The Week in Mumbai

While California froze (oh, my precious grapefruit!), I was enjoying the balmy Hawaiian weather in Mumbai, India all week. Our office there continues to fund profitable, high-growth, non-tech, infrastructure companies. To illustrate the need for capital in India, take a look at the materials used in the scaffolding deployed to renovate our office building there.


Driving around in India is not for tourists. With narrow, chaotic streets, left-side-of-the-street driving, and low local labor rates, tourists inevitably hire full-time drivers (they come free with the car rentals). Attached left is the view through the front windshield of my car; as you can see the driver must jostle our way through the crowd of people, bicycles, scooters, horses, dogs--rarely with the aid of traffic lights. Light collissions are common and hardly noticed. But still I had to ask my driver on the highway to please stop using the oncoming lane of traffic (which routinely forced approaching vehicles to veer out of the way). In the image on the right, he is stopped and given a 100-rupee traffic ticket, but I couldn't tell why.

The highlight of my week was meeting Rajesh Jain, founder of India World (the high-value acquisition that served as poster child of India's internet bubble). Rajesh is the Bill Gross of India, prolifically founding, funding or running startup after startup (get a sense for his metabolism and creativity on his blog). Among his more ambitious projects are a thin client service that promises to deliver India's households with computer, bandwidth and software for $10 per month.

The lowlight of the week was missing Christopher Moore sign his latest novel You Suck at Kepler's on Wednesday. I tried to console myself by visiting a book fair in Mumbai, but the books were all religious, except the few covering astrology, numerology, and the international Jewish conspiracy. So Chini Krishnan, the Mumbai native who runs Vimo (photographed above left of Rajesh), salvaged my day by guiding me through the backstreets to Strand Book Store (it's not easy to find anything there--there are no street signs). Strand is the Kepler's of India, selling real books--even God Delusion!--for 56 years (the man who checked out my purchases had worked there for most of them). Strand is so popular that it expanded to its current footprint, including the upstairs, of 500 square feet--the envy of the neighborhood! I hadn't intend to buy much, but somehow Strand sells at roughly 20% of US prices, so I filled my suitcases. (Sorry, Clark.)

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My 7-Year-Old Critical Thinker (the link is fixed)

From my talk at TED...

Cheating Death

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. --Woody Allen

As a defense mechanism against age, I've started taking the red wine extract resveratrol, which studies increasingly point to as a fountain of youth, virility, and athletic prowess in laboratory mice. (My supplement regimen should at least impress Minnie.). I owe my new-found immortality to Sirtris, the Bessemer-funded startup that's advancing its highly concentrated formulation of resveratrol through FDA trials.

Stem cell therapy is also touted for cheating death, as I was reminded today by Alan Colman (before he rushed off to the Clapton concert). Dr. Colman had made Dolly the cloned sheep--the first one ever outside Sand Hill Road. I met the former Oxford professor in Singapore, whose government (America, try to imagine this) seems to actually encourage scientific research (image left: Singapore's Biopolis). Dr. Colman's current startup develops stem cells that can turn into heart muscle for heart attack victims, or insulin-producing cells for diabetics.

If all that fails, I have another strategy for staying the same age forever: yesterday would have been my birthday, had I not skipped the date altogether by crossing the international date line. Hah!

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Scientific American: Airborne Baloney

I am very excited to say that the January issue of Scientific American has published a feature article by the Skeptic columnist Michael Shermer about my blog post debunking Airborne, the cold remedy fad.

Though the press has generously and frequently covered my venture capital activities, this is the one media appearance that I will save to show my children. I am proud to set an example for them one doesn't need a doctorate to be a scientist--anyone can think critically to draw legitimate conclusions about the world around us.

UPDATE: This Scientific American article has since been submitted as evidence in federal court that science does not support the claims of Airborne, and that the company has engaged in deceptiv marketing. As a result Airborne lost a $23 million verdict payable to its consumers, and $7 milion inpenalties levied by the FTC.  And people ask me why I blog!! 

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Festival of Light Spending

Happy Hanukah! Today is the 5th of 8 days in which Jews commemorate the miracle that happened 2,172 years ago in Jerusalem: after ejecting the armies of the Hellenistic Syrian King Antich IV, the Hasmonean Macabees found only a day's supply of oil in the Temple Menorah, but the oil lasted for 8 days.

An act of God? (If so you'd think His Omnipotence would stretch our oil supply now that we REALLY need it.) More likely, it's a great example of early day entrepeneurship, because Judah Macabee was nothing if not a scrappy entrepeneur. He recruited a great team and executed more nimbly than the much larger, incumbent Syrian army. With only a day's supply of oil, he likely teased that fire, closed the Temple doors to mitigate wind and oxygen levels, and restricted the flame to peak hours of animal sacrifice. Judah, inventor of the low burn rate, knew better than anyone how to Get Big Cheap!

I anticipate a flood of comments and emails accusing me of hypocrisy as I celebrate Hanukah while rejecting faith. But you don't have to believe in mythological deities to participate in cultural events or reflect on history. For descendents of the Judean nation, Hanukah is as good an excuse as any for families to gather, eat, sing, play games and exchange presents. My rebbe Richard Dawkins agrees--when I asked him his opinion of Jewish cultural traditions, he gave me his enthusiastic "blessing" to celebrate them with as much joy as July 4th or Thanksgiving.

Technorati Tags: hanukah atheism entrepreneurship burn+rate
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Borat Introduces Flock

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Bubble Memory

100% actual conversation (except the name is changed) from late 1998, when investment banks--like other go-go firms in the dot-com ecosystem--were starved for talent:

CHRISTINE (my assistant): I have Gilligan Weiner from Robertson Stephens on the line. Are you available?

[I don't know this Weiner but these days a call from Robertson is usually good news. Maybe he's representing an acquiror?]

ME: Okay, I'll take it.... Hello, this is David.

GILLIGAN: Hi, this is Gilligan Weiner from Robertson Stephens, and I'm calling you because you're on the board of Flycast.

ME: Yes?

GILLIGAN: I need to know the company's revenues, and the valuation of the last round.

[is his voice cracking? has he even reached puberty yet?]

ME: I see. Flycast is a private company, and so we don't publish financial information. Why are you asking?

GILLIGAN: I'm doing research and I really need the revenues and valuation for Flycast.

[compelling!]

ME: Well, Flycast is a private company, and so we don't disclose that information.

GILLIGAN: Oh... [awkward silence]

ME: You know, I'd be happy to send you all the financials for Flycast if you would just fax me your tax returns first.

GILLIGAN: Umm, what's your fax number?

[I really swear to--well, whomever atheists swear to--that this is true.]

ME: 650-853-7001.

GILLIGAN: Do you want my tax returns or the firm's?

ME: I really need both.

GILLIGAN: Um, okay, I'll get back to you.

ME: Great, look forward to it.

GILLIGAN: Thank you, Bye.

ME: Bye.

I'd have loved to hear the conversation that ensued, as Gilligan asked the Skipper for a copy of the firm's tax returns to send me.

Technorati Tag: bubble
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