a byte of me

Location: Seattle, WA. I'm there to find a place to live for my upcoming move.

Situation: Helping my newly married friend buy things from WalMart. He doesn't have a car yet. I'm driving on I-405 south from Bellevue. There's a lot of traffic, especially for a saturday.

Problem: I can't remember which exit to take to get to WalMart. I've been there before, but that was last summer. I remember its in Renton, which is around exit 4, but the surroundings after taking exit 4 dont seem familiar. I would remember if I saw the street the exit leads to.

Solution: Immediately, I think of Goog411. I dial 1-800-GOOG-411. I'm just getting back up on the freeway from exit 4.
"Goog411. Experimental. (pause) Please say the city and state." says the voice on the line.
"Renton, Washington" I say. It recognizes what I said and repeats to confirm.

I'm already loving this.

"Please say the business name or category"
"Walmart", I say. Again it recognizes the name in first try. It comes up in the first result and connects me. I talk to the lady at Wal-Mart and find out they're off of exit 2, thank her and hang up.

I have found out which exit I need to take in such a short time that I have just merged back into the highway from exit 4 and its not even exit 3 yet. Its beautiful. Trust google to take technology and existing way of life to new heights.

For one, The voice recognition on GooG411 is better than any other company's that I've used so far. And I've used it many times already in at least 5 different cities, for different purposes, from locating a car dealership to calling an Indian restaurant. Its recognized names perfectly every time (except that you have to say Indian names in an American accent).

Secondly, they've taken the existing 411 concept, which is expensive and manual and converted it into a free service and automated it. I love it. I only wish the existing 411 services before Google came were not $1.49 per minute. If they were cheaper, like 10¢ a call, I figure more people would have used it. Oh well, Google is here now, to set them straight.

I sincerely hope, for Google and for the humankind, that this service comes out of the experimental stage, here to stay. For those who haven't used it yet, heres a cheat sheet. Go have fun.

Labels: Google

My first listing with Prosper.com didn't fund completely. I waited for seven days, the length of the duration of the listing, and watched the bids pile in one by one. Ultimately, I was able to raise 32% of my asking loan amount of $6500. But the interest rate I had offered was not enough. In fact within hours of posting my listing, I had received emails from at least two experienced prosper group leaders that the rate I was offering for amount I was requesting was too low. I decided to stay on and see what happens for experience sake, anyways. Now I'm planning to offer another listing, this time under a group, for a lesser amount (of $4000) and at a higher rate (of 9%).

I also had my wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. The doctor is good and my teeth were already erupted, so it wasn't too bad. But extracting wisdom teeth hurts the most out of all other teeth. I've been recovering for the past two days. My boss is so nice, he called me today morning and asked me to take today off and recover even though I was planning to go to work. My work this summer, an internship at a local family office, doing venture capital and some buyout due diligence as well as some technical help with their IT is coming along great. I'm getting to learn a lot and meet many new people. I'm also getting to spend some time at UVF.

I started looking at some places in Seattle on craigslist for my upcoming move. I emailed a few people regarding their listings, but haven't received any replies yet. I did receive one from a very paranoid person who wrote back very rudely about not wanting to give out their phone number. The listing didn't mention any pertinent details about the house, even where it was located in general, such as bellevue or renton or so on. There were many other details missing. Instead of writing a list of questions and sending it via email, I asked the person to send me their phone number and also gave them my own in case they preferred to call me so we could discuss more on the phone instead of emailing back and forth. They wrote back saying they will not give a total stranger her phone number. It was totally ridiculous. I had included my full name in my email to them. They could have googled me and known more about me than they were revealing about themselves by giving me their phone number. And I had given them my phone number too. Oh well, there are such super nutcases like that who want to find room mates online, but are even afraid to talk to strangers on the phone. Weird.

