Brad Feld: Serious Questions For Super Angels: As individual angel investors made more and more investments, they became super angels. One day a super angel woke up and thought to himself, “Gosh, I could do a lot more investments if I had a fund.” .... Now the micro-VC is a mini-VC. Does this keep scaling, or does the mini-VC succumb to the same challenges that $200 million funds ran into when they turned into $1 billion funds? ..... There’s a renewed focus and interest in early-stage investing going on in the United States
Some of the best bloggers in tech are VCs. I have often wondered as to why the top tech entrepreneurs are not also avid bloggers. It would make sense to avidly blog while you are trying to build a company. But there really are no entrepreneur versions of the top VC blogs. I wish it were otherwise. I felt this while reading this post by Brad Feld, quoted above.
The venture capital worlds has been seeing some major churn. And it is so much fun watching the drama unfold through the various VC blogs. It is gripping. It is like watching a good movie. There is high drama. It is capitalism in action. Blogging has brought forth much transparency to VC action, and that is a good thing.
Early stage investing is seeing some major fermentation. That will impact the VC world in that investing, even at mega scales, will become more hands on. VCs will have to get more involved.
The impending Age Of Abundance was prophecied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Showing posts with label Brad Feld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brad Feld. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Tech, Women, Diversity
Image via WikipediaThis whole debate reminds me of the creationism debate. My take has been religion and science deal with two different levels of reality. Religion is a belief system. Those beliefs do not have to follow the laws of physics, and many of them don't. Jesus walking on water makes sense in religion, does not make sense in science. I am not going to think you are a prude for believing that.
Religion has to be looked at in the religious realm. Science inhabits the scientific realm. And there are intersection points, like when Galileo was harassed. When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, many people in Nepal did not believe. The moon is a god. The guy probably climbed some hill, and thinks he is on the moon, that was the sentiment.
Gender is as big a topic in sociology as gravity is in physics. It is big. It is all pervasive. Just because we don't think about it much does not mean gravity is not active every waking hour, and while we are down.
There are many - they tend to be white men for some reason - who argue technology is neutral to your background. You can be any gender, any cultural background, it does not matter. They are lying. Or they are ignorant. Some of them are evil. They are invested in persisting the status quo.
Even where meritocracy can be shown to exist, those with the merits and the skills and the intellect stand on centuries of favoring one kind of people over another kind of people. And that is when there are not outright sexist informal and formal structures in place.
Gender and technology: there are many intersection points.
Equality is something that has to be proactively sought. I don't think sexism is in the interests of men. A healthy male female ratio in the workplace and at the various leadership levels has to be attempted. This is not a male versus female issue. There are those - men and women - who are on the right side of history, and there are those who are on the wrong side. We should get more people to come over on to the right side. We have to constantly be evangelizing.
Fred Wilson: XX Combinator
Tereza Nemessanyi: XX Combinator
Brad Feld: The Discussion About The Lack Of Women In Tech
Eric Ries: Why Diversity Matters (The Meritocracy Business)
When you visit Fred's blog post, make sure you don't miss out on the action in the comments section.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Shopping Around For Iran
Image via WikipediaI came across a John Boyd blog post while working on this post: Seed Money. And so I emailed him.
You have a great post on seed money ... I followed a link from Fred Wilson's blog to your post. Great post. http://www.blindreason.org/2010/07/rush-to-early-seed-stage-later-stage.html What really got my attention was your putting broadband on the top of the list. I am 15 months from a green card, and 15 months from my startup. My startup will deal with the last mile of the broadband business.I also just sent out a whole bunch of tweets to a whole bunch of angel investors. I sent out tweets to all angel investors on the List Of Angels On Twitter. The cut off point was people who had tweeted out in the past 24 hours. If you are not active on Twitter daily, maybe you are not of interest to me.
Are you in NYC? Let's meet for coffee some time.
I need you to help me with something. http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/07/to-iran-with-love-3.html I need you to put 3-5K into this. This is not an investment. This falls in the public service domain. This is about democracy in Iran.
One Tweet Response
I should not have been, but I was surprised to find so many Indians on the list, including one I am Facebook friends with.
I should not have been, but I was surprised to find so many Indians on the list, including one I am Facebook friends with.
Monday, July 12, 2010
To Iran, With Love (3)
Image via CrunchBaseHappy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
The Germans Called Me Robin Hood
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
Rome - Phoenix W/ Devendra Banhart
Brad Feld
To Iran, With Love (1)
To Iran, With Love (2)
North To Alaska
To continue with our conversation, in this post I am going to tackle two questions.
- What can I do for Iran based on what I have done for Nepal?
- Why am I seeking 5K in personal money from 20 VCs towards this? Why not from some other crowd?
What Can I Do For Iran Based On What I Have Done For Nepal?
Not everyone believes every country should or is going to end up a democracy, it is only a matter of time. Not only do I believe that, I believe that process can be accelerated, and I believe a democracy movement is science, it can be made to work every single time. Elections alone do not make a democracy, we know that. Otherwise they have elections in Iran, in Zimbabwe, in Egypt. Heck, Saddam used to have elections.
Iran is not a democracy. An unelected committee of mullahs is the supreme authority in that country. Only candidates sanctioned by that committee can run for president. That is no democracy.
You determine a country is not a democracy. And then you determine all the steps it has to take to end up a democracy. There are a lot of preceding preliminary steps, but ultimately a sufficient bloc of groups inside and outside the country has to set the right goal, which would be to shut the country down completely until the current regime makes way for an interim, caretaker government that would come into power with a mandate to hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year of taking power. That assembly would get two years to write a constitution for the country. A majority block in that assembly would form the government. Each article in the constitution would require two third of the votes in the assembly.
That is the roadmap. My personal project is only upto the point of regime change. Once the interim, caretaker government takes over, I am officially out, although I can't imagine completely disappearing. On my own I would continue to monitor the situation part time. There would have been too much emotional investment on my part to that point for me to just walk away.
Why Do It?
Because this is the right thing to do. Because we care about the people of Iran as much as people anywhere. Because we are huge fans of them for what they have been doing for over a year now. Because we believe in the power of democracy to do good. And because we want peace in the Middle East.
People say there is no peace in the Middle East because it is a few different religions clashing with each other. I don't buy into that. If diversity were the reason for lack of peace, New York City where I live ought to be at permanent war with itself. I don't see evidence to that effect.
There is no peace in the Middle East because Israel is the only democracy around there. When a democracy tries to talk to a neighborhood of non democracies, you get The Mother Of All Culture Clashes.
And there is also a need to prove the netroots, the grassroots are powerful enough unto themselves to be able to bring about democracy into a country. No country, not even the US, can afford to militarily go into every country. It is too expensive. And it is not even the best way to do it.
A people powered democracy movement in Iran would ignite similar conflagrations in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In seeking a successful conclusion of the democracy movement in Iran, we seek the bringing about of a domino effect.
How To Do It?
"I am one small human being," my fellow Buddhist Richard Gere once said about himself. I am but one small human being. But I have proven in the case of Nepal that one human being sufficiently digital and with sufficient political acumen can make a big difference.
