Om Malik: Pioneering Blogs (Part 1)

Om Malik is a successful writer, reporter and has been entrepreneurial in many ways. He is also one of the pioneers of the blogging phenomena with GigaOm. Om has been a close friend of mine for many years, and was responsible for getting me into blogging. Today, he is one of first bloggers, along with

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Story of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Raj Vaswani (Part 9)

While Raj did not make much effort in the way of formally analyzing his acceptance of an EIR position, he does share with us what his criteria should have been. In essence, we are benefiting from a “hindsight is 20/20”. Raj goes into detail regarding what he feels is important in an EIR arrangement. SM:

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Silk Road 2.0

By Danny Cohen, Guest Author Globalization. International expansion. China & India. These are the big buzz words of 2007, and it seems that the Asian trend is only growing stronger. As the US market matures, many of the local VCs and entrepreneurs are looking for China as the next big thing, and mostly – the

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Story of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Raj Vaswani (Part 8)

EIR programs are all different, and with Foundation Raj was able to come in based on the recommendation of a personal acquaintance. Accordingly, there was not much in the way of a formalized agreement, rather it was a working arrangement which benefited all parties. SM: What were the formal vs. informal parts of the EIR

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Story of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Raj Vaswani (Part 7)

Raj accepted an EIR position with Foundation Capital. Such arrangements typically have the EIRs reviewing business plans and providing their own technical expertise to any of the VC’s portfolio companies, while incubating a new startup of their own. Below, he explains some of the general terms for being an EIR, including his role with Foundation.

Story of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Raj Vaswani (Part 6)

Raj now provides some insight on his time with Epinions, and then sets up the transition into the Entrepreneur-in-Residence program. We begin discussing the EIR program at a high level to prepare for more specific and detailed discussions. SM: Was the move to Epinions the right move for you? RV: With Epinions I felt that

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Story of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Raj Vaswani (Part 5)

Here Raj details some of his lessons learned with @Home, and then discusses his transition to Epinions.com. SM: How long did you work with @Home? RV: Well, about 3.5 years into my time with @Home, it was “grown” rather than “rapidly growing”. The merger with Excite was complete, and the 30-person company I’d joined now

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Story of an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Raj Vaswani (Part 4)

Like many PhD students, Raj left prior to completing the degree because he found a passion to pursue. In this case, that was the Internet. His first venture was with @Home, the company striving to bring hi-speed broadband internet access to residential areas. Raj details some of that experience, including some key differences between the

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