CEO, Entrepreneurship

Remember our discussion on how important timing is for funding? Here is an invaluable example.

In our Entrepreneurship class, we discussed how long one can wait to obtain funding and the factors influencing the timing. In the following piece, a founder is discussing how his decision not to prioritize funding cost him heavily. Please read the part about what to and what not to outsource especially. Click on the image below. As usual please send your comments to my Stanford email ID.

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Career Management, CEO

Make hay when it rains! Companies that save cash for a rainy day can. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has the cash.

Remember in the CEO-2030 class I discussed how companies that save cash for a rainy day can make go bargain hunting? I also discussed why ‘resource allocation and deployment’ must be taught as an elective. Here is an example of how cash comes handy. Click on the URL below.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald’s after the coronavirus sell-off

Career Management, CEO, Private Equity

M & A galore in the horizon? PE funds have been hoarding cash and waiting for this moment!

Private Equity firms have more than 1$ Trillion in cash! This could be the beginning of a once in a lifetime investment opportunity for those in waiting. Remember the discussion in the CEO-2030 class how the 2007 financial crisis opened up opportunities for acquistions and thus a spike in demand for new CEOs? CNBC had an intetresting article on this topic. Please click the image below. Should companies take PE’s money or not? Do they even have an option? What if the PE firms go hostile? I’m interested in what you have to say on this.

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CEO, Private Equity

Our discussion on share buyback in the CEO-2030 and PE classes – Timely articles in Bloomberg and CNN

These articles in Bloomberg and CNN discuss how the airlines in the US spent their free cash flow to buy back their shares. It raises so many points we discussed in the class. But, did the money really disappear? Where did all the money go? CNN reports “The Big Four Airlines, according to Baldwin’s office, spent $42.5 billion on buybacks between 2014 and 2019. That nearly matches $50 billion the industry is now asking for”. What a coicidence! I Would like to hear from those who disagreed with me. Click on the images below.

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Fintech, Machine Learning, R programming, Tech

IIM Fintech Lecture – Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore

In this course I plan to cover items 1 through 5. I’m flexible with the level of participation from students in programming exercises in step 5 (ML). Depending on backgrounds and goals, students may choose not to program (why learn programming if you can hire a developer for 10$/Hr?) or actively program in R and/or Python.

0) How much ‘Fin’ and how much ‘Tech’?

1) How banks’ reluctance to innovate/adopt led to Fintech. Banks! You can’t bank on them.

2) The ultra-personalisation of financial services through technology – the driver behind Fintech

3) Case Studies – Peer-to-peer lending, Crypto-currencies, Robo-advisers, online-only digital banks

4) My Money Karma

5) Machine Learning using R (or Python)

Ram Subramaniam Stanford
CEO

Silicon Valley Investors Call Summit to Disrupt IPO Business – Bloomberg

Wall street’s stronghold on IPO market is being questioned finally! I have been writing for years about how Wall street’s monopoly is not good for both the listing companies and investors. Looks like Wework’s IPO fiasco is waking up VC firms to consider alternatives.

“Powerful figures are gathering 2,500 miles from Wall Street to redesign one of its oldest and most lucrative businesses — but few from the industry will have a seat at the table. Attendees plan to discuss alternative strategies including direct listings, which replace financial underwriters with cutting-edge computer code.”

Read the Bloomberg article below.

Silicon Valley Investors Call Summit to Disrupt IPO Business

Career Management, Entrepreneurship, Machine Learning, Tech

The 10 most in-demand skills of 2019, according to LinkedIn

I don’t like it, but the four of the 6 top skills required are IT skills! Please read on. Analytical reasoning is not exclusive to IT and I haven’t considered it as an IT only skill! Others are.

1) Cloud Computing
2) Artificial Intelligence
3) Analytical Reasoning
4) People Management
5) UX Design
6) Mobile Application Development

Click the URL and read on……

The 10 most in-demand skills of 2019, according to LinkedIn

Ram Subramaniam Stanford
Entrepreneurship, Tech

IT for Startup Ventures – IIM Rohtak

Hi all,

You will find the slide deck I used in the class in this blog. I know the class was short in duration and one core issue everyone wanted to discuss was finding a tech co-founder. While this is not easy, it’s not impossible. This requires efforts from your side to meet people outside your network and establish connections. Over time you will meet tech experts who you can trust. But you need to be relentless.

Click Here to Download Slides

Ram Subramaniam Stanford