It is like in the movie The Matrix. You sit in front of your computer, your terminal, and you transport yourself to the theaters of action. You observe and study the reality, the ever changing reality, in all theaters of action, and you propose action plans everywhere you can. You have no institutional authority, noone elected you, you are not doling out money, and so you have to be extra, extra right, extra convincing before people will do your bidding, before people, the key players, will listen to you to do what needs to get done.
Month One: Immersion
I would spend about a month totally immersing myself. I am going to collect as much information as possible. I am going to network feverishly. I am going to network among the members of the Iranian diaspora in New York City, and more online.
Roadmap
Then I am going to start working to gather support for my roadmap. If the democracy movement in Iran sticks to the goal of holding the presidential election all over again, it will keep banging its head against the wall. For the goal to be shifted to regime change, I will have to network deep enough to be able to determine that leadership change for the movement can be brought about without losing the fissures that have been created in the Iranian establishment by the movement so far.
Logistical Support
As for the global netroots/grassroots, all those people who turned their Twitter avatar green, they also need to shift their goal post. Extending moral support is not enough. Logistical support has to be provided. Once the movement decides to wage one final struggle, we will have to get very sophisticated about it.
We have to document every act of atrocity by the current regime. It has to be publicly announced that the interim, caretaker government will persecute all those who might unleash brutality upon peaceful protesters. You do that to protect your people best you can.
But brutality will happen. And we have to provide medical services to take care of those who might get injured in the course of the democracy movement.
Working on these two concrete steps also helps do the organization work for the movement, helps build a robust network.
All Digital, One Person
Many individuals and organizations in many countries will have to do just the right thing at the right time for this to work. And you do have to take all possible actors into count. But my particular role is going to be the role of one person who works all digitally. The world is connected enough by now that that digital activism could prove decisive. Geography is not a hindrance. And there is and there will be enough information from and about all relevant theaters of action, and where that is not enough, you connect the dots best you can.
This is doable.
Larger Implications
An Iran that is a modern democracy is still going to want to make peaceful use of nuclear energy as it should, but it is not going to be sinister and unreasonable like the non democratic Iran of today. A democratic Iran is still going to speak up for the Palestinians, as it should, but it is not going to scapegoat Israel for all its internal failures, and promises not kept to its own people.
Israel today feels an existential threat from Iran's possible nuclear weapons. That threat is primarily political. Russia still had all the nuclear weapons, but once the Cold War ended, America was no longer feeling the threat from those weapons, Europe was not feeling the threat. Israel is not going to feel an existential threat from an Iran that is a democracy.
Why Me? Why You?
We don't ask why techies had to do Kiva. We don't wonder why we did not leave all that to the traditional microfinance people. You and I are members of the tech community. I need you to think of me as a member of the community who wants to take some time off from full time tech startup work and do this for a period of 15 months, for that should be enough time, to help bring about this positive change. This is about doing the right thing, but this is also about proving the Internet as a technology is mature enough, the world is connected enough, and that the digital ways are powerful enough.
If I were to get State Department sponsorship, that would hinder my work. God forbid, if I were to get CIA sponsorship, that would totally paralyze my capacity to do what I want to do. This has to happen at the netroots level, where you and I exist and at the level you and I have the option to reach out to all sorts of causes all over the world.
Why You?
If you have been a prominent VC for a few decades, I think you can afford to put in 5K of your personal money into this. It is doable for you.
Why Me?
I have done this before. I can do this again. And this work ties into what I want to do after that, which would be to launch my tech startup that will want to help bring many more people online. I can't say I was born in India, so I am going to think about the people in India, or that I grew up in Nepal, and so I am going to focus on Nepal. Bringing people online is a global endeavor, and I have to be able to show I can care deeply about people in places like Iran where I have never been, but where I do know there is an acute need. This work will allow me to prove that, show that.
It will also allow me to further work on my two strengths: vision and group dynamics. Here you are talking about large scale group dynamics. I have a knack for that. It is an important business skill.
And if I can do what I am saying I can, I think that is going to earn me some credibility that I can cash on when it is time for me to raise some money for my startup in about 15 months. That is the self interest part.
No Time To Lose
So, let's get started. You two come in at 5K each. And you have until the end of July to find me other 18 VCs who will also come in at 5K each. And if I can get this done by September 2011, you all get to raise another 2.5K each. That will be your way of saying it was a big goal, but it got achieved, and so.
Not everyone believes every country should or is going to end up a democracy, it is only a matter of time. Not only do I believe that, I believe that process can be accelerated, and I believe a democracy movement is science, it can be made to work every single time. Elections alone do not make a democracy, we know that. Otherwise they have elections in Iran, in Zimbabwe, in Egypt. Heck, Saddam used to have elections.
Iran is not a democracy. An unelected committee of mullahs is the supreme authority in that country. Only candidates sanctioned by that committee can run for president. That is no democracy.
You determine a country is not a democracy. And then you determine all the steps it has to take to end up a democracy. There are a lot of preceding preliminary steps, but ultimately a sufficient bloc of groups inside and outside the country has to set the right goal, which would be to shut the country down completely until the current regime makes way for an interim, caretaker government that would come into power with a mandate to hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year of taking power. That assembly would get two years to write a constitution for the country. A majority block in that assembly would form the government. Each article in the constitution would require two third of the votes in the assembly.
That is the roadmap. My personal project is only upto the point of regime change. Once the interim, caretaker government takes over, I am officially out, although I can't imagine completely disappearing. On my own I would continue to monitor the situation part time. There would have been too much emotional investment on my part to that point for me to just walk away.
Why Do It?
Because this is the right thing to do. Because we care about the people of Iran as much as people anywhere. Because we are huge fans of them for what they have been doing for over a year now. Because we believe in the power of democracy to do good. And because we want peace in the Middle East.
People say there is no peace in the Middle East because it is a few different religions clashing with each other. I don't buy into that. If diversity were the reason for lack of peace, New York City where I live ought to be at permanent war with itself. I don't see evidence to that effect.
There is no peace in the Middle East because Israel is the only democracy around there. When a democracy tries to talk to a neighborhood of non democracies, you get The Mother Of All Culture Clashes.
And there is also a need to prove the netroots, the grassroots are powerful enough unto themselves to be able to bring about democracy into a country. No country, not even the US, can afford to militarily go into every country. It is too expensive. And it is not even the best way to do it.
A people powered democracy movement in Iran would ignite similar conflagrations in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In seeking a successful conclusion of the democracy movement in Iran, we seek the bringing about of a domino effect.
How To Do It?
"I am one small human being," my fellow Buddhist Richard Gere once said about himself. I am but one small human being. But I have proven in the case of Nepal that one human being sufficiently digital and with sufficient political acumen can make a big difference.
It is like in the movie The Matrix. You sit in front of your computer, your terminal, and you transport yourself to the theaters of action. You observe and study the reality, the ever changing reality, in all theaters of action, and you propose action plans everywhere you can. You have no institutional authority, noone elected you, you are not doling out money, and so you have to be extra, extra right, extra convincing before people will do your bidding, before people, the key players, will listen to you to do what needs to get done.
Month One: Immersion
I would spend about a month totally immersing myself. I am going to collect as much information as possible. I am going to network feverishly. I am going to network among the members of the Iranian diaspora in New York City, and more online.
