ago I was approached by an executive recruiter retained by one of the top one to five venture capital firms in the Valley for an associate position in the telcom space. Associate positions are basically the entry point for MBAs – it is the lowest partner-level track position within a VC firm. Apparently one of the partners had gotten my resume from another VC and passed it to the recruiter.
As relayed by the recruiter, the partner was attracted to my engineering and business background, focus on telcom in the production, operations, and standards areas, and my involvement with start-ups. The era was pre-bubble, and at a time when technologies like DSL, cable modems, advanced switching, and broadband services had not spread as widely as today (where many people have home networking setups, etc.).
During the interview, the recruiter also liked my ability to bridge the interface between technology and business worlds. It’s an important aspect of venture capital, because at some point a VC has to cut through all the mumbo-jumbo tech stuff and figure out whether the venture is going to make any money for the investors in the venture fund.
But this is a point where the interview not only went very right but also went very wrong.
What the recruiter said to me was something to the effect of this, "You know what’s wrong with you. All this stuff is nice, but the only thing in common that the partners in this [venture] firm have is that they personally want to get f*** filthy rich. I’ve known these guys for a long time, and there’s no other common thread."
Subsequent to the interview, I received some follow-on invitation and informational material about the venture fund. The fund had served as the fuel for X% of the tech capital market, etc. Pre-MBA, I had just come out of the market with a salary in the mid 50s to 60s. The letter in the packet said that in five years I could be making high seven figure earnings. This is not the even the type of lure that management consulting and investment banking firms use at b-schools.
What immediately jumped into my mind was what the recruiter said … "personally want to get f*** filthy rich".
The venture capital area excites me.
Entrepreneurism is great.
I get charged by technology.
I get charged by business.
I get charged by being entrusted by parties to protect and maximize their interests.
I hate to lose.
Of course I am interested in maximizing personal earnings potential.
But I didn’t like the underlying principle that this recruiter was focused on, which was to the effect of make yourself rich and the rest will come.
It was a cart before the horse kind of thing.
While perhaps not representative of the venture partnership, I figured I had better things to focus on. Certain principles matter to me.
For MBAs Getting Ready To Practice For Management Consulting Case Interviews (Link To Humor)
I suppose it’s a little early to be practicing for the case interviews that happen in the management consulting field. Typical case book questions, puzzles, etc. include things like "how many gas stations are there in the US", "why are manhole covers round", "can paper manufacturers be profitable", and "how would you value and price the use of a teleportation machine". Though one can appreciate how the companies test for an applicant’s analysis, business knowledge, logic, reasoning, and synthesis skills, case study prep can drive one to insanity.
So if you need a laugh while practicing for the genres of case that require on-the-spot/off-the-cuff numerical analysis and some basic knowledge of stats, check out this essay on "Why I Will Never Have A Girlfriend". (Hat tip: del.icio.us).
Legal World Of Blogs, Blog RFPs, and Why I Blog In Different Places
Posted over at my 21Publish blog.
Getting Non-Tech And Tech Managers To Work Together
My partner over at The CIO Weblog, Prashanth Rai is addressing an interesting topic over at his personal blog on non-technical managers managing technical people.
As a person that has two engineering degrees but has been involved in management and business development for awhile, another interesting flavor is getting salespeople and engineers/programmers to work together. It is something that I face very frequently in my role at 21Publish.
Some things I would say about the sales & engineering linkage topic (some of which is generally relevant to Prashanth’s topic, even though what I describe is a peer-to-peer relationship versus a strict manager-subordinate role):
- have respect for the strengths of the different parties in the different functional roles
- know one’s own limits
- expand one’s knowledge about what the other party needs to do on a day-to-day basis to win and try to help where you can (or at least be supportive)
- remember that salespeople and business development folks are looking for opportunities to win customers and grow the business on a day-to-day basis (but they need to be careful of overselling)
- recognize that engineers like to build quality/foolproof stuff … salespeople people need to listen carefully to what engineers are saying on issues, etc. because what they are saying is often rigorous and precise
- at the same time, engineers need to recognize that salespeople need to boil things up, if only to be able to communicate with management associated with the sales prospect.
Update (8/4/05): A follow-on thought: salespeople should also try to tap into engineers and programmers for creativity. Getting sales, business development, and R&D to work together can spark innovation (or at least it can make for a fun environment).
Simply Cool Sounding
3DTV without funky glasses. Simply cool. In a past life I used to work as a signal processing engineer in the 3D/holophonics area (e.g., 3D sound projected out of two speaker systems). Can’t begin to imagine what this visual experience would be like.
Blogging Gets Out Of Hand
Robert Scoble, the Obi-Wan Kenobi of blogging, needs a break from the crazy back-and-forth on his blog (see the comments section for R-rated dialogue). His partner on the blogging book (Shel Israel) weighs in too on both attacks happening to Robert and attacks at the book blog, "Naked Conversations". Very understandable policy by Shel.
No fun. Unproductive. This is a good example of where I don’t want to the have the RSS feed to the comments section of a blog. It’s also an example similar to handling a heckler during a speech or when giving a presentation. The difference, however, is what do you do when it happens in your own "house" (to coin Shel’s words)? Maybe Robert needs to go to allowing trackbacks only … not ideal … but then the heckling can only occur outside his house …
Update (8/4/05): Fred Wilson and Jeff Jarvis on the subject.
Quality Or Quantity (Of Contacts) From “The Virtual Handshake” (Internet Stop 1)
I’m about a third of the way through the book, "The Virtual Handshake" … see some of my thoughts at Internet Stop 1 (at my 21Publish blog).