Apart from that, I have been reading about Casey Serin recently, the twenty four year old who tried to be a real estate investor and make fast money by flipping properties and the housing slowdown crushed him with a $2M debt load. He has rapidly become the most hated US blogger. I am not one of the haterz, the community of people who have taken on as job to hate him and his mistakes, neither am one of his supporterz, as he likes to call them. I cant decide whether to blame him or not. On one side, what he did is plain stupid. He deserves the blame for it. But on the other hand I pity him as well. Partly maybe because I relate with him and his big ambitions. I have also read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other such books on real estate investing, that he fell for initially. He went deeper by attending the seminars that those authors hold and actually tried to do what they preach. I can see how someone can fall for their strong sales pitch and pressure and feel real estate investing is easy. I felt that myself when I was reading those books. But I didnt go down that alley like he did, maybe because I am less risk averse than him, or less stupid. Who knows, what will happen of him? Right now he is in Australia, maybe hiding from the authorities, although he doesnt say that, but I'm interested in watching what happens.

Labels: Personal

Prosper.com brings forward the concept of peer to per lending on their site where people like you and me can borrow and lend money to other people. Borrowers have to reveal a lot of information regarding their income, expenses (voluntary) to get people to bid on their loan listing. Using the social security number, prosper polls the credit agencies to derive the credit worthiness of the borrowers, ranking them from AA (best) to E and HR (worst). Those borrowing with an AA credit get the lowest rates (usually between 8% to 10%) whereas those with the worst have to pay quite high rates. Lenders bid on loan listings, usually a part of the asking amount, about $200 - $1000 each. Multiple lenders bid on a listing to fill up the entire loan. If the listing is very popular, or low risk, many people bid and thus drive down the rate offered by the borrower so as to gain a piece of the pie.

Its a beautiful concept and I would like to be a part of the p2p lending community. I have created a listing to help me repay my higher interest college debt replacing it with a lower interest loan. My credit history is rated AA, have a pretty decent job that I start from August and my expenses are pretty low compared to my current income (as well as future income from August onwards). I am a pretty low risk investment and am offering 8% interest. I'll make every payment on time and will most likely pay the loan off early. If you'd like to help me out, please head on over to my listing here, sign up with prosper and bid on my loan any amount you feel comfortable investing in me. Thank you for reading and helping me out.

Labels: Peer to Peer Lending, Prosper.com

Has anybody else also noticed the plethora of movies that are releasing or have released this summer that are third of the sequels. Its an amazing coincidence that there are so many of them. Just counting off the top of my head, there are at least six of them.

• Shrek the Third
• Pirates of the Caribbean 3
• Spiderman 3
• Rush Hour 3
• Bourne Ultimatum
• Oceans Thirteen

Then theres also Harry Potter, which is not the third, but the fifth. Its awesome. And these are all series whose first two movies were major hits. I can't wait to watch all of them.

Speaking of which, I watched Ocean's Thirteen yesterday. It was pretty good, better than Ocean's Twelve anyways. But I think Ocean's Eleven trumps the thirteen still. What I like about thirteen is that it isn't lame like the twelfth. Also it is filled with detail so that you can watch it over and over again and deduce more about the plot, just like the eleven. You couldnt do that in the twelfth. Even though there were multiple twists in the story line in Ocean's Twelve, it wasnt filled with detail that gets used later in the movie and you make the 'Ah!' connection when you see it again.

Warning: Spoiler ahead. What I like about eleven better than thirteen is that they sweep clean. At the end of the movie, there is very little incriminating evidence if any. In this one they leave many at the end. George Clooney tells Al Pacino that he can't come after Clooney because "All the guys you know, I know. And they like me better". Well yes, except for the police. Which will come, since you've left so much evidence behind. All that said and done, its still a thoroughly entertaining movie and one I expect to watch again.

Labels: Movies, Ocean's Thirteen

As glamorous as venture capital can get, it is also a very difficult profession. Unlike other professions, where one may need great in-depth technical knowledge in one field like chemical engineering, venture capital is a whole different ball game. You do need solid financial and due diligence skills, but you can get people to do that. We, the associates at my venture fund are the backbone that does that. But as I have risen above in the last few months, led teams, interacted with management at start-ups and partners like other venture capital groups, I am realizing that the whole game is different from the top.