Roadmap
Then I am going to start working to gather support for my roadmap. If the democracy movement in Iran sticks to the goal of holding the presidential election all over again, it will keep banging its head against the wall. For the goal to be shifted to regime change, I will have to network deep enough to be able to determine that leadership change for the movement can be brought about without losing the fissures that have been created in the Iranian establishment by the movement so far.
Logistical Support
As for the global netroots/grassroots, all those people who turned their Twitter avatar green, they also need to shift their goal post. Extending moral support is not enough. Logistical support has to be provided. Once the movement decides to wage one final struggle, we will have to get very sophisticated about it.
We have to document every act of atrocity by the current regime. It has to be publicly announced that the interim, caretaker government will persecute all those who might unleash brutality upon peaceful protesters. You do that to protect your people best you can.
But brutality will happen. And we have to provide medical services to take care of those who might get injured in the course of the democracy movement.
Working on these two concrete steps also helps do the organization work for the movement, helps build a robust network.
All Digital, One Person
Many individuals and organizations in many countries will have to do just the right thing at the right time for this to work. And you do have to take all possible actors into count. But my particular role is going to be the role of one person who works all digitally. The world is connected enough by now that that digital activism could prove decisive. Geography is not a hindrance. And there is and there will be enough information from and about all relevant theaters of action, and where that is not enough, you connect the dots best you can.
This is doable.
Larger Implications
An Iran that is a modern democracy is still going to want to make peaceful use of nuclear energy as it should, but it is not going to be sinister and unreasonable like the non democratic Iran of today. A democratic Iran is still going to speak up for the Palestinians, as it should, but it is not going to scapegoat Israel for all its internal failures, and promises not kept to its own people.
Israel today feels an existential threat from Iran's possible nuclear weapons. That threat is primarily political. Russia still had all the nuclear weapons, but once the Cold War ended, America was no longer feeling the threat from those weapons, Europe was not feeling the threat. Israel is not going to feel an existential threat from an Iran that is a democracy.
Why Me? Why You?
We don't ask why techies had to do Kiva. We don't wonder why we did not leave all that to the traditional microfinance people. You and I are members of the tech community. I need you to think of me as a member of the community who wants to take some time off from full time tech startup work and do this for a period of 15 months, for that should be enough time, to help bring about this positive change. This is about doing the right thing, but this is also about proving the Internet as a technology is mature enough, the world is connected enough, and that the digital ways are powerful enough.
If I were to get State Department sponsorship, that would hinder my work. God forbid, if I were to get CIA sponsorship, that would totally paralyze my capacity to do what I want to do. This has to happen at the netroots level, where you and I exist and at the level you and I have the option to reach out to all sorts of causes all over the world.
Why You?
If you have been a prominent VC for a few decades, I think you can afford to put in 5K of your personal money into this. It is doable for you.
Why Me?
I have done this before. I can do this again. And this work ties into what I want to do after that, which would be to launch my tech startup that will want to help bring many more people online. I can't say I was born in India, so I am going to think about the people in India, or that I grew up in Nepal, and so I am going to focus on Nepal. Bringing people online is a global endeavor, and I have to be able to show I can care deeply about people in places like Iran where I have never been, but where I do know there is an acute need. This work will allow me to prove that, show that.
It will also allow me to further work on my two strengths: vision and group dynamics. Here you are talking about large scale group dynamics. I have a knack for that. It is an important business skill.
And if I can do what I am saying I can, I think that is going to earn me some credibility that I can cash on when it is time for me to raise some money for my startup in about 15 months. That is the self interest part.
No Time To Lose
So, let's get started. You two come in at 5K each. And you have until the end of July to find me other 18 VCs who will also come in at 5K each. And if I can get this done by September 2011, you all get to raise another 2.5K each. That will be your way of saying it was a big goal, but it got achieved, and so.
Friday, July 09, 2010
To Iran, With Love (2)
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
To Iran, With Love (1)
Hello Brad. Hello Fred.
I am psyched to be talking to two of my favorite people in the tech community.
Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Fred Wilson: An Unassuming Kind Of Guy
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
Fred Wilson: A DJ
Fred Wilson: DJ
Fred Wilson's Gift To Me
Fred Wilson's Insight
Fred Wilson: VC
Fred Wilson: A VC
So let me tackle some of the questions after having introduced myself: To Iran, With Love (1). Over the past few days I have paced around a whole lot trying to grapple with as to the best way to present myself.
I ended up giving a name to the method: nonviolent militancy. Not only are you strictly nonviolent, you are almost all digital. The battles take place on the screen for a big part. But the method is not the message. Unless you have a very high level of political consciousness, unless you have super political instincts, unless your political knowledge is robust, unless you are a disrupter in the best tradition of entrepreneurs, unless you have a firm commitment to the basic principles that underly any democracy movement, you can't do what I did for Nepal. My political credentials were outstanding, and so the technology behind the digital tools I ended up using came to be of service to me. The medium is not the message. On the other hand without the digital medium my work would not have been possible. The Internet allowed me the utter fearlessness that I exhibited at all junctures because it allowed me to be in the safety of New York City without many of the disadvantages of distance. On any given day, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on at the ground level in Nepal. I looked at Nepal from my distance the way an astrophysicist might look at planet Jupiter and do a very good job at it. The distance kept me safe, but it also gave me a certain objectivity, a certain detachment. That helped my work.
It was amazing to me over the course of my work spanning about two years eating into my savings that I was able to meet in person almost all the key political players in the drama in Nepal right here in New York City. I also discovered every little town in Nepal is represented by at least a few people in Queens. If that is true for the poorest country outside of Africa, that has to be true for every country on earth. That is why I have been saying for years everyone you need to spread democracy across the world lives right here in New York City. New York City truly is the capital city of the world. And if I networked hard enough in New York City, I realized I could get to know people who personally knew people in all the political parties in Nepal, in all the human rights NGOs active in Nepal, in all the media houses there.
Dinesh Prasain Tour: Report
Anil Jha, Bimal Nidhi US Tour Logistics
Gagan Thapa Talk In Boston: Two Hours Audio
Gagan Thapa October 22 Saturday 2 PM Columbia University
Sage Radachowsky Interviews Anil Jha
A Day In The Life Of Gagan Thapa
The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Gagan Thapa
Seven Party Forum In Jackson Heights
Krishna Pahadi November 6 Sunday 5 PM
Gagan's Talk In New York
Pahadi Says Goal Is Democratic Republic
Krishna Pahadi At New York University
December 11 Sunday 11 AM Union Square
Dinesh Tripathi In New York
Anand Bist, Troublemaker
My Proposal To The Saturday Symposium At Columbia
Dinesh Tripathi, "Arthur Kinoy Of Nepal"
Symposium At Columbia
February 1 New York Rally Photos
March 22 Event At Columbia
And I worked the phone. I called people in Nepal, in India, elsewhere.
And I worked the email circuit. Every time I received a mass email from some Nepali wishing me a Happy New Year or greetings for one of Nepal's major festivals, I would go ahead and harvest all the emails. And thus I ended up with the largest Nepali mailing list in the world. Someone once said when Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas that if you knew 1500 people in Little Rock, you knew everyone who mattered in Arkansas. Well, those 1500 people for Nepal are all on my mailing list. There are about 8500 people on that list. Featured at the top is an email from the Prime Minister of Nepal, Madhav Nepal.
