A woman in technology I admire greatly is Helen Greiner of iRobot. Helen is the co-founder of iRobot and holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Computer Science from MIT.
To me, she represents a unique and rare combination of technical skills and business savvy, and is a tremendous role model for women who aspire to be successful engineers and businesswomen. She gave a great speech at last year's Women of Vision awards where she won the 2008 award for innovation. The speech beautifully summarizes the challenges of becoming (and staying) a woman in engineering, and for that, I tip my hat to Helen.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Dear Readers based in the US,
I would be most appreciative if you could spend 30 seconds of your time answering these two poll questions I posted on LinkedIn:
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/27232/xoocp
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/27234/eqpyt
Many thanks!
I would be most appreciative if you could spend 30 seconds of your time answering these two poll questions I posted on LinkedIn:
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/27232/xoocp
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/27234/eqpyt
Many thanks!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Part 2: Boston start-ups
Continuing as promised:
Pongr is a mobile software start-up that provides real time price comparison for shoppers. The team includes a couple of MIT PhDs who seem to have cracked the image recognition problem. A cell phone picture of a book cover is enough to automatically launch the search engine to find the closest stores carrying the book!Very impressive. They have other very interesting offerings in the pipeline that I cannot blog about at this time unfortunately.
uLocate brings the promise of location awareness using GPS to real-world applications. Their technology enables widgets for local search, family/friend finders, maps & directions. Interestingly, it's also offered as a platform which offers easy access to GPS data enabling developers to go to market with location based applications.
Pongr is a mobile software start-up that provides real time price comparison for shoppers. The team includes a couple of MIT PhDs who seem to have cracked the image recognition problem. A cell phone picture of a book cover is enough to automatically launch the search engine to find the closest stores carrying the book!Very impressive. They have other very interesting offerings in the pipeline that I cannot blog about at this time unfortunately.
uLocate brings the promise of location awareness using GPS to real-world applications. Their technology enables widgets for local search, family/friend finders, maps & directions. Interestingly, it's also offered as a platform which offers easy access to GPS data enabling developers to go to market with location based applications.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Boston area start-ups
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit these cool Boston area startups:
Skyhook wireless, ThingMagic, Pongr and uLocate.
The technophile in me thoroughly enjoyed it while the entrepreneur in me mostly went "Why didn't someone think of this before, it's about time!"
It was fascinating to talk with Michael Sheen and Steve Solari, the CEO and COO of Skyhook. I first heard of Skyhook when Steve Jobs mentioned them in his Macworld keynote last year, with reference to this cool technology that uses wi-fi networks to determine location. When Michael and Steve talked about how it felt to be on the receiving end of a call from Steve Jobs (who said he wanted to work with them!) I got to hear the other side of the story. Very interesting start-up story. I hope to write another post soon with the details.
ThingMagic totally grabbed my imagination. The first iteration of my first start-up was built around the dream of a RFID solution until technical challenges forced me to adapt and switch to another technology. Therefore, when I heard that the technical challenge that had prevented me from building my prototype had been overcome, it was super-exciting to say the least! Hearing Yael Maguire, co-founder and CTO of ThingMagic speak was fascinating. They've partnered with Intel to build their RFID chip and Yael's description of how they solved the challenges of full duplex communication was educational. Having designed and built a prototype for a semi-duplex communication chip, I could appreciate the technical challenges. On the business side, it was interesting (and inspiring!) to hear about yet another start-up that was bootstrapped until very recently, which is when they took in their first round of funding. When ThingMagic CEO Tom Grant (a former VC himself) talked about how they carefully thought about whether or not to accept outside funding and the criteria they used to decide to take in extra money, I found myself nodding in complete agreement. As the founder of a bootstrapped start-up, I couldn't agree more that bootstrapping is the way to go if at all possible and that taking in VC money should be the last resort, not the first, like most first-time entrepreneurs tend to think.
To be continued.
Skyhook wireless, ThingMagic, Pongr and uLocate.
The technophile in me thoroughly enjoyed it while the entrepreneur in me mostly went "Why didn't someone think of this before, it's about time!"
It was fascinating to talk with Michael Sheen and Steve Solari, the CEO and COO of Skyhook. I first heard of Skyhook when Steve Jobs mentioned them in his Macworld keynote last year, with reference to this cool technology that uses wi-fi networks to determine location. When Michael and Steve talked about how it felt to be on the receiving end of a call from Steve Jobs (who said he wanted to work with them!) I got to hear the other side of the story. Very interesting start-up story. I hope to write another post soon with the details.
