Category

Silicon Valley

Category

1988 Started with the stock marked still depressed, but off the bottoms it had hit in the year before.

For Excelan, the year started with an internal scandal. Our CEO was going through a rough patch in his marriage and was in the process of divorcing his wife. He got involved with one of the female directors of sales. The company was riven with rumors, but he privately assured me that there was nothing to those rumors. I received some pretty explicit photos in the mail, to this day I don’t know who sent them.

1995 was a watershed year for me. I seamlessly transitioned from the corporate life, to the life of a free spirited angel investor. Also, 1995 was the year of the Internet. Netscape went public that year.

By the year 2000, having an Indian boss in Silicon valley was finally seen as a normal thing. At Excelan in 1985, I used to joke about the world turning upside down when an Indian had become a chief and all the chiefs were Indians!

I had this cover etched for posterity.

upsidemagazine