But the hub of all my work was my Nepal blog: Democracy For Nepal. And my primary data collection method was the wild wild web, the Internet. Anyone could have accessed all the information that I was able to access on a daily basis. I visited the websites of the newspapers out of Nepal. I had a Nepal section on my Google News page.
I was able to cash on the personal contacts I already had, and was able to build. But the Internet was my primary playground. Anyone could have accessed what I accessed, and I feel like anyone anywhere could apply the principles that I applied in Nepal, and intend to apply in Iran. Actually one big reason I want to get involved with Iran is so as to be able to prove what we did in Nepal can be done over and over again all over the world, everywhere where there is no democracy.
I will touch upon those principles later. Let me now get into what precisely I did for Nepal. I helped move the ball at all critical junctures of the peace process.
What I Did For Nepal
When the king of Nepal pulled his military coup in February 2005, the first thing I did was I surveyed the scene. I read all the news I could. I tracked down all my key contacts that had fled to Delhi in the aftermath, including the guy who is now president of Nepal.
Hridayesh Tripathy In Delhi: Good News
Phone Interview With Rajendra Mahato
Phone Marathon: Called Up Delhi
Phone Marathon II
Then I surveyed the political scene. Either the king was going to backtrack and go back to being a ceremonial monarch, or Nepal needed to end the monarchy, become a republic.
Towards a Democratic Republic of Nepal
Now Nepal is a republic, but at that point in time republic was a big word to utter. None of the big democratic parties were for a republic. The king had jailed all their leaders and the parties were still singing the tunes of a constitutional monarchy. There is a term for that: mental slavery, the emotional dependence of the enslaved upon those who enslave them. The king showed signs he wanted to rule in an active way for a few decades. If they can do it in Saudi Arabia, why can't we do it in Nepal, he asked. Well, Saudi Arabia's time too will come.
I recognized there were three poles in Nepal: the royalists, the democrats and the Maoists. The only way to defeat the royalists was to forge an alliance between the other two forces. But that was not going to be easy because the Maoists had been waging a war for 10 years to establish a one party communist republic. They had been physically attacking and killing cadres of the largest democratic parties. How do you do business with them? At that point they had managed to dismantle the barely existent state apparatus in about 80% of the country.
The roadmap I proposed was this. The Maoists were for a communist republic. The big democratic parties were for a ceremonial monarchy. They needed to find common ground, which was the idea of a democratic republic. I sent overtures to the number two Maoist, Baburam Bhattarai. He sent overtures back, but that got him into trouble. The number one Maoist had him arrested by his own bodyguards. Later I appealed for his release, and he was released.
Sought eDialogue with Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists (2)
Baburam Bhattarai On A Democratic Republic
Doing Business With Baburam Bhattarai
To: Prachanda, Baburam, Mahara, Badal And The Rest Of The Maoist Leadership
Prachanda's Letter Bomb Of 5/1
Baburam: Prachanda's Best Bet, Litmust Test, And Only Option
Baburam Bhattarai Press Statement
Around this time a fellow Nepali activist based out of New York City sent out an email saying the army in Nepal had had her father disappeared. The danger was real. No wonder most Nepalis in the diaspora tried not to put their names to the cause. They preferred private to public, offline to online. I spoke up at my blog. Her father was released a few days later.
"Urgent: Disappearance Of My Father" by Sarahana Shrestha
Once there was convergence between the Maoists and the democrats behind the idea of a democratic republic, it was time to go all the way and try to forge a strong alliance against the monarchists. It took long months, but finally they all got together behind the idea of holding elections to a constituent assembly.
How To Move Towards A Common Minimum Program?
Seeking Common Ground
Seize The Moment: Match The Maoists
Possible Framework For A Maoist-Democrat Alliance
Major Fermentations In The NC And The UML
Alliance Of Steel
Indian Support For Democrat-Maoist Alliance A Must
Around this time a former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba got arrested. His wife sent me an email.
Gagan Thapa Arrested, Deuba Re-Arrested
Email From Arzu Rana Deuba
Email From Madhav Kumar Nepal
March 22 Event, Deuba In New York
Sushil Pyakurel In Brussels
Deuba At Columbia
Deuba In Jackson Heights
Deuba Off To DC
The Maoists were still at war. Now that some common ground had been found, it was time for the Maoists to lay down the weapon. I proposed something pretty out of the box: unilateral ceasefire. How would the king respond? Could he keep fighting? No, he could not.
Power Does Not Necessarily Flow Through The Barrel Of A Gun: Maoists
Prachanda, Order Your Cadres To Live
After Ganapathy, A Ceasefire
RNA, Declare Your Own Ceasefire, You Have No Choice
Prachanda, Do Not Break The Ceasefire
Irresponsible Response To Ceasefire
For The First Time In A Decade, Permanent Peace Feels Possible
The Maoist Ceasefire: The Devil In The Details
The RNA Could Be Disbanded
The Maoists Could Do More
Militarists Attempting A Doramba Repeat To End Ceasefire
The Army Rank And File Need To Be For The People And Democracy
Prachanda, Extend The Ceasefire By Three Months
Prachanda Audio Interview, A First
Why The Maoists Should Not Go Back To Violence
Around this time I also got impatient with Girija Koirala, the de facto leader in the democratic camp for being the oldest person, and threw my weight behind Madhav Nepal who went on to organize some of the largest one day rallies over the coming months.
Madhav Nepal, Commander Of The Movement
Janakpur Rally, Biggest In Nepal Since 1990
Once the Maoist-Democrat alliance was formed, it was time to go for a mass movement. Here Ukraine in 2004 was my inspiration. The Nepali leaders kept thinking in terms of a rally here, a rally there, a shutdown here, a shutdown there. From the very beginning I was pushing for a Ukraine repeat, that we needed to come out into the streets and stay out there until the regime collapsed. That is what ended up happening only what happened in Nepal was much much bigger than what happened in Ukraine, and much bigger than anything I had imagined. But this was not a sure thing at all. The Maoists started thinking now the democrats had finally come around to their idea of a final armed struggle and an assault on the capital city. That suggestion I fought tooth and nail. Around this time I also hired a blogger in Kathmandu to video blog all street protests. That proved fundamental. At the time noone was doing that. Those videos got the Nepali diaspora excited. (Umesh, Turn It Into A Business, Mero Sansar Video Clips, Blogger Receives Death Threat, Bloggers Form Union) I also had to fight American tendencies to want to fight the Maoists to the military finish, to see them as the first opponent, we will deal with an autocratic king later attitude: Robert Kaplan Is An American Cowboy.
