Every once in a while, I have an "aha" moment where I'm blown away by an unsuspected use or combination of technologies. Prior to yesterday, the last such moment was when I heard my son shouting in French while playing alone in his room on a
Strategy
Let's say you're not feeling well, so you visit the Doctor. You walk into her office and she says, "Hi, it's great to see you again. I'm going to start you on 125 mcg of Synthroid." You say, "What?
BI
I suppose it's not surprising that on the journey to find my ideal next gig that I've seen a lot of next-generation business intelligence (BI) companies. Because I've thus had the chance to immerse myself in the BI startup world, I thought I&
Since I'm on the board of Aster Data I will refrain from editorial on this announcement and simply say congratulations to Teradata on buying a great company and congratulations to Aster Data, its founders Mayank Bawa, Tasso Argyros, and George Candea, its investors, and its employees on what
Silicon Valley
While I was reading this story in the Mercury News about President Obama's dinner yesterday with a number of Silicon Valley tech titans, an odd thought occurred to me: Boy, I'd hate to make the seating chart for that dinner! How do you prioritize Larry Ellison,
Management
While I know that reading the newspaper -- with high unemployment, record budget deficits, and drastic spending cuts -- might make you want to go back to bed in the morning, from my experience there is plenty of positive excitement happening in Silicon Valley right now. Venture capital (VC) is the engine
Strategy
HP today announced that they will acquire data warehouse and analytics platform provider Vertica of Billerica, MA. Cowen and Company estimated the price at 5x revenues, estimating that Vertica did $40M in 2010 revenues, suggesting a valuation of $200M which I find low. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised
Boards
I remember during my first year at Cal we’d sometimes see a local band, Psycotic Pineapple [sic], who performed a song entitled “The Devil has Work for Idle Hands.” Every time they sang the chorus, audience members would hold their arms above their heads and dangle their crossed hands
Marketing
I stumbled into this press release during my morning reading (ParAccel Triples Revenue, Doubles Customers and Appoints New Executive Team in 2010) and felt an overwhelming and immediate need to use it as an educational example in public relations (PR). CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ParAccel, Inc., provider of the world’
SaaS
I had breakfast the other day with a software entrepreneur. When I asked if his company was on a subscription or perpetual model he said: “we should kill the guy who invented the perpetual license -- I’m on the perpetual money model, subscription all the way.” Having worked largely in
After six great years, I have resigned my position as CEO of MarkLogic Corp. I can say that the parting is amicable and the board and I have been working for several months to ensure a smooth transition because we have a shared interest in the company’s continued success
Strategy
One thing they drill into your head in business school is how to make everything a quadrant. While I don't know for sure if it started with the famous BCG matrix -- which groups business into dogs, cash cows, stars, and question-marks -- I'd bet that the
