A millenial trapped in a Gen Xer?

It is not easy to look back and self-assess one's career and progression. It is even harder - in particular in countries/societies that are rather traditional when it comes to what is considered "right" (college degree - job - wife - mortgage - kids = stability) - to take a detour in your career as you grow older. People, in particular those from older generations than mine, tend not to understand the rationale and motivations to abandon the "right" path.

It is obvious to me that such decisions are, to some extent, driven by your personal circumstances. If you have no financial (mortgage, student loans) and/or personal (spouse, partner, kids, sick relatives, etc.) obligations, there is more room to take chances and risks that otherwise you wouldn't. And a bit of common sense is always appreciated, as in any other area.

I can speak about all this based on my own experience. In my mid-late twenties I left a promising career as an attorney at one of the main global law firms to switch paths and to go on the once-in-a-lifetime experience of studying a top full-time MBA and living in New York. Now in my mid-late thirties I have quit a stable, very well paying job at a top firm, to (at least try to) pursue a career in technology/startups, and to even explore launching my own business. It is that time of my life where I need to feel passionate about what I do, experience a feeling of belonging and enjoy doing whatever it is that I do. For me, now is the right time. It is probably the only time in my life so far where my personal circumstances, my aspirations and my degree of risk aversion (whatever that is) are aligned.

Kleiner Perkins' view on millenials

Call it wishful thinking, call it dissatisfaction, call it not settling for just money... or simply call me a millenial in the body of a (late) Generation X guy. From a values standpoint, I feel much closer to the former than to the later (for whom the future is gloomy, according to Bloomberg), maybe I should have been born just a few years later...

Over the last 4 years I have continued following closely, becoming increasingly acquainted and further embracing my passion for technology and the startup scene (as I predicted in a post in 2011, I have for the most part been monitoring all this activity via Twitter instead of by blogging). All this has led me to work hard - reading, networking, interviewing... - to give one last try at making a professional move into such space.

A few months ago I signed an offer to join a great NY startup. All seemed to be ok until US Immigration Services came my way by denying a work visa - it is no relief (it is actually quite sad), though, to see that a lot of people in the startup world are facing similar issues in the U.S.. This is one for the next president to address.

This is the somewhat uncertain situation where I stand now, yet more energized, committed and optimistic than ever before.

Back to blogging 4 years later

Time does indeed fly. It's been 4 years since my last post and a lot of things have happened since then. I have now decided to resume my blogging activity as a new chapter of my life opens up. Big decisions have been made and I am eager to find out what is coming next.

In the coming months, I am counting on being able to use some time to write and it just feels right to get back to this.

Since 2011, even if my professional activity had little to do with it, I have continued following closely, becoming increasingly acquainted and further embracing my passion for technology and the startup scene. As I predicted in a post in 2011, I have for the most part been monitoring all this via Twitter. All this has led me to work hard - reading, networking, interviewing... - to give one last try at making a professional move into this scene.

Everything was flowing nicely until US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) came my way by denying a new work visa. I see this as just a hurdle that has given rise to the somewhat uncertain situation where I stand now. However, I am confident to overcome this; in fact I feel more energized, committed and optimistic than ever before.

New stories coming soon. Stay tuned

Innovation against crisis

The latest unemployment figures in Spain have been disclosed this week. Sadly, there are more than 5 million people, equivalent to more than 21% of the Spanish population with working age. It is not a nightmare, but it could easily be. Not long ago we were talking about the doomed 4 million figure and now it is 5.

Not long ago some stats were also made public concerning the number of yearly working hours in OECD countries. Surprisingly, Spain came third, just trailing Greece and the US. Believe it or not, people - those who actually have a job - work in Spain. But seems like our productivity sucks.

But the main problem in my view is that we are still a country stuck in the past. Though we could be regarded as pioneers in areas such as renewable energies, the burden of the construction sector is still with us, we lack an entrepreneurial culture, many people would rather live from multiple public subsidies rather than from a real job, our GDP investment rate in R&D is poor at the very least... how can a country move away from what has been its core - and does not work any more?