Non-Violent Militancy, Concerted Global Action
Human Rights to Political Platform to Full-Fledged Movement
eDemocracy, 4S Campaign, 24/7 Vigil For Democracy: Take Over Tundikhel
Streets Filling Up
Major Student Protests
Timi Sadak Ma Utreko Dekheko Chhu (I have seen you come out into the streets - poem)
Pyramid Of 10 In Kathmandu
India-US-EU Need To Provide Logistical Support To The Democracy Movement
Logistics To Bring Down The Regime
Lilamani Pokharel For Continuous Movement
Maoists Should Go Beyond Ceasefire To Peaceful Mobilization
Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests
Democracy For Nepal: Contents 2005
Nepal Needs To Be Hitting The World Headlines: Write To The Media
Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance
Non-Violence All The Way
"Robin Hood Im Internet"
Mero Sansar Video Clips 4
Undeclared Ceasefire, Decisive Movement
This is the gist of the developments leading up to the mass movement of April 2006 when eight of the country's 27 million people came out into the streets to shut the country down completely. Every step can be retraced at my Nepal blog. Here I have provided just a summary. Keeping my work transparent in real time was important to me even back then because I held a strong belief even back then that this work was relevant to many other countries. In April 2006 I came across a blog post by some anonymous member of the Zimbabwean diaspora that asked, why can't we have in Zimbabwe what they just had in Nepal? It was a good feeling for me to come across that sentiment.
In my next blog post I will tackle the other two questions.
To Iran, With Love (1)
I am psyched to be talking to two of my favorite people in the tech community.
Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Fred Wilson: An Unassuming Kind Of Guy
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
Fred Wilson: A DJ
Fred Wilson: DJ
Fred Wilson's Gift To Me
Fred Wilson's Insight
Fred Wilson: VC
Fred Wilson: A VC
So let me tackle some of the questions after having introduced myself: To Iran, With Love (1). Over the past few days I have paced around a whole lot trying to grapple with as to the best way to present myself.
- What did I do for Nepal?
- How did I do it?
- What can I do for Iran?
- Why am I asking 20 VCs to put in 5K each in personal money towards this?
I ended up giving a name to the method: nonviolent militancy. Not only are you strictly nonviolent, you are almost all digital. The battles take place on the screen for a big part. But the method is not the message. Unless you have a very high level of political consciousness, unless you have super political instincts, unless your political knowledge is robust, unless you are a disrupter in the best tradition of entrepreneurs, unless you have a firm commitment to the basic principles that underly any democracy movement, you can't do what I did for Nepal. My political credentials were outstanding, and so the technology behind the digital tools I ended up using came to be of service to me. The medium is not the message. On the other hand without the digital medium my work would not have been possible. The Internet allowed me the utter fearlessness that I exhibited at all junctures because it allowed me to be in the safety of New York City without many of the disadvantages of distance. On any given day, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on at the ground level in Nepal. I looked at Nepal from my distance the way an astrophysicist might look at planet Jupiter and do a very good job at it. The distance kept me safe, but it also gave me a certain objectivity, a certain detachment. That helped my work.
It was amazing to me over the course of my work spanning about two years eating into my savings that I was able to meet in person almost all the key political players in the drama in Nepal right here in New York City. I also discovered every little town in Nepal is represented by at least a few people in Queens. If that is true for the poorest country outside of Africa, that has to be true for every country on earth. That is why I have been saying for years everyone you need to spread democracy across the world lives right here in New York City. New York City truly is the capital city of the world. And if I networked hard enough in New York City, I realized I could get to know people who personally knew people in all the political parties in Nepal, in all the human rights NGOs active in Nepal, in all the media houses there.
Dinesh Prasain Tour: Report
Anil Jha, Bimal Nidhi US Tour Logistics
Gagan Thapa Talk In Boston: Two Hours Audio
Gagan Thapa October 22 Saturday 2 PM Columbia University
Sage Radachowsky Interviews Anil Jha
A Day In The Life Of Gagan Thapa
The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Gagan Thapa
Seven Party Forum In Jackson Heights
Krishna Pahadi November 6 Sunday 5 PM
Gagan's Talk In New York
Pahadi Says Goal Is Democratic Republic
Krishna Pahadi At New York University
December 11 Sunday 11 AM Union Square
Dinesh Tripathi In New York
Anand Bist, Troublemaker
My Proposal To The Saturday Symposium At Columbia
Dinesh Tripathi, "Arthur Kinoy Of Nepal"
Symposium At Columbia
February 1 New York Rally Photos
March 22 Event At Columbia
And I worked the phone. I called people in Nepal, in India, elsewhere.
And I worked the email circuit. Every time I received a mass email from some Nepali wishing me a Happy New Year or greetings for one of Nepal's major festivals, I would go ahead and harvest all the emails. And thus I ended up with the largest Nepali mailing list in the world. Someone once said when Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas that if you knew 1500 people in Little Rock, you knew everyone who mattered in Arkansas. Well, those 1500 people for Nepal are all on my mailing list. There are about 8500 people on that list. Featured at the top is an email from the Prime Minister of Nepal, Madhav Nepal.
But the hub of all my work was my Nepal blog: Democracy For Nepal. And my primary data collection method was the wild wild web, the Internet. Anyone could have accessed all the information that I was able to access on a daily basis. I visited the websites of the newspapers out of Nepal. I had a Nepal section on my Google News page.
I was able to cash on the personal contacts I already had, and was able to build. But the Internet was my primary playground. Anyone could have accessed what I accessed, and I feel like anyone anywhere could apply the principles that I applied in Nepal, and intend to apply in Iran. Actually one big reason I want to get involved with Iran is so as to be able to prove what we did in Nepal can be done over and over again all over the world, everywhere where there is no democracy.
I will touch upon those principles later. Let me now get into what precisely I did for Nepal. I helped move the ball at all critical junctures of the peace process.
What I Did For Nepal
When the king of Nepal pulled his military coup in February 2005, the first thing I did was I surveyed the scene. I read all the news I could. I tracked down all my key contacts that had fled to Delhi in the aftermath, including the guy who is now president of Nepal.
Hridayesh Tripathy In Delhi: Good News
Phone Interview With Rajendra Mahato
Phone Marathon: Called Up Delhi
Phone Marathon II
Then I surveyed the political scene. Either the king was going to backtrack and go back to being a ceremonial monarch, or Nepal needed to end the monarchy, become a republic.
Towards a Democratic Republic of Nepal
Now Nepal is a republic, but at that point in time republic was a big word to utter. None of the big democratic parties were for a republic. The king had jailed all their leaders and the parties were still singing the tunes of a constitutional monarchy. There is a term for that: mental slavery, the emotional dependence of the enslaved upon those who enslave them. The king showed signs he wanted to rule in an active way for a few decades. If they can do it in Saudi Arabia, why can't we do it in Nepal, he asked. Well, Saudi Arabia's time too will come.
I recognized there were three poles in Nepal: the royalists, the democrats and the Maoists. The only way to defeat the royalists was to forge an alliance between the other two forces. But that was not going to be easy because the Maoists had been waging a war for 10 years to establish a one party communist republic. They had been physically attacking and killing cadres of the largest democratic parties. How do you do business with them? At that point they had managed to dismantle the barely existent state apparatus in about 80% of the country.
The roadmap I proposed was this. The Maoists were for a communist republic. The big democratic parties were for a ceremonial monarchy. They needed to find common ground, which was the idea of a democratic republic. I sent overtures to the number two Maoist, Baburam Bhattarai. He sent overtures back, but that got him into trouble. The number one Maoist had him arrested by his own bodyguards. Later I appealed for his release, and he was released.
