In all the news about the fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic, few outlets pause to remind their audience that pandemics are a byproduct of climate change and will be more prevalent as the planet heats up. Creatures that act as disease-vectors –
Sales & Ad Tech: Destroying One Communication Channel At A Time
Advertising-based businesses are on an unending quest to capture our attention. This means they’re watching what we’re watching, and will do anything to interrupt us. In the process, they destroy the medium. Snail mail: destroyed by junk mail. Telephones: ruined
Why Investors Avoid Cutting-Edge, University-Born Innovation
There’s no doubt that some of our most valuable innovations started in university settings. However, in my experience, many game-changing innovations never make it to market, even if the science supporting them is strong. Here’s what I’ve been seeing. University
Why Tech Startups May Be A Safe Haven For Investments, Even Amidst A Pandemic
Following a 9-year uninterrupted bull run, the stock market faces a major correction caused by COVID-19 prevention measures and panic. With markets falling, is investing in startups sane? Living and working in Hong Kong, I’ve had a front-row seat to
Why We’re Not Leaving Hong Kong Amidst the Wuhan Novel Coronavirus Outbreak
At the time of this writing, the Novel Coronavirus outbreak is still in its early days and could soon become a global pandemic. Its exponential growth continues in China and has now spread to 28 countries. It can be transmitted
Drought: Anticipating A Parched Future
In May, 2019 a close family friend who I’ll call Auntie N (to protect her privacy), was, in her beautiful Connecticut home, deeply distraught. “Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani” (that’s what Wikipedia calls it) had just struck Odisha, India, where her
New Decade, New Domain Name
When I first launched this blog in July 2010 (with a post on the value of a plan), I used my full name because I wanted to control what people saw first when they googled my name. A search for
What Are Unit Economics?
Unit economics are the direct revenues and costs associated with a business on a per-unit basis. The unit economics of a shirt, for a fashion company, for example, relate to the all the costs of making it, the costs of
Notes from Dhaka: Bad Air
Air pollution has now been a daily fact of life in Asia for over 20 years, with a permanent brown-tinted haze doming entire cities and blotting out blue skies and sunshine on most days. My frequent travel to Dhaka gives me
How You Can Build A Smarter Team In 2 Days
Some teams are better at decision-making than others, and groups of smart people are just as capable of making bad decisions as groups of less smart people. But what drives those differences has been a mystery until the relatively recent