CDOQ

A hero needs a villain, but a villain can exist without a hero. 

My dear friend, Ralph Abraham , passed away on September 19th, 2024. He was 88. It is one of the greatest honors of my life that Ralph considered me his friend. In my entire life, I have never met anyone whose intellectual depth, openness, and kindness matched Ralph's. My family and my parents feel the same.  I met Ralph in November 2009 at Esalen where I attended a workshop he taught on Human Potential . Since then, I met him regularly every three to four months for lunch. I cherished my time with him. I often joked that I didn’t understand half the things Ralph said, and the half I did understand made me rethink everything I knew. There is some truth in that joke.  Ralph discussing Consciousness  Ralph profoundly influenced me. Here are some of the ways: 1. Consciousness: This was probably the most discussed topic between the two of us. He shared with me that there are three levels of consciousness :  (i) Individual (humans and other sentient beings)  (i...

Are the parents teaching the children, or are the children teaching the parents? My son teaches me many things effortlessly, while I strive to teach him a few things—with a lot of effort. It may take decades to see if I succeed. :) I asked my parents if they had a strategic plan to teach me values. Their response was that they demonstrated values through their actions, believing that children learn by observation. They didn’t worry too much about it. :) Perhaps I worry too much about making my son a good human being. While it’s not entirely in the parents’ hands, I still want to try. Observing my son, I’ve been focusing on teaching him the following: Joys of childhood 1. Actions have consequences.  Children often have no concept of this idea. They live in the moment, which may be why they’re so happy. For example, throwing a toy on the floor might break it, or not stopping at a red light could lead to an accident. These lessons might eventually be learned through experience, but I’...

New thinking requires new context.

It’s hard to have an independent mind when surrounded by many minds. 

It is harder to sell a cheaper version of an expensive product than the other way around. 

When you know a few ways of doing things, it is hard to find new way of doing things. 

Like children, employees often learn more by observation than by instruction.

Busyness can be a form of laziness. 

Fail fast a few times but don't make a habit of it. 

It is hard to develop an acquired taste when alternatives are always available. 

All art lies between Mondrian and Pollock . 

Intelligence is a function of the environment. 

In the semiconductor industry, the adage 'eat or be eaten' emphasizes the need for continuous improvement and strategic expansion, often by acquiring adjacent businesses with complementary or superior technologies. The SaaS industry operates under a similar principle. To thrive, SaaS companies must constantly innovate and enhance their product offerings, whether through internal development, strategic partnerships, or acquisitions. 

Temporariness is permanent. 

Last week, I attended the Bay Area IPO Summit , hosted by the Connor Group . The process of going public is a complex ecosystem involving a wide range of specialized participants. Below are my key insights from the summit, shedding light on the current dynamics of the IPO market. IPO: A milestone in a company's journey (image credit DALL-E) Current State  1. Improving Market Conditions : The IPO market is showing signs of recovery. Year-to-date, 2024 has seen 30% more IPOs than the entirety of 2023. Additionally, over $300 billion in venture capital "dry powder" remains available for investment in the US. 2. Revised Definitions: Investment bankers now define "high growth" as achieving over 30% year-over-year revenue growth, while "profitability" is simply a business generating more than break-even profits. 3. Supply Constraints: Contrary to popular belief, there is no shortage of investor demand for IPOs. The real issue lies on the supply side—few hi...

Earlier this week, I saw a new friend for coffee—one of the few truly wise people I’ve encountered in Silicon Valley. What follows is unadulterated wisdom from my friend:   Wisdom over coffee 1. Separate style from substance. Most people judge others based on their message delivery style rather than the content itself. To understand people better, focus on what they’re saying, not how they’re saying it. 2. Test for trustworthiness. To know if someone is trustworthy, look for contradictions in what they say. 3. Evaluate the substance-to-noise ratio. If someone speaks charmingly for a long time to convey something simple, they might have a hidden agenda.  4. It is hard to figure out in an interview if the candidate is trustworthy but you can understand their grasping power [intellect] and articulation [communication] skills.  5. Smart bosses do their best to keep their smart employees. 6. Watch for noise in data. For example, data might show that firetrucks a...

"Travelling comfortably dominates people's thinking when they should be thinking about destinations."  -Nick Sleep 

Semiconductor Business FAQ  Q1: What are the fundamental differences between the semiconductor business and a typical B2B SaaS startup? A: The semiconductor industry differs significantly from software-based startups, primarily in terms of investment scale, development cycles, and market dynamics. Here's why: i) High Capital Investment & Longer Timeframes: Semiconductor development demands significant upfront investment, often reaching tens of millions of dollars, with multi-year development cycles before a product can even be tested. This contrasts sharply with the iterative, lower-cost nature of software development. ii) Targeting Large Markets: Due to the hefty initial investments, semiconductor companies must target large, high-volume markets to achieve profitability. A single design win in a consumer device like a smartphone can translate to millions of units sold. iii) Limited Iteration: Unlike software, where updates and bug fixes can be rolled out relatively easily, mak...

A few days ago, I attended one of the first non-academic robotics conferences, Actuate , in San Francisco. One of the most fascinating insights was the early evidence suggesting that robots trained using a variety of data ( cross-embodiment training )   can outperform specialized robots at their own tasks. For example, a robot trained on diverse tasks—such as walking, assembling, and manufacturing—could perform better at picking objects than a robot trained exclusively for that task. Robots in our life (image generated by DALL-E) Following are my key observations from the conference:  1. Physical Intelligence , a silicon valley startup, raised $70M in seed round to build a general robotics model which can be used by different kinds of robots to do various tasks.  2. This idea of general model for robotics is called Robotics Foundation Model  (RFM). The concept is pretty similar to Large Language Model (LLM) which are the basis for Generative Artificial Intellige...

This is a briefing doc based on a discussion between Arne Tonning and Chander Chawla based on Chander's Magnet Strategy .  Main Themes: Sustaining Growth: The conversation focuses on how established companies can continue growing even after achieving significant scale and market saturation. Beyond Incrementalism: While incremental product improvements and geographic expansion are important, truly disruptive growth often requires more radical approaches. Tech Giants as a Model: We analyze the strategies of companies like Apple and Google, highlighting how they leverage their size, technology, and data to enter new industries. Key Ideas and Facts: Seven Strategies for Sustained Growth: 1. Incremental and Adjacent Product Improvements: Iterating on existing products, developing complementary offerings, and targeting new geographic markets. Example: Apple launching Apple Music, Apple News, and the Apple Watch alongside its core iPhone business. 2. R&D (Research and Development): In...

Four years ago, Arne Tonning and I recorded a podcast episode on  Product Management with AI.  Today, I asked NotebookLM  to create a study guide based on the podcast transcript.  See the guide below. I think it is pretty good :)  Product Development in the Age of AI: A Study Guide  Quiz Instructions: Answer the following questions in 2-3 sentences. 1. What are the core principles of Lean product development? Lean product development centers around building a minimum viable product (MVP) with minimal resources, rapidly testing it with users, gathering feedback, and iterating based on that feedback to achieve product-market fit. 2. How did the rise of the internet and cloud computing impact the feasibility of Lean and Agile methodologies? The internet and cloud computing enabled faster iteration cycles and easier deployment of updates. This made Lean and Agile methodologies more practical as companies could quickly push changes to their products based on us...