CDOQ

Written text is read left to right or right to left or top to bottom. Why aren't there languages which read bottom to top? 

The transition from childhood to adulthood is about becoming attention-giving from attention-seeking. Most people don't grow up. 

2019 is coming to an end and continuing my quest to better understand human behavior, I wrote down the twenty trends I have been noticing for a few years. It would be interesting to observe these trends in 2020 to see how they evolve and if they achieve wider adoption. There are multiple reasons why these trends have emerged but in this article we will only look at what the trends are. Unless specified, the trends are for the US.  Source: Wikipedia  Here they are:  1. Phone calls on decline: Millenials and post-millenials do not talk on the phone much. They prefer text or image based messages (SMS, Facebook Messenger, SnapChat, Instagram, etc.) to phone calls and when they do synchronous communication, they prefer FaceTime or other video calls to phone calls. People use different platforms to communicate with different people. Because of the text heavy communication, verbal language is changing. For example, in English, people say OMG instead of Oh My God and

The mind is a container that does not like to be empty. 

How do you continue growth at scale? The larger a company grows, the more difficult it becomes for it to keep growing at the same rate. For example, it is easier to grow 20% per year for a $1B company than for a $100B company. What do you do when the market a company is serving gets saturated, i.e. the company achieves a dominant share and it becomes difficult to acquire new customers in that market because of increased customer acquisition cost? You can expand to other markets but that might require different products and different prices. And, there is the risk of affecting the company's brand in its current market. You can acquire other companies but there is a risk of cultural misalignment in integration. Hence, there are limited options to continue growth when you are very big.  The Magnet Strategy  Digitization is making it easier for the dominant tech companies to expand into new markets currently served by old incumbents. I call it the Magnet Strategy because the

Art communicates the unexplainable, Science proves the explainable.  Religion provides certainty about the future,  Psychotherapy makes sense of the past.  Meditation makes it easier to live in the present,  Movies help escape the present.  Social Media brings attention, Reading takes attention.  In the end, it is all made up by the mind to occupy the mind. 

The farthest I have been away from open skies is in the middle of the desert in Las Vegas. 

A contract is as good as the abilities of its signatories to enforce it. 

In-Settings Marketing :)

Things you want to see tend to become more visible. 

Yesterday, I met the governor of Okinawa, Japan,  The Honorable Denny Tamaki , who is visiting the US to gain support for decreasing the US military presence in Okinawa.  Governor Tamaki, who is half American, has a really hard job. Relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma has been in works for the last five decades. The Okinawa people don't want the base to be relocated to Henoko Bay within Okinawa for various reasons. The Japanese central government says that the current Okinawa governor has to honor the agreement signed by the previous governor who agreed to the relocation. The US government says that it is an internal Japanse matter and they don't want to interfere. 76% of the Okinawa population expresses opposition to building of a new base in Henoko Bay. What is a governor to do? He is traveling in the US to convince the congressmen and political advisors to gain support for the move of the US Futenma base outside of Okinawa. Maybe to Guam.  Oura B

There are a few rare occasions in life when you meet someone and feel connected with them spiritually. The effect is immediate. You can feel the energy. Len, father of my dear friend, Wendy Hoffmann, was one of those people. I am fortunate to have met Len. My conversations with Len are highlights of my visits to Los Angeles. We share common interests in the arts and philosophy. I adore the paintings in his apartment. And, he is one of the few people in the world who has read Bhagavad Gita, a seminal Indian text on how to live life. Len was one of the most thoughtful and kind people I ever met.  May Len rest in peace. 

We define the Direct To Consumer (D2C) category and discuss the value chain of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies and how D2C startups are disrupting that value chain. Also, how the D2C category includes products beyond CPG. What made it possible for D2C companies to come to life and differences between US and European D2C markets.  Useful links: 1.  D2C landscape (2017) 2.  Analysis of 14 D2C Companies  Subscribe to the podcast  here . See the notes from the previous podcast  here . 

In this episode we discuss market segmentation, business model innovation, and scaling. How and why Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) focus is the best way to build sustainable businesses. We also discuss, after a startup has achieved Product Market Fit (PMF), how you scale a business and  what do you do differently in the post PMF phase.   Useful links: 1. Customer Facing Devices  2. Why do we buy things? 3. Decision making for startups Subscribe to the podcast  here . See the notes from the previous podcast  here . 

We are doing something new and different in this episode. Instead of the episode being a conversation between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, we have a conversation between a product/business person i.e Chander, your regular host, and a software developer/technologist i.e. David Krieger, Principal Software Engineer at  Pivotal . You will still get two different perspectives. We cover how software development has changed in the last two decades, relationship between product managers and engineers, and how a software developer thinks about coding.  Arne sends his regards!  Useful links:  1.  Book: The Mythical Man-Month 2.  Why the tech products are mediocre?   Subscribe to the podcast  here . See the notes from the previous podcast  here . 

Softbank has changed the late stage venture industry. After the recent delay of the WeWork IPO, Softbank's strategy of injecting a lot of capital in startups at high valuations is being questioned. In this episode, we discuss the structure of Softbank Vision Fund and how Softbank is influencing startup founders and smaller venture capitalists.  Useful Links: 1. Softbank vision fund  2. Softbank  3. Masayoshi Son Subscribe to the podcast  here . See the notes from the previous podcast  here .