Career choices - startup or large company?
It’s better to work for a company with a good brand name, because “if you don’t learn how to get things done, at least you learn how not to get things done.” Also, having a brand name on your resume builds a good track record when starting a company. It’s important to “raise VC funding from a position of strength,” and that is what a good track record provides. References from well-known companies, especially, have a lot of credibility.

On recruiting for startups
It’s difficult recruiting for startups. Gokul mentioned that the best people for startups are those who are willing to sacrifice cash for equity. To circumvent the problem, oursourcing is a good alternative. Though the cost of outsourcing is higher, it is offset by less time spent on managing and not having to deal with HR issues. It’s also the fastest way to get a product to market.

Speed is a vital issue. For Gokul, market research is not as important as identifying a problem and then quickly releasing a private beta to select users. Rapid iteration of the product based on feedback is a great way to get the product right.

The importance of public relations and brand-building.
Public relations are vital to the success of many great companies, including Apple and Google. In essence, it’s free advertising. Google’s various products are also launched with brand-building in mind.
On Google’s venture into offline advertising - is it a good move?
Effective advertising is based on targetting and measurement. While it is harder to target and measure in terms of traditional media, the use of digital TV is making it easier to target TV ads through set top boxes.

Radio and print is more difficult to measure and target due to the lack of interaction. However, using recording apparatus, it’s still possible to measure the reach of radio advertisements, which leads to better measurements.

Google wants to develop the tools that ad agencies use to measure ad effectiveness. As with Google Analytics which is used to make sense of traffic data to websites, similar tools can be made available to people to make sense of the data from their advertisements.

At the same time, there is still a huge opportunity for online advertising. A majority of search traffic from Google comes from outside the US.

Startup opportunity: For markets outside the US, ad networks can be built to represent international traffic on US sites. For example, an ad network in Asia can cut a deal with US-based websites to place ads for traffic coming for Asia.

What is the mindset to work at a startup?
For Gokul, it is much more important to prioritize and decide about what adds the most value. That requires a huge shift in mindset. For example, instead of having several meetings a week, Gokul cuts it down to a meeting every week instead. His advice, is to treat it like a marathon instead of a sprint - don’t burn out trying to do too much in too short a time.

Gokul also made the difference between getting things done, and doing things. At a startup with a limited budget, you have to do things yourself to get things done.

At the same time, there needs to be a process where you need to build trust with investors. Most importantly, make sure there is transparency so that if there is a change in direction for the company, the investors are fully prepared for the transition.

Social networks and advertising
Social networks have been a huge driver for time spent online, but advertising on social networks is a challenge because it is not intent-driven like search is. Creative e-commerce-focused applications will drive monetization.

On why Sun is giving away it’s software as open source

There are five reasons why making Sun’s software open source drives hardware sales, which is Sun’s core business

1. Zero barrier to entry for developers. Developers can create software for Solaris easily, which adds to the functionality and robustness of the OS.
2. Interoperability. Open source allows other software to run on Sun’s systems. For example, open source standards allows Microsoft’s .NET frameworks to be run on Sun’s servers. The increased flexibility offered by Sun’s hardware and open source software improves Sun’s product offering compared to proprietary software standards.
3. Lower R&D costs. Open sourcing it’s code allows Sun to save on software development R&D costs. Java ME, which is licensed under the GPL, would have cost Sun $2 billion to develop in house.
4. Security. Open sourcing allows for a more robust and secure code base for Sun’s software.
5. Eliminates barriers of exit for users. By using open sourcing Sun’s code, it’s easier for users to move from other platforms to SAlso, startups seldom have huge IT budgets, and using Sun’s enterprise hardware allows startups to reduce IT costs dramatically. As a result, Sun’s hardware is more cost effective for startups, which helps drive hardware sales.

With the Internet allowing information to be accessed almost anywhere in the world, the local state is increasing dangerous: the network IS the computer. And opensourcing allows Sun to tap into that trend.

On Leadership
“To grow as fast as we did, we were making mistakes left and right.”

There should always be a balance between grey hair and black hair in a startup, because experienced people are sometimes blindsided by past experiences, and make bad strategic decisions.

Decisive execution, especially when you hire people to make decisions. That means not being afraid to let people go if they are not making good decisions for the company. Never be afraid to ask prima donnas to leave the company, because “people will thank you for it.”

When bad things happen, who takes the blame for it? The key is to be open, transparent and courageous. That means owning up to mistakes, and doing things to make them right.

Create an environment where people feel trusted. People should be able to work with integrity, and not be afraid of telling the truth.

Dealing with people with a velvet glove is important. “Anger no one”, and make friends instead of enemies. That means being gentle with people whom you have to let go. When dealing with errant employees and executives, it’s important to be firm but fair. It’s better to move them to another position in the company and give them a second chance if they want to stay.

On future computing trends
Computers will be increasingly replaced by access devices. With computers becoming increasingly networked and users becoming more mobile, there will be less need for full computers. Instead, mobile computing platforms will become more prevalent.

There is no privacy. Get over it. At the same time, you can be anonymous.

Don’t bet against bandwidth. Future applications will require more bandwidth, and infrastructure will support that.

On character and Life’s most important decisions
Stay grounded. Only by doing so, you can keep your success and failures in perspective. If you allow your ego to take control, you can make some really bad mistakes.

Marriage - “if you’re going to get married, you may as well be in love.” When people get married, they keep forgetting that nothing is perfect. A good marriage is when you can see past the flaws and love the other person.

The most important character traits of a successful person is Courage to do the right things, Intelligence and Smartness, Integrity, and Fairness. Also, you must be physically capable to do your work well.

On how to become a leader
Ask yourself, “why do you like working with someone?”, then distill the answers. Most importantly, trust your gut.

Into our humble NOC office, in walk a seasoned and accomplished VC, the Vish Mishra  to meet up with young aspiring entreprenuers. From the start of the session, all our nervousness melted away because Vish was all fired up to share the perils and joys of starting a venture.  So here began our practical lessons:

1) Venture capital activity is highest in USA concentrating in the Silicon Valley. Here are the statistics:

$28 billion in US, $5 billion in Europe, $1 billion in India, $2 billion in Israel

This is a measure of entrepreneurial activities.

2) Characteristics of an entrepreneur:

- risk taking,  wants to serve 1 set of customers very well, think global, able to build a team with complementary sets of skills

3) Some advice to succeed:

- Be passionate about an industry and do something really, really well - you need to be a deep domain expert to build your credibility as a young entrepreneur. Talk to experts and many customers of the pain that you are solving.

- Pick the  best people who know more than you do

- Big pain that is not served well = Big idea

- Bringn mentors or lawyers when you pitch

4) Before you marry with a VC, make sure you proof that there is a pain. Then write the story (business plan) then the only a VC will value your business.

5) Stay where your customers are. If they are in China, go to China.

6) It doesn’t really matter if you have low valuation, the key is to build your business. Higher valuation is a result of a good business executed. He repeated “Build your business”.

7) Common mistakes:

- Founders overbelieve their value proposition. Is the problem real?

- Ppl buy solutions, not technology. So focus on making a solution, not just a long list of useless specs of a product.

- Share.

- Getting the wrong people. Be honest and upright and you will attract similar people.

To this inspiring man, thank you .