More than any other industry, other than politics probably, venture capital (and private equity) is built on relationships and decision making skills. The entire deal flow in a venture capital fund comes from knowing other people and who knows whom. Thats almost driven by the top management, since they are the one who know many people in the industry that the young start-out employees don't. The top management get the deal from their contacts, make a decision whether to pursue it or not and then pass it on to the associates to start cranking out due diligence on the ones they decide to pursue.

But as I am discovering, that decision to pursue or not, can often be very difficult to make. For two reasons. One, is the fear of making a wrong decision and losing out on the next home run of the century. The second is the decision you have to make when it is associated with short time lines or other pressure.

For the first, the fear of losing out on the next home run, it doesn't really matter what decision you make. If you're good at what you do, you will do reasonably well even if you miss out on the next big run. Have a look at Bessemer Venture Partners' Anti-portfolio. The anti-portfolio is their candid way of admitting that they wrongly passed-on on many of the companies, like HP, Apple, Ebay and Google, that later were huge successes. But they're Bessemer. They're really good at what they do and have done reasonably well for themselves. But you and I, if we do that enough times, we can easily find ourselves on a losing game.

The other is the decisions you have to make under pressure. I just had my first experience on that and I surprizingly found myself between a rock and a hard place. In the end, I made a call and I really hope it was a good decision. Here is some detail without revealing too much. We were working on a deal that was referred to us by a great partner VC firm. We've really enjoyed working with them in the past and respect them too. We were asked to make a decision whether we are sure to move forward on the deal on a very short notice. Given it is summer and that we have to go through two different committees for investment, it is hard for us to make such a decision without polling a few of the various parties involved. Besides, the type of investment that this company would have been was absolutely new to us. So there was some fear regarding that at our fund too. But I have looked at the company before and like it a lot. I believe they have the potential to go out and capture a significant portion of the industry. In the end, I reluctantly made the call to pass-on, even though I didn't want to, to support our partners and to ensure that they don't lose out on the terms they've obtained by trying to squeeze us in. Oh well.

Labels: Private Equity, Venture Capital

The other day, I was discussing Mitt Romney as a president with a friend at UVF and an interesting question came up that I haven't thought about. I live in Utah and most of my friends are Mormon. Romney is also a Mormon. So far, I have not come across a single Utahn who is supporting anybody other than Mitt yet.

Not that I can vote here or anything, but if it counts, I am supporting Mitt Romney too. I am not a Mormon (though a friend from Boston is convinced I have turned into one after living here. He often starts our IM chats by calling me that). I usually lean towards the democrats, but for this election, I really think that Mitt Romney is the best candidate we have so far. I don't care so much about his leanings as much as I care about his experience.

Mitt founded Bain Capital and led it for many years. He came back to Bain & Co (the management consulting company) when it was floundering and in one year turned it around to profitability without cutting any jobs. He led the 2004 Salt Lake Winter Olympics to profitability that no other Olympics in recent times has been able to do at least since 1984. He did a great job as Massachusetts governor as well. Nothing of this is new. But I really think that Mitt will be able to undo some of the mess President Bush has made including turning around the National Budget Deficit.

At this point, my friend was surprised that I care about America's deficit. Being from India, he thought that I would have cared more for Indian interests and wouldnt want the deficit to be turned around into a surplus. I can see some logic in it, but am confused whether that line of thinking truly holds at all? There are multiple questions here. First, Is America's deficit realy better for India's interests? I would argue No but I am sure that a counter argument exists. Also, so far my line of thinking has been to think about whats good for America - in an objective sense. Second question, should foreigners in another country care really about what is good for your own home country in terms of world economics or world politics? Do Americans living in other countries only think about whats best for America with regards to events in the country they are living in? How do other foreigners living in America think?

Labels: America, Mitt Romney, Thoughts