A crisis like the one we are suffering should be the best stimulus for a change but I couldn't be more wrong. I'd expect a real an definitive push from public officials but considering our politicians from all colors - easily the worst in the world, more focused on the next election and on keeping their seats, rather than on bringing a new start to the country - we will need change to come from somewhere else. And if it is not the public sector, it will have to be the private one. And that means our larger and more international corporations and us average Joe's betting on new areas of work, new ideas, new products, new technologies, new ways of doing business... In a nutshell, innovation.

I am not a natural-born pessimistic but I would lie if I said that I see things happening as they should across the board shortly. Nonetheless, I'd love to be wrong.

Del blogging al twitting

Con la entrada en el 2011 mi forma de seguir la actualidad tmt ha variado. Sigo leyendo blogs y estando atento a lo que pasa pero hay una cosa que ha cambiado por encima de las demas, y esa es mi uso de Twitter.

Escribir un blog es duro, sobre todo cuando se tiene una trabajo full time al que se le dedica mucho tiempo todos los dias y que ademas nada tiene que ver con el contenido del blog. Yo soy de los que en mi blog me gusta escribir con calma y detalle, si bien encontrar tiempo para hacerlo con frecuencia es dificil. Y el numero de posts escritos claramente indica que, lo que se dice tiempo, no tengo.

En cambio, Twitter me permite opinar no solo sobre un tema, sino de varios cada dia. Mientras leo la prensa diaria, comiendo, en el aeropuerto... Inmediatez y facilidad para discriminar contenidos de interes.

Conozco Twitter desde hace bastante tiempo y aunque he tenido la cuenta abierta desde hace bastante tiempo, apenas la usaba. Eso ahora ha cambiado. Sigo a gente que me interesa y que tratan habitualmente temas que me interesan, y eso me permite centrarme y encontrar rapidamente lo que quiero. Ademas, como aquello de "los amigos de mis amigos son mis amigos", voy ampliando el universo de gente a la que sigo viendo a quienes siguen aquellos a quienes yo sigo (vaya trabalenguas!).

Si bien de vez en cuando plasmare algunas ideas aqui, tengo la sensacion de que Twitter ha venido para quedarse.

Spanish TV model

At the end of this week CNN+, the tv station partnered by CNN and Spanish media giant Sogecable will be shutting down after 12 years on the Spanish tv grid. The rumor is that it will be replaced by a 24-hour Big Brother show. Bad news, but a reality of the kind of crap that the average Spaniard watches on tv. The big bucks are on gossip.... really sad.

This decision comes in the context of the Telecinco-Cuatro (owned by troubled Sogecable) merger, a large corporate transaction that will be bringing some changes to tv in Spain. Telecinco has now significant decision power at Sogecable and the CNN+ shutdown is one of the first decisions so far.

A little over a year ago the Spanish tv migrated from analogue to digital. Following the analogue blackout, the new TDT model promised lots of new channels and more options for viewers. The reality, after a year, is that we have lots of shitty channels with virtually no content. Plus the big audiences - the ones driving the $$ - keep focusing for the most part on the Spanish networks, which are exactly the same thing they used to be (simply broadcasting in digital now) . The result is that there is no room for niche quality channels such as CNN+, which will say goodby with less that a 1% share.

Spaniards are not used to paying for tv content. Not even for high-quality one. In fact, some years ago the government passed a law declaring some events (mostly sporty ones) "of general interest", making it mandatory for them to be on free-to-air. Likewise, less than 10% of Spanish population is subscribed to some kind of pay-tv package. This prevents relevant international players (ESPN is the most obvious one) to enter the Spanish market.

The current model with just a handful of domestic players is here to stay. I virtually watch no tv. I can find 90% of the content I find relevant online. I could get rid of my tv tomorrow and nothing would change. Maybe some kind of disruption - to come from the online world - is needed to shake things up a little.