Sought eDialogue with Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists (2)
Baburam Bhattarai On A Democratic Republic
Doing Business With Baburam Bhattarai
To: Prachanda, Baburam, Mahara, Badal And The Rest Of The Maoist Leadership
Prachanda's Letter Bomb Of 5/1
Baburam: Prachanda's Best Bet, Litmust Test, And Only Option
Baburam Bhattarai Press Statement
Around this time a fellow Nepali activist based out of New York City sent out an email saying the army in Nepal had had her father disappeared. The danger was real. No wonder most Nepalis in the diaspora tried not to put their names to the cause. They preferred private to public, offline to online. I spoke up at my blog. Her father was released a few days later.
"Urgent: Disappearance Of My Father" by Sarahana Shrestha
Once there was convergence between the Maoists and the democrats behind the idea of a democratic republic, it was time to go all the way and try to forge a strong alliance against the monarchists. It took long months, but finally they all got together behind the idea of holding elections to a constituent assembly.
How To Move Towards A Common Minimum Program?
Seeking Common Ground
Seize The Moment: Match The Maoists
Possible Framework For A Maoist-Democrat Alliance
Major Fermentations In The NC And The UML
Alliance Of Steel
Indian Support For Democrat-Maoist Alliance A Must
Around this time a former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba got arrested. His wife sent me an email.
Gagan Thapa Arrested, Deuba Re-Arrested
Email From Arzu Rana Deuba
Email From Madhav Kumar Nepal
March 22 Event, Deuba In New York
Sushil Pyakurel In Brussels
Deuba At Columbia
Deuba In Jackson Heights
Deuba Off To DC
The Maoists were still at war. Now that some common ground had been found, it was time for the Maoists to lay down the weapon. I proposed something pretty out of the box: unilateral ceasefire. How would the king respond? Could he keep fighting? No, he could not.
Power Does Not Necessarily Flow Through The Barrel Of A Gun: Maoists
Prachanda, Order Your Cadres To Live
After Ganapathy, A Ceasefire
RNA, Declare Your Own Ceasefire, You Have No Choice
Prachanda, Do Not Break The Ceasefire
Irresponsible Response To Ceasefire
For The First Time In A Decade, Permanent Peace Feels Possible
The Maoist Ceasefire: The Devil In The Details
The RNA Could Be Disbanded
The Maoists Could Do More
Militarists Attempting A Doramba Repeat To End Ceasefire
The Army Rank And File Need To Be For The People And Democracy
Prachanda, Extend The Ceasefire By Three Months
Prachanda Audio Interview, A First
Why The Maoists Should Not Go Back To Violence
Around this time I also got impatient with Girija Koirala, the de facto leader in the democratic camp for being the oldest person, and threw my weight behind Madhav Nepal who went on to organize some of the largest one day rallies over the coming months.
Madhav Nepal, Commander Of The Movement
Janakpur Rally, Biggest In Nepal Since 1990
Once the Maoist-Democrat alliance was formed, it was time to go for a mass movement. Here Ukraine in 2004 was my inspiration. The Nepali leaders kept thinking in terms of a rally here, a rally there, a shutdown here, a shutdown there. From the very beginning I was pushing for a Ukraine repeat, that we needed to come out into the streets and stay out there until the regime collapsed. That is what ended up happening only what happened in Nepal was much much bigger than what happened in Ukraine, and much bigger than anything I had imagined. But this was not a sure thing at all. The Maoists started thinking now the democrats had finally come around to their idea of a final armed struggle and an assault on the capital city. That suggestion I fought tooth and nail. Around this time I also hired a blogger in Kathmandu to video blog all street protests. That proved fundamental. At the time noone was doing that. Those videos got the Nepali diaspora excited. (Umesh, Turn It Into A Business, Mero Sansar Video Clips, Blogger Receives Death Threat, Bloggers Form Union) I also had to fight American tendencies to want to fight the Maoists to the military finish, to see them as the first opponent, we will deal with an autocratic king later attitude: Robert Kaplan Is An American Cowboy.
Non-Violent Militancy, Concerted Global Action
Human Rights to Political Platform to Full-Fledged Movement
eDemocracy, 4S Campaign, 24/7 Vigil For Democracy: Take Over Tundikhel
Streets Filling Up
Major Student Protests
Timi Sadak Ma Utreko Dekheko Chhu (I have seen you come out into the streets - poem)
Pyramid Of 10 In Kathmandu
India-US-EU Need To Provide Logistical Support To The Democracy Movement
Logistics To Bring Down The Regime
Lilamani Pokharel For Continuous Movement
Maoists Should Go Beyond Ceasefire To Peaceful Mobilization
Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests
Democracy For Nepal: Contents 2005
Nepal Needs To Be Hitting The World Headlines: Write To The Media
Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance
Non-Violence All The Way
"Robin Hood Im Internet"
Mero Sansar Video Clips 4
Undeclared Ceasefire, Decisive Movement
This is the gist of the developments leading up to the mass movement of April 2006 when eight of the country's 27 million people came out into the streets to shut the country down completely. Every step can be retraced at my Nepal blog. Here I have provided just a summary. Keeping my work transparent in real time was important to me even back then because I held a strong belief even back then that this work was relevant to many other countries. In April 2006 I came across a blog post by some anonymous member of the Zimbabwean diaspora that asked, why can't we have in Zimbabwe what they just had in Nepal? It was a good feeling for me to come across that sentiment.
In my next blog post I will tackle the other two questions.
- What can I do for Iran?
- Why am I asking 20 VCs to put in 5K each in personal money towards this?
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Parenting
I am supposed to be working on a few blog posts (To Iran, With Love (1)) for two of my favorite people in the tech community - Fred Wilson and Brad Feld - but I find my ways to procrastinate. I found myself on my Tumblr dashboard instead. Mostly I reblog, that is what I do on Tumblr. The editor in me comes out. So - hint, hint - I am a very good person to follow on Tumblr. Following me is like following 90 people minus the pain. And these 90 people are mostly active members of the tech community. So. Follow me, like Al Pacino says right before the best scene in my favorite movie Heat.
I came across an interesting post by KirkLove, on parenting. No, I don't know him, although he is a New Yorker. You are not supposed to know people on Tumblr. I personally know very few of the 90 plus people I follow on Tumblr.
But then I have never been a parent myself, although I grew up in a large, extended family environment - at the peak, I think perhaps four couples under one roof in a big house - and saw a l-o-t of parenting happen. That makes me an authority of sorts, I think. And that is not even counting the regular larger extended family get togethers - festivals, three day weddings - when you would have much noise and kids running all over the place.
New York Magazine: Why Parents Hate Parenting?
I once read about an article in some kind of an anthropology journal that suggested some cultures in Africa deal with adolescence way better than the US society does. There is something called emotional infrastructure.
I came across an interesting post by KirkLove, on parenting. No, I don't know him, although he is a New Yorker. You are not supposed to know people on Tumblr. I personally know very few of the 90 plus people I follow on Tumblr.
But then I have never been a parent myself, although I grew up in a large, extended family environment - at the peak, I think perhaps four couples under one roof in a big house - and saw a l-o-t of parenting happen. That makes me an authority of sorts, I think. And that is not even counting the regular larger extended family get togethers - festivals, three day weddings - when you would have much noise and kids running all over the place.
New York Magazine: Why Parents Hate Parenting?
