Veecee Valhalla See the man in the picture: his name
is Vinod Khosla, he's a Valley-Indian (V-Indian), and he has just
been named Silicon Valley's finest venture capitalist by tech-daily Valley
Talk (a daily section on the Fortune web-site). That's not as
surprising-Khosla was part of the founding team of Sun Microsystems and
the lesser-known Daisy Systems-as the area in which he has built his
reputation as a venture capitalist: networking. Thus, when the rest of the
veecee world was obsessed with b2b and b2c, Khosla's firm Kleiner Perkins
Caulfield & Byers was placing its bets on hi-tech networking companies
like Juniper, Cerent (acquired by Cisco in 1999), and Siara Systems
(acquired this year by Redback Networks). Khosla is quick to downplay what
being named the valley's best veecee means: ''(It) doesn't mean much. And
as a venture capitalist I do not focus on investment or rate of return or
anything financial. I focus on the team, values, customer value, and the
basic economics of the business.'' And that, obviously, seems to have gone
down well in an environment where the scarcest resource is management.
Still, the award must mean something to the aquiline 50-year old whose
keen competitiveness, one unnamed associate claimed in an article that
appeared in Fortune, extends to being first to the parking lot. And what
does the man who sits on the board of seven companies and who is reputed
to be the richest V-Indian do in his spare time? ''Have fun,'' says Khosla.
We assume that includes networking...
Appleby in Hindi Know what? The Beeb's top man is
obsessed with customer needs. That may have something to do with the
background of Rupert Gavin, a 46-year-old who dabbled in retail and
telecom before landing up in Bush House (''I think I've reached where I
wanted to be''). Although overwhelmed by the brand equity of BBC in the
sub-continent Gavin isn't taking any chances: the channel is strengthening
its vern-programming (yes, it already produces some local language
programmes for Rathikant Basu's Tara) by launching a Hindi version of Yes
Minister. ''We have to be local, yet not very local, and global, yet not
very global. It's a tough balancing act,'' rues Gavin. When he's not
thinking up schemes like Ji Mantriji (yes, that's what it is called),
Gavin is busy producing plays. The theatre, you see, is his passion. Gee
Gavinji!
Look Mom, No Wires
Also look at how far that has taken twenty-somethings Hemant Sharma (right)
and Krishna Jha (left). The Mumbai-based duo run a company called
itFinity Solutions that focuses on the mobile internet. Here's a quick
corp-sketch: the company writes software for mobile applications; Rajat (McKinsey)
Gupta and Rajesh (Unimobile) Reddy are among its investors; and one of
their b2c offerings Product Heartthrob, a mobile-phone based dating
application won Nokia's Best of Wap 2000 award. Says Hemant, 25: ''We saw
the Wireless Internet as a huge opportunity globally where we could
leverage our early understanding of the technology.'' Wired or not, these
geeks are truly with it.
Turning Point
You could well call it that, especially since that was the name of
Miditech's first mainstream success, a series on environmental issues for
the national channel. The event in question is ICICI's acquisition of a 25
per cent stake in the television production house of the brothers Alva, Niret
(left), 35, and Nikhil (right), 31 for an undisclosed amount.
With cash in its coffers, Miditech proposes to invest Rs 90 crore over the
next two years and expand its repertoire of programmes in the run-up to an
IPO. The specifics of how the brothers propose to burn this money include
a foray into news-programming, and the creation of a broadband-portal that
will leverage Miditech's not inconsiderable library (over 2,000 hours of
programming). Says Niret Alva, President, Miditech: ''The ICICI backing
will help us expand our genre and reach out globally. It is a great
opportunity.'' For the sons of veteran politico Margaret Alva, not
following in her footsteps has definitely proved to be the right choice...
See the man in the picture: his name
is Vinod Khosla, he's a Valley-Indian (V-Indian), and he has just
been named Silicon Valley's finest venture capitalist by tech-daily Valley
Talk (a daily section on the Fortune web-site). That's not as
surprising-Khosla was part of the founding team of Sun Microsystems and
the lesser-known Daisy Systems-as the area in which he has built his
reputation as a venture capitalist: networking. Thus, when the rest of the
veecee world was obsessed with b2b and b2c, Khosla's firm Kleiner Perkins
Caulfield & Byers was placing its bets on hi-tech networking companies
like Juniper, Cerent (acquired by Cisco in 1999), and Siara Systems
(acquired this year by Redback Networks). Khosla is quick to downplay what
being named the valley's best veecee means: ''(It) doesn't mean much. And
as a venture capitalist I do not focus on investment or rate of return or
anything financial. I focus on the team, values, customer value, and the
basic economics of the business.'' And that, obviously, seems to have gone
down well in an environment where the scarcest resource is management.
Still, the award must mean something to the aquiline 50-year old whose
keen competitiveness, one unnamed associate claimed in an article that
appeared in Fortune, extends to being first to the parking lot. And what
does the man who sits on the board of seven companies and who is reputed
to be the richest V-Indian do in his spare time? ''Have fun,'' says Khosla.
We assume that includes networking...
Know what? The Beeb's top man is
obsessed with customer needs. That may have something to do with the
background of Rupert Gavin, a 46-year-old who dabbled in retail and
telecom before landing up in Bush House (''I think I've reached where I
wanted to be''). Although overwhelmed by the brand equity of BBC in the
sub-continent Gavin isn't taking any chances: the channel is strengthening
its vern-programming (yes, it already produces some local language
programmes for Rathikant Basu's Tara) by launching a Hindi version of Yes
Minister. ''We have to be local, yet not very local, and global, yet not
very global. It's a tough balancing act,'' rues Gavin. When he's not
thinking up schemes like Ji Mantriji (yes, that's what it is called),
Gavin is busy producing plays. The theatre, you see, is his passion. Gee
Gavinji!
Also look at how far that has taken twenty-somethings Hemant Sharma (right)
and Krishna Jha (left). The Mumbai-based duo run a company called
itFinity Solutions that focuses on the mobile internet. Here's a quick
corp-sketch: the company writes software for mobile applications; Rajat (McKinsey)
Gupta and Rajesh (Unimobile) Reddy are among its investors; and one of
their b2c offerings Product Heartthrob, a mobile-phone based dating
application won Nokia's Best of Wap 2000 award. Says Hemant, 25: ''We saw
the Wireless Internet as a huge opportunity globally where we could
leverage our early understanding of the technology.'' Wired or not, these
geeks are truly with it.
You could well call it that, especially since that was the name of
Miditech's first mainstream success, a series on environmental issues for
the national channel. The event in question is ICICI's acquisition of a 25
per cent stake in the television production house of the brothers Alva, Niret
(left), 35, and Nikhil (right), 31 for an undisclosed amount.
With cash in its coffers, Miditech proposes to invest Rs 90 crore over the
next two years and expand its repertoire of programmes in the run-up to an
IPO. The specifics of how the brothers propose to burn this money include
a foray into news-programming, and the creation of a broadband-portal that
will leverage Miditech's not inconsiderable library (over 2,000 hours of
programming). Says Niret Alva, President, Miditech: ''The ICICI backing
will help us expand our genre and reach out globally. It is a great
opportunity.'' For the sons of veteran politico Margaret Alva, not
following in her footsteps has definitely proved to be the right choice...
