Archive for the ‘Experiences’ Category
Predictions for 2017: Driverless Car, Housing-as-a-service, and more
In 1917, the Model T was doing so well that Ford decided to stop all advertising. For the next 6 years, they didn’t do a dime of marketing and didn’t need to: over half of all cars in the world were Fords.
100 years later, the next major automotive technology seems ready for prime time: the driverless car. As do some others innovations, like new housing models. Those, and more predictions, below:
- The driverless car product of Tesla, Uber, Apple, and traditional car manufacturers will hit the roads, and not just in a test capacity. They will start to get licensed by state and federal governments, and countries around the world will jockey to make their roads more welcoming so they can get the technology sooner. New business models will come up around car ownership, such as time-share like models for driverless cars. Insurance companies will fight to claim ownership of this market, as well as figure out exactly who is liable in the result of an accident (the car owner, the software, the hardware, the licensing authority, or someone else). Even property prices will start increasing in suburbs again, as people envision a more productive commute thanks to the driverless car.
- As uncertainty in the stability of the west grows, Africa’s rise will accelerate. More companies will get funded in Nigeria, Kenya, and other markets like Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Africa will see more startup activity and funding than ever before. Asia will continue to be hot, as China & India continue to see tremendous funding. The exceptions will be Indonesia (where the Christian governor of Jakarta was recently charged with blasphemy) and the Philippines (where the new President has encouraged vigilante justice), where government turmoil will take time to resolve and slow investment.
- The notion of housing-as-a-service will become real, thanks to companies like StayAwhile, Common, Roam, and WeWork. As millennials strive for mobility and flexibility, having a monthly subscription with the ability to live anywhere, instead of locking into 12 month leases, will start becoming a trend. The ultimate question will be, “where do I keep my stuff?”
The Year of the Monkey
“You can tell the people of the need to struggle, but when the powerless start to see that they really can make a difference, nothing can quench the fire.” – Leymah Gbowee
What a curious year. Tomorrow, I’ll give my predictions for 2017, but for now, I’ll reminisce on my lowlights and highlights, with their applicable learnings.
2016 Lowlights
- The passing of NEA General Partner Harry Weller. He was one of my first mentors when I joined NEA in 2012, and his advice on venture capital (and life) is one of my guiding principles: “The goal in our business isn’t to be liked, it’s to be respected.” To him, that meant prioritizing, and making, hard decisions, even though they may not be easy to swallow.
- The questioning of our values. The questioning of what makes America, America. I thought we were a place whose fundament tenet can be summed up by “treat thy neighbor as thyself”. A place where justice, equality, and liberty prevail. But in a political season marked by brutality and disparagement, those ideals may not be as sacred as I had hoped. And, unfortunately, this message seemed to have resonated globally.
2016 Highlights
- President Obama’s historic Cuba trip, the first by a sitting US President since 1928, and being a part of the delegation. Since then, direct flights have now started on most commercial airlines between Houston, Newark, Miami, and other cities to Havana and elsewhere in Cuba. It isn’t a felony to spend US dollars, joint medical research partnership are beginning, bank accounts can be opened by certain Americans, Fidel Castro is dead, and we can now import Cuban cigars freely. And to think that just 9 months ago, none of this had happened. Change came, and it came quickly.
- Visiting Georgia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam to help promote job creation and innovation policy. Each country faces a radically different challenge: Russian influence and aggression (Georgia), IMF bailout and recently coming out of a civil war (Sri Lanka), and a communist government (Vietnam). But each country is thriving and is eager to be a beacon for entrepreneurship, with the priority coming from the top. It will be the difference between their future livelihood and descending into chaos, and I am optimistic on all three.
- Getting to sit for 15 minutes with Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist who led movements that helped end the Second Liberian Civil War. She’s rambunctious, motherly, and fiercely brilliant. And although she has 10 kids of her own, she somehow adopted me as her 11th in those 15 minutes. Auntie Leymah is the embodiment of a modern Gandhi, and in the depths of darkness she was able to prevail.
Looking back on 2016, I’m disheartened, invigorated, and inspired–all at the same time. And looking forward to 2017, I’m ready to crow. Bring on the rooster.
A 2 month wrap
The past two months have been special. Each experience could be the subject of a post, but I’ll attempt to capture my learnings (or lack of) succinctly from the 3 highlights:
- I spent a week in Israel and then a day in the West Bank meeting entrepreneurs. Never before have I heard two sides of an argument and felt so equally compelled by emotion, logic, and passion. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are stunning, and Ramallah could not be more different despite being so close. The longer I stayed, the more I realized how little I knew about one of the most complex issues globally. Religion has extraordinary power to unite. It also has extraordinary power to divide.