ThingMagic totally grabbed my imagination. The first iteration of my first start-up was built around the dream of a RFID solution until technical challenges forced me to adapt and switch to another technology. Therefore, when I heard that the technical challenge that had prevented me from building my prototype had been overcome, it was super-exciting to say the least! Hearing Yael Maguire, co-founder and CTO of ThingMagic speak was fascinating. They've partnered with Intel to build their RFID chip and Yael's description of how they solved the challenges of full duplex communication was educational. Having designed and built a prototype for a semi-duplex communication chip, I could appreciate the technical challenges. On the business side, it was interesting (and inspiring!) to hear about yet another start-up that was bootstrapped until very recently, which is when they took in their first round of funding. When ThingMagic CEO Tom Grant (a former VC himself) talked about how they carefully thought about whether or not to accept outside funding and the criteria they used to decide to take in extra money, I found myself nodding in complete agreement. As the founder of a bootstrapped start-up, I couldn't agree more that bootstrapping is the way to go if at all possible and that taking in VC money should be the last resort, not the first, like most first-time entrepreneurs tend to think.
To be continued.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Shai Agassi @ MIT, 12.12.2008
I am blogging live from Shai Agassi's talk @ MIT on December 4, 2008. The Wong auditorium is overflowing and Shai Agassi is a very engaging speaker and a great evangelist. He talks about doing the right moral thing and doing right by coming generations by ridding ourselves of oil dependence.
He offered a lot of statistics on the cost benefits. Two particularly stood out - the cost of the entire infrastructure for electric cars in Israel (when it's all complete) will be $100 billion. This is the cost of oil imports for Israel for 2 months. The cost to implement electric car stations on the freeways between the SF Bay Area and LA on all 3 of the connectors - 101, 5 and Hwy 1 is only $25 million! I am scratching my head - so why are we not doing this?!
Shai is now taking questions.
Someone asked him this question: the electricity Shai wants to power cars with is generated from coal anyway, so why the evangelizing? Agassi responds they are replacing oil, not coal, which only costs 5 cents a hour, with electric technology that costs 6 cents a hour.
Another person asked him why car manufacturers would allow him to offer the option of an exchangeable battery since this is an important source of revenue for car manufacturers? His response is his model solves the mainstream economics problem. This allows the car to be sold for $20,000 instead of $35,000 and therefore wider adoption. Interesting approach.
He was asked how his model accounts for the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources used to charge the car batteries. His response was that the grid controls how many cars can be charged at any given time, and this ensures that energy generated is optimally used. The grid also has capacity to store excess energy. Both better place and utility operators can control the grid to achieve optimal performance.
Someone asked a question that I am sure is on a lot of people's minds. He wanted to know how to join betterplace. Shai's answer was to email jodi.shah@betterplace.com, but not to expect a response right away because they have over 7000 unsolicited emails to get to!
He next got asked about the critical mass aspect of this problem. Whats' the time to payback for this infrastructure investment? Shai splits the problem into 2 parts: charge spots (parking spots with charging facilities) - every 1 of 10 spots roughly needs to be electrified before people think of this as being ubiquitous. Part 2 is the switch station. For Israel, there needs to be 250 to 300 stations. The ratio is 10x of capital expenditure for viability. He didn't quite answer the question, but interesting numbers nonetheless.
Next question was whether better place had any plans for airplanes. Answer is no, not at the moment, since it's hard to switch batteries midair!
The talk just ended to a big round of applause. It was 1 hour well spent this evening!
He offered a lot of statistics on the cost benefits. Two particularly stood out - the cost of the entire infrastructure for electric cars in Israel (when it's all complete) will be $100 billion. This is the cost of oil imports for Israel for 2 months. The cost to implement electric car stations on the freeways between the SF Bay Area and LA on all 3 of the connectors - 101, 5 and Hwy 1 is only $25 million! I am scratching my head - so why are we not doing this?!
Shai is now taking questions.
Someone asked him this question: the electricity Shai wants to power cars with is generated from coal anyway, so why the evangelizing? Agassi responds they are replacing oil, not coal, which only costs 5 cents a hour, with electric technology that costs 6 cents a hour.
Another person asked him why car manufacturers would allow him to offer the option of an exchangeable battery since this is an important source of revenue for car manufacturers? His response is his model solves the mainstream economics problem. This allows the car to be sold for $20,000 instead of $35,000 and therefore wider adoption. Interesting approach.
He was asked how his model accounts for the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources used to charge the car batteries. His response was that the grid controls how many cars can be charged at any given time, and this ensures that energy generated is optimally used. The grid also has capacity to store excess energy. Both better place and utility operators can control the grid to achieve optimal performance.
Someone asked a question that I am sure is on a lot of people's minds. He wanted to know how to join betterplace. Shai's answer was to email jodi.shah@betterplace.com, but not to expect a response right away because they have over 7000 unsolicited emails to get to!
He next got asked about the critical mass aspect of this problem. Whats' the time to payback for this infrastructure investment? Shai splits the problem into 2 parts: charge spots (parking spots with charging facilities) - every 1 of 10 spots roughly needs to be electrified before people think of this as being ubiquitous. Part 2 is the switch station. For Israel, there needs to be 250 to 300 stations. The ratio is 10x of capital expenditure for viability. He didn't quite answer the question, but interesting numbers nonetheless.
