Emi Gal » twitter

Sequoia Capital’s founder: We don’t choose people, we choose markets

Emi Gal — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:27:27 +0000

If you look at the fastest growing companies in the world, especially in the technology sector, you can notice one common theme: they’re all riding a trend. Zuck realised that people will want to stay connected with their friends by spending the least amount of time possible, Andrew Mason spotted that people are willing to join other people in order to get massive discounts, Ev & Biz noticed there are a ton of girls who would like to stalk Ashton Kutcher. In theory, it sounds pretty simple.

However, I think trendspotting is incredibly difficult but pays off massively, if you manage to have the right team and the right product at the right time. Don Valentine, the founder of Sequoia Capital makes a similar point in a speech he had at Stanford a few months ago:

We have always focused on the market: the size, the dynamics and the nature of the competition. Because our objective always was to build big companies. If you don’t attack a big market, it’s highly unlikely you’re ever going to build a big company.

We don’t care if people went to school or how smart they are. We are interested in their idea about the market, the magnitude of the problem and what can happen if in fact the combination of Sequoia and the individuals are correct.

We don’t choose people, we choose markets. And once we choose a market, we choose the best product in the market.

I strongly recommend that you watch the entire speech (about 1hr long), when you get a chance:

How I (want to) use Twitter

Emi Gal — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:38:35 +0000

I don’t follow a lot of people on Twitter. That’s because I don’t really like to follow the information flow on Twitter, I just have a look at my @replies from time to time.

Nevertheless, I believe Twitter is a great tool for staying up-to-date with what my contacts are saying, but I want to have it contextualized. For example, if I email Andrei, my CTO, it’d be helpful to see his latest tweet in Gmail, when sending the email. Or, if I want to meet up with Dragos from UberVU, I want to see his latest few tweets in my BlackBerry Address Book, ’cause maybe he’s back in Romania for a few days.

You get the drill. It’s all about real-time, contextual, information flow. IMHO.

Look mom, I’m famous :)

Emi Gal — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:39:55 +0000

So famous that someone even bothered to create a fake facebook account for me. And a hi5 account. And I bet the twitter/netlog/myspace accounts are on their way.

Even more, the lad’s even commenting and adding friends with that account, so he’s into some serious business .

: fake emi gal

Thanks dude, you’ve made my day!