- I left Cuba deeply honored to be part of such a historic trip, but with a heavy heart. The hospitality, warmth, and drive of the Cuban people made me fall in love with our neighbors. The locals, for the most part, embrace America. But entrenched interests (i.e. the Communist Party) don’t. The country is behind (there are only a handful of wifi hotspots in the whole country, doctors make less than a $1/day…), but the people are looking forward. I hope change is coming.
- I sat at the dinner table of President Jimmy Carter last night at the We Are Family Foundation Gala, my first time ever dining at the same table as an American President. We talked about his health, the issue he is most passionate about (eradicating Guinea worm – he is close), and his mentee (and my hero) Mattie Stepanek. He didn’t just inspire me with his words, but also his energy. At 91, he has a vibrancy for life and a zest for change that is invigorating. His legacy will live on far longer than him.
“We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.” – President Jimmy Carter
The Forgotten Neighbor
It is perhaps the greatest honor of my professional career to be embarking on my current trip. Less than 2 weeks ago, I was invited by the White House to attend a series of events in Cuba. It is the first trip by a sitting US President since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
I will be leading a roundtable Monday with Cuban entrepreneurs, all of whom are hungry to access investments from a country that has blocked them off since the embargo signed by JFK. They have asked me to speak on accessing capital and the importance of entrepreneurship for Cuba, but I’m pretty sure they already know that the companies they create will have an impact not just on the future of their families, but on the future of their country.
With every passing day as a venture capitalist, my awe, respect, and appreciation for entrepreneurs grows. Often everything is against them: incumbents, families, capital, employees and, in some cases, governments. In fact, Snapdeal, the first investment of my VC career, was founded by entrepreneurs who wanted to stay in America but we denied them a visa. Those who proceed, perspire, and ultimately prevail should be celebrated. What they create can, in some cases, touch more lives than any government.
Thanks to my partners at New Enterprise Associates who come to work every day trying to fight the status quo to make the world just a little bit better. And most importantly, thanks to all the entrepreneurs I get the privilege of working with for teaching me far more about failure, courage, and tenacity than they will ever know.
I’ll try and impart some of their collective teachings in Havana, but what will likely happen is what always happens: I will learn far more from the Cubans than they will from me.
Lessons from Lagos
“I’m in Lagos, Nigeria. Pulsating energy, chaotic beauty…this country will be the best growth story of the next 20 years.” – my tweet from a few weeks ago.
Lagos is hot, dusty, crowded, chaotic, and corrupt. The black market currency rate for the Nigerian Naira fell from 280:1 to 305:1 in the 5 days I was there (the “official” rate is artificially pegged to the US dollar at 200:1). Petroleum export revenues account for over 90% of total exports, so the fall in oil prices has hurt the country badly.
Nigeria reminds me of India 15 years ago, and likely what China was like 25-30 years ago. The new President, a former militant, is focused on two rampant problems: corruption & Boko Haram. By all accounts, he is succeeding on both fronts. The state governments are trying to diversify the country’s economy, particularly through technology and agriculture. In other words, there is no better time to be an entrepreneur or investor in Africa’s largest country.
Here are my lessons learned from Lagos:
- Corruption is complex. A number of billionaires have private planes not just for convenience, but also because it’s a great way to smuggle money in and out of the country. After all, customs officials just check luggage, not planes.
- Overstating imports is common. Nigeria officially imports more toothpicks than all of Europe. It imports incense sticks equivalent to half of India. Why? It’s impossible for government officials to count the actual number of toothpicks or sticks, so they are deliberately overstated to convert “black money” into white, or to exchange Naira into dollars.
- Starting up a company is expensive. Most office spaces require 2 years rent up front. Broadband costs somewhere between 10-50x as much as America, depending on the speed you want.
- President Buhari is incorruptible, but his wife may be his downfall. She likes shiny objects, the high life, and could be his Achilles heel.
- State education is a joke. One of the Andela fellows received a masters in Computer Science from a Lagos university. And yet, she hadn’t written a single line of code on a computer before becoming an Andela fellow.
I can’t wait to go again. Nigeria will become the 5th largest country in the world by 2030 with an exploding young middle class. In chaos, there is often much opportunity.
Quotes on liberty, Moore’s law, and fitness
Quotes I’ve heard over the last few months that have made me pause and reflect:
- “Rights aren’t granted by the government. They are guaranteed by the government.”
- “With liberty comes vulnerability. That isn’t what makes us weak, it’s what makes us strong.”
- “Rights of the minority can never be voted away by the majority.”
– Edward Snowden via Google Hangout at Summit at Sea
- “Moore’s law is creating Moore’s outlaws”
-Marc Goodman, founder of the Future Crimes Institute, in reference to the proliferation of technology for everyone
- “Nobody can buy fitness. It is the one thing that requires perseverance and dedication.”
-David Petraeus
- “Success breeds complacency. You must keep intellectual humility and act like every deal is your first deal.”
- “Perseverance is genius in disguise.”
