In life — work, home, relationships of all kinds — there are people who “brung ya to the dance.” Sometimes we forget them, and this is a mistake. It is essential to remember them, both because gratitude is a noble emotion and so you also remember to pass it on.

Society, Tech and VCRamanan RaghavendranFebruary 15, 2022BehaviorComment

In Our Hands: How We Got Here and How We Change

My own behavior has changed over the last two years in the course of Amasia’s research into sustainability and climate change. For this new year of 2021, I am sharing a more personal manifesto.

Climate, Tech and VC, SocietyRamanan RaghavendranJanuary 6, 2021Amasia Foundations, Behavior Comment

The Importance of Cover Letters

Our recruiting process isn’t an automated one. We read every application. Most candidates have a strong resume and transcript. What often sets candidates apart is the cover letter. So here are three Dos and three Don’ts, very much of in the spirit of being helpful.

Tech and VCRamanan RaghavendranNovember 23, 2020FellowsComment

“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”

It's been an extraordinary few days in Silicon Valley — a high-profile VC firm has been “blasted off the earth” and the industry is reacting in unusually visible ways.

The reactions have varied from the half-assed apology to the pre-emptive apology to the we-took-care-of-it apology to the high-minded-appeal-to-principles apology to the apology-of-the-day apology, from prominent VC firms (Lightspeed, Lowercase, 500Startups, Greylock and Binary respectively). Sadly all immediately put one in mind of Captain Renault in *Casablanca*.

Tech and VCRamanan RaghavendranJune 30, 2017Comment

Satya Nadella: Only In America?

The appointment of Satya Nadella as CEO of Microsoft has been greeted with joy within the Indian American community and in his native country. I find Nadella's story, however, not especially illustrative of the "success" of Indians in America; there are plenty of prior examples, and there will be others in the future, as there have been for immigrant communities from the Jews to the Irish. That part of the story is a non-story.

A better illustration of the assimilation of Indian Americans may be their pro rata participation in major large-scale white collar crimes, as so brilliantly outlined by my Penn classmate, Anita Raghavan. Thereby showing that Indian Americans are just as good or bad as the rest of America -- what could be more illustrative of assimilation than that?

Tech and VCRamanan RaghavendranFebruary 18, 2014Comment