Most people assume that having children will make them happier. Yet a wide variety of academic research shows that parents are not happier than their childless peers, and in many cases are less so. This finding is surprisingly consistent, showing up across a range of disciplines. ........ five ruthless words: “Economically worthless but emotionally priceless.” ...... . “I don’t mean to idealize the lives of the Namibian women,” she says. “But it was hard not to notice how calm they were. They were beading their children’s ankles and decorating them with sienna, clearly enjoying just sitting and playing with them, and we’re here often thinking of all of this stuff as labor.” ...... especially true in middle- and upper-income families, which are far more apt than their working-class counterparts to see their children as projects to be perfected. (Children of women with bachelor degrees spend almost five hours on “organized activities” per week, as opposed to children of high-school dropouts, who spend two. ...... “Middle-class parents spend much more time talking to children, answering questions with questions, and treating each child’s thought as a special contribution. And this is very tiring work.” ....... According to Changing Rhythms of American Family Life—a compendium of data porn about time use and family statistics .......all parents spend more time today with their children than they did in 1975, including mothers, in spite of the great rush of women into the American workforce. ...... the abundance of choices—whether to have kids, when, how many—may be one of the reasons parents are less happy. ...... parents’ dissatisfaction only grew the more money they had, even though they had the purchasing power to buy more child care ..... “They’re a huge source of joy, but they turn every other source of joy to shit.” ...... When people wait to have children, they’re also bringing different sensibilities to the enterprise. They’ve spent their adult lives as professionals, believing there’s a right way and a wrong way of doing things; now they’re applying the same logic to the family-expansion business, and they’re surrounded by a marketplace that only affirms and reinforces this idea. ....... There was this idea we had about how things were supposed to be: The family should be dot dot dot, the man should be dot dot dot the woman should be dot dot dot.” ....... This is another brutal reality about children: They expose the gulf between our fantasies about family and its spikier realities. ....... One of the reasons I love being with my wife is because I love the family we have.” ....... the war zone of adolescence ..... “Teenagers can be casually brutal.” ...... is the amount of time married parents spend alone together each week: Nine hours today versus twelve in 1975. ...... They were exhausted and staring at the television.” ..... Children may provide unrivaled moments of joy. But they also provide unrivaled moments of frustration, tedium, anxiety, heartbreak. ...... the study sought to understand not just the moment-to-moment moods of its participants, but more existential matters, like how connected they felt, and how motivated, and how much despair they were in (as opposed to how much stress they were under): Do you not feel like eating? Do you feel like you can’t shake the blues? Do you feel lonely? Like you can’t get going? Parents, who live in a clamorous, perpetual-forward-motion machine almost all of the time, seemed to have different answers than their childless cohorts. ......... The least depressed parents are those whose underage children are in the house, and the most are those whose aren’t. ..... Technically, if parenting makes you unhappy, you should feel better if you’re spared the task of doing it. But if happiness is measured by our own sense of agency and meaning, then noncustodial parents lose. They’re robbed of something that gives purpose and reward. ..... Not one told him of regretting having children, but ten told him they regretted not having a family.Thoughts? Parenting is work. Relationship is work. Marriage is work. You might as well skip out on the relationship too and go straight to watching more TV.
I once read about an article in some kind of an anthropology journal that suggested some cultures in Africa deal with adolescence way better than the US society does. There is something called emotional infrastructure.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
To Iran, With Love (1)
Hello Brad.
And to continue with our conversation. I am absolutely loving the public nature of this. This is going to enhance my efficacy and my credibility when I get into the thick of things with Iran.
My Background
- I was the number one student in my class at the top school in Nepal for the seven of the 10 years I was there.
- Out of high school I became Vice General Secretary to a political party with two MPs, members of parliament. Someone who was a central committee member at the time currently is a cabinet minister in Nepal.
- I was Poet Of The Year 1995, International Society Of Poets, Washington DC.
- I got accepted to the University Of Chicago ("not for your numbers, but your actions and words") but the money part did not work out, so I went to the school in America that has the best financial aid program of any, second to none, not even Harvard, Berea College in Kentucky, the number one liberal arts college in the South.
- Within six months of landing as an international student I got myself elected student body president at Berea, first time in college history a freshman did that.
- In 1999 I was one of the founding members of a dot com - Chaitime.com - that was trying to be the premier South Asian online community. The company raised $25 million, round two, before succumbing to the nuclear winter. Rediff won the race.
- I was a volunteer with Dean 2004 in Indiana. That got Howard Dean's brother excited when he found out. Of all places, Indiana? My story might have played a small role in Howard Dean's "50 state strategy."
- I was one of Barack Obama's earliest supporters in New York City and got to know most of the top volunteers in all boroughs. (NYC Video: 10 Hours)
- Long Walk To Freedom: Just A Third World Guy Dazzled By The City April 2007
- Long Walk To Freedom May 2007
- Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother September 2007
- Barack's Mother Makes An Appearance September 2007
- Give Me A Huge Rally In This City Before Summer Is Over September 2007
- The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History September 2007
My Recent Work For Nepal: Highlights
- I was the only Nepali in the Nepali diaspora who worked full time for the democracy movement in Nepal that succeeded in April 2006. There were a lot of part timers who did great work.
- Madhav Nepal was leading the largest party in the country at the time. In February 2006 he was put under house arrest. A month later his brother living next door managed to get him online the wireless way. The first person he contacted was me. We chatted on Gmail Chat.
- January-February 2007 saw the Madhesi Movement, which was like the second phase of the April 2006 revolution, only more intense. This was with the goal of achieving equality for the Madhesi: I am a Madhesi. (Larry Ellison) Kind of like our own civil rights movement. Upendra Yadav was its most visible face. In July that year he was brought over to America, to Los Angeles where the Nepalis were having a convention. When he got off the plane, the first person he asked for was me. They took him to his hotel. He again asked, "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?"
- I had never met Madhav Nepal or Upendra Yadav in person before. And I had talked to each of them on the phone only once. But both of them felt the reach of my intense work. Almost all my work was conducted in the digital realm.
- Madhav Nepal is Prime Minister today. Upendra Yadav was Foreign Minister for about a year after the April 2008 elections to the constituent assembly.
- I had a phone conversation with Ram Baran Yadav around February 2005 when he had run away from the country and was in Delhi after the king took over power in a coup. Ram Baran Yadav is president of Nepal today, which is not like being president in America, more like president in India, or queen in England.
What Did I Do?
In short, I moved the ball at all key junctures. And I used digital tools. What balls did I move and when? What tools did I use? How could I repeat the success for Iran? How exactly would I do it?
I will tackle those questions and more in subsequent posts. And I will also explain why I want 20 VCs starting with you to put in 5K each of personal money towards this work, why I am not approaching some other crowd.
The reason you were not able to find much about my Nepal work when you did a search at my blog is because you conducted the search not at my Nepal blog, but at Netizen, my technology and business blog. I have three active blogs. (Democracy For Nepal 1661 posts, Barackface 926 posts, Netizen 690 posts)
And I do understand when you invest in a company you put in the money upfront. You don't dole the money out in monthly investments. But perhaps my language was not precise, and hence the misunderstanding.
My Nepal Blog
I will tackle those questions and more in subsequent posts. And I will also explain why I want 20 VCs starting with you to put in 5K each of personal money towards this work, why I am not approaching some other crowd.
The reason you were not able to find much about my Nepal work when you did a search at my blog is because you conducted the search not at my Nepal blog, but at Netizen, my technology and business blog. I have three active blogs. (Democracy For Nepal 1661 posts, Barackface 926 posts, Netizen 690 posts)
And I do understand when you invest in a company you put in the money upfront. You don't dole the money out in monthly investments. But perhaps my language was not precise, and hence the misunderstanding.
My Nepal Blog
- April 2006 (100 posts)
- February 2008 (98 posts)
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Brad Feld
The Founders Visa Movement
An Angel Investor Group Move That Makes Me Vomit
Amazon Fires Its Affiliates in Colorado (Including Me) Because of Colorado HB 10-1193
Bummed Out About Bilski
Take the Time to Acknowledge Management’s Performance
Gearbox’s Smart Ball
Founders 2010 #6: We’re Not Alone
How MIT Could Help With A Different Approach to the BP Gulf Crisis
Risk Takers – Pogoplug and RedLaser
Discovering At Least One Awesome Thing A Day On My Mac
"We're Not Alone" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 6 from TechStars on Vimeo.
"Risk Takers" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 5 from TechStars on Vimeo.
Oblong is Hiring
The Magic of Email Conversations
eBay Acquires RedLaser
Startupbootcamp – TechStars Global Affiliate in Compenhagen
Fun and Games with BigDoor
The Wall Street Journal: Blogs: Venture Capital Dispatch:
A Summer Romance Between Founder And Venture Capitalist
Video: Brad Feld On How To Get Funding
A Month of Mac
Rethinking The Laptop
I’ve Failed Over and Over and Over Again in My Life
Swimming At Night
Founders 2010 #4: Let’s Be Honest
Van Gogh’s Starry Night Updated
Who Wants To Be A Tech Star?
Learning Leadership From The Movie 13 Days
Mr. Feld Goes to DC To Talk About Innovation
Founders 2010 #3: Be Fearless. Today.
It is of great interest to me that Brad Feld's most popular blog post is this one: The Founders Visa Movement.
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
Me @ BBC
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
An Angel Investor Group Move That Makes Me Vomit
Amazon Fires Its Affiliates in Colorado (Including Me) Because of Colorado HB 10-1193
Bummed Out About Bilski
Take the Time to Acknowledge Management’s Performance
Gearbox’s Smart Ball
Founders 2010 #6: We’re Not Alone
How MIT Could Help With A Different Approach to the BP Gulf Crisis
Risk Takers – Pogoplug and RedLaser
Discovering At Least One Awesome Thing A Day On My Mac
"We're Not Alone" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 6 from TechStars on Vimeo.
"Risk Takers" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 5 from TechStars on Vimeo.
Oblong is Hiring
The Magic of Email Conversations
eBay Acquires RedLaser
Startupbootcamp – TechStars Global Affiliate in Compenhagen
Fun and Games with BigDoor
The Wall Street Journal: Blogs: Venture Capital Dispatch:
A Summer Romance Between Founder And Venture Capitalist
a world where many entrepreneurs see venture capital as a necessary evil ..... the tale of meeting Foundry Group’s Feld and how the VC’s unorthodox approach to learning about the company ultimately cemented Smith’s desire to have him as an investor...... Brad intrigued me because he didn’t come across like any venture capitalist I had ever met ..... ‘I’m not going to conform’ persona, and are both passionate to their core about helping startups ........ “The mindset of a typical VC is geared more towards a later stage company that has crossed the chasm and the customer base is beyond early adopters,” Smith told us. “Finding someone that knows you still need to find out where to aim your rocket is very important.” ....... Feld’s process was simple: He wanted to get to know the founders and find that each interaction had been more interesting than the last. ....... When I told him that we didn’t have an investor presentation put together yet he quipped, ‘The last thing in the world I want to see is a f—ing presentation ....... Brad and I spent the next six months getting to know each other, during which Brad and his partners repeatedly drilled us on our thinking, our strategy, our technology and our market approach. We told him we would invite him into the “sausage making” process and he readily donned his hairnet and dove in. ....... Foundry never asked for projections or historical financials. “We talked about where we want to take the product and how we want to serve customers ..... “After we signed a term sheet, I finally asked Brad if he wanted to see our deck. I sent it to him and he said, ‘That scared me.’BigDoor: Blog: Venture Capital: A Love Story
We quickly concluded that we needed to kill everything we had just spent six months building and go back to the drawing board. Given that we had only two months of cash in the bank at the time, this decision wasn’t an easy one but we felt strongly that it was necessary. ....... Andy has a favorite saying, “We know your plans are wrong, we just don’t yet know how wrong.” ...... changing direction like this meant he was willing to forget every one of those prior promises and start down a new path. ....... we went from 0 users to 8 million users in an afternoon. ....... he wasn’t your typical VC. Brad is an early investor in Zynga the undisputed king of social gaming. ....... we knew that having Brad as a partner would give us a huge amount of credibility with potential customers, so we began stalking him. ...... We mostly went back and forth via email, where niceties were commonly replaced with a raw curiosity of how best to build BigDoor and how we would meet the coming onslaught of demand for our platform. Brad was direct and often told me where he thought I was wrong, which laid the groundwork for me being able to do the same with him. We found some common ground and a fair amount of areas to disagree and challenge each other. We joked about 80’s bands, compared reading lists and shared paranoid rants about how machines will eventually take over the world (they will). But what’s most notable is what we didn’t discuss. Never once did anyone at Foundry ask us for projections or historical financials. We didn’t talk about the deal, valuation or board composition and we never talked about exit timing or how much money they needed to make. Product, customers and philosophy – that’s where we spent our time. ...... On two separate occasions Brad told me he was “out” and wasn’t going to invest. ..... “The word ‘no’ is simply a milestone on the path to ‘yes’.” This emboldened me to go back to Brad and tell him he was wrong and that he was the perfect partner for us. I made no attempt at all to posture or play hard to get .......... This wasn’t done out of desperation – we had multiple offers from other great VCs – we conducted ourselves in a completely transparent fashion because that’s how Foundry was toward us. ......... until one day Brad sent an email that said, “Ok – I’m ready (and psyched) to do a deal.” He then laid out deal terms in one very simple paragraph. I responded with a very long email that ultimately asked for just one change, and he simply responded with “Deal.” That was it, that email exchange was the extent of our term sheet. Instead of grinding us on terms, Brad spent the three weeks from our agreement to closing making introductions for us to potential customers. ....... we’ve never had a deal go this smooth nor have we ever had anyone who was so awesome to work with on the other side of the table. ......... Having great investors isn’t just about warm fuzzies, it should (and does) also result in real customers. ..... as we endeavor to weave the BigDoor platform into the very fabric of the Internet.
Video: Brad Feld On How To Get Funding
A Month of Mac
Rethinking The Laptop
I’ve Failed Over and Over and Over Again in My Life
Swimming At Night
Founders 2010 #4: Let’s Be Honest
Van Gogh’s Starry Night Updated
Who Wants To Be A Tech Star?
Learning Leadership From The Movie 13 Days
Mr. Feld Goes to DC To Talk About Innovation
Founders 2010 #3: Be Fearless. Today.
It is of great interest to me that Brad Feld's most popular blog post is this one: The Founders Visa Movement.
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
Me @ BBC
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
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