-Barry Sternlicht, former CEO of Starwood Hotels
- “Hospitality is when you feel they are on your side.”
-Danny Meyer, CEO Union Square Hospitality Group (Shake Shack, etc)
Andela
“Brilliance is universal. Opportunity is not.” – Jeremy Johnson, CEO of Andela and co-founder of 2U (NASDAQ: TWOU)
When Jeremy Johnson and I sat down for coffee in mid-2014, he posed a set of questions for me:
1) Do we believe that there is genius-level talent equally distributed around the world?
2) Do we believe that much of this talent doesn’t have access to the opportunities we have?
3) Do we believe that this talent can be unleashed for the good of their families, communities, and global economy, irrespective of race, religion, gender, or socioeconomic status?
Yes. To all.
And thus, Andela was born.
Andela is based on a powerful and profoundly simple idea: paying students to learn. What if, instead of students paying tuition, we paid students to learn? What if we started in a massive and complex country like Nigeria—a country with 70% youth unemployment, the ISIS affiliate Boko Haram in the northeast, and rapid population growth that will make it the third most populated country in the world by 2100? And, what if we started with next generation computer science skills—Angular, MongoDB, Node.js—for which there are 3 unfilled jobs for every qualified developer globally?
As a board member, I’ve had a front row seat to what the deeply passionate team (Christina, E, Adam, Ian, etc) has accomplished thus far. We are about to begin training the 11th class of fellows, who each sign up for a 4 year educational roller coaster. We have a <1% admissions rate, making Andela the most selective educational institution in Africa. We recently conducted an all-female bootcamp, expanded to Kenya, have had companies like Microsoft hire fellows, and just closed our Series A financing from Spark Capital. And so much more.
This is just the beginning on our quest to train 100,000 fellows in Africa over the next ten years.
#TIA
This is Andela.
2014
Tragic begging and triumphant benevolence. Paper gains and palpable losses. Newfound empathy and noticeable disdain.
I’ll never forget seeing thousands of Syrian refugees – mothers who fled the Assad regime clutching toddlers – on the streets of Istanbul. They had a small cup or piece of cloth in front of them, asking pedestrians for spare change in Arabic – a language Turks don’t speak.
I’ll never forget the smile on the faces of the BCNA loan officers who had given small business loans to immigrants in all of NYC’s boroughs. These loans allowed these immigrants to realize their American dream through their corner stores, their laundromats, their beauty salons, and their restaurants.
I’ll never forget the phone call from a fellow investor that my first venture capital deal, Snapdeal.com, was about to announce an investment from Softbank at a $2 billion valuation. Or, the text message about Hired.com, a deal that I had seeded at NEA, had closed a round at a $200 million valuation.
I’ll never forget the phone call from a portfolio company CEO that he had run out of money. He was going to have to shut down his business and, in the process, I would lose all my invested capital. He was in tears. He had given it his all, sacrificing everything for his business. He hadn’t even paid himself in the last few months to keep the company afloat – and he was broke. I was, in the next 5 minutes, defeated and encouraging, confused and consoling.
I’ll never forget meeting General David Petraeus 1:1 in his office, and the many emails, discussions, and meals that continue to follow. He’s a man who led our armed forces in Afghanistan and also was the Head of the CIA. He was—and still is—the quintessential American hero: a gentleman, a class act, and a selfless leader. But one mistake caused him to give up his career in government. I think the world of him—and if he can make a mistake like the one he did, then I’m pretty sure anyone can. We’re all just human.
I’ll never forget meeting Lance Armstrong in New York as part of a group dinner. Because the event was off the record, I am not at liberty to share quotes. However, I could tell Lance was noticeably frustrated at the doping scandal; not necessarily because he was upset at the backlash and the titles that were vacated, but because he still feels like he was wronged. He had brought a knife to a gun fight. And if everyone was doing it, then why was he the villain?
What a year 2014 was. 2015, you’re on the clock.
Entitlement
This email exchange, where HBS professor Ben Edelman quibbles over $4 of Chinese food in the pursuit of making a broader point, is disturbing.
Here is my email to the Dean of HBS. Let’s see what happens.
Dean Nohria,
I hope you’re well. I’m a JD/MBA student here.
The article about Ben Edelman was disturbing – all the negative stereotypes about HBS up and down social strata ringing true in one exchange. I hope HBS is looking at disciplinary action related to it. I know I don’t want to associate myself with someone who, in a petty pursuit of integrity, seems to display none himself.
Warmly
Sheel
Cumbre De Negocios Interview
Here is a Spanish-dubbed interview with Gabriela Frias of CNN Dinero on why I’m excited about Mexico’s future position as a leader in Latin America and in technology. The interview is from the Cumbre de Negocios (Mexican Business Summit) in Queretaro, where I spoke this past week.
Innovations & Inspirations 