Next question was whether better place had any plans for airplanes. Answer is no, not at the moment, since it's hard to switch batteries midair!
The talk just ended to a big round of applause. It was 1 hour well spent this evening!
Friday, November 28, 2008
The entrepreneurial culture in Silicon Valley
I was reading "Closing the innovation gap" by Judy Estrin and came across this gem that describes brilliantly why being an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley is different:
An acceptance of failure as a necessary stepping-stone to success is an integral part of the culture of Silicon Valley. As a partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of the Valley’s major VC firms, Kevin Compton met with industry leaders from other countries who were visiting the Valley in hopes of learning the secrets of its entrepreneurial magic. He would try to communicate the Valley gestalt with a story. “You’re getting ready for your country’s version of Thanksgiving dinner with the family. You’re 32 years old, you have kids, and you’re going to your in-laws’ for dinner,” says Compton. “After working at your version of IBM for ten years, everything was going great. But all of a sudden you left that job to go to a high-profile start-up that raised a whole bunch of money, and completely flamed out 18 months later. I would ask these guys, ‘Do you go to the family dinner?’ They would usually say no. And I would tell them that in Silicon Valley, not only do you go to dinner, but your brother-in-law comes up and gives you a high-five saying, ‘I wish I had the courage to do that.’ As a risk-taker, you got his attention. That’s in our DNA.”
Having been an entrepreneur in the valley, I can vouch for the accuracy of this assertion. I will go one step further and say my brother-in-law will likely follow up with a question about what were the biggest lessons I learned, and I will respond with here's what I am doing differently with my next start-up as a result of what I learned from my mistakes... the real failure is only when I don't pick myself up to move on and make NEW mistakes.
An acceptance of failure as a necessary stepping-stone to success is an integral part of the culture of Silicon Valley. As a partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of the Valley’s major VC firms, Kevin Compton met with industry leaders from other countries who were visiting the Valley in hopes of learning the secrets of its entrepreneurial magic. He would try to communicate the Valley gestalt with a story. “You’re getting ready for your country’s version of Thanksgiving dinner with the family. You’re 32 years old, you have kids, and you’re going to your in-laws’ for dinner,” says Compton. “After working at your version of IBM for ten years, everything was going great. But all of a sudden you left that job to go to a high-profile start-up that raised a whole bunch of money, and completely flamed out 18 months later. I would ask these guys, ‘Do you go to the family dinner?’ They would usually say no. And I would tell them that in Silicon Valley, not only do you go to dinner, but your brother-in-law comes up and gives you a high-five saying, ‘I wish I had the courage to do that.’ As a risk-taker, you got his attention. That’s in our DNA.”
Having been an entrepreneur in the valley, I can vouch for the accuracy of this assertion. I will go one step further and say my brother-in-law will likely follow up with a question about what were the biggest lessons I learned, and I will respond with here's what I am doing differently with my next start-up as a result of what I learned from my mistakes... the real failure is only when I don't pick myself up to move on and make NEW mistakes.
Friday, November 14, 2008
CSAIL @ MIT
I was in geek paradise this afternoon, and reveled in it. I visited CSAIL and the coolness of the cutting edge research that's going on at building 34 (I am @ MIT after all, of course I share a love for numbers with my fellow engineers :) took my breath away. The CSAIL lab is my Mecca - I became an engineer because I wanted to build robots and intelligent machines. It was good to be in my element after a long time, and it struck me how much I missed engineering and building cool things. The last time I built something really cool was when I designed a Lego Mindstorms robot to collect the dirty coffee mugs my room mate would leave strewn around our apartment. My co-bot (coffee-robot) would collect all the dirty mugs and move them to a spot I'd marked on the kitchen floor with reflective tape. Seems like a lifetime ago.
We visited Russ Tedrake's lab and saw autonomous flying robots and little dog. Robot locomotion has come such a long way since I was in grad school in 1998. I was incredibly impressed with Little Dog's obstacle detection and circumvention mechanisms. It left me longing to pursue a PhD @ CSAIL after the MBA.. I suspect I would be very happy if I became a lifer at MIT, the place just inspires me.
How any of this relates to entrepreneurship - I wonder if there are formal channels available to commercialize the research that comes out of CSAIL. I intend to find out. Stay tuned for the answer.
We visited Russ Tedrake's lab and saw autonomous flying robots and little dog. Robot locomotion has come such a long way since I was in grad school in 1998. I was incredibly impressed with Little Dog's obstacle detection and circumvention mechanisms. It left me longing to pursue a PhD @ CSAIL after the MBA.. I suspect I would be very happy if I became a lifer at MIT, the place just inspires me.
How any of this relates to entrepreneurship - I wonder if there are formal channels available to commercialize the research that comes out of CSAIL. I intend to find out. Stay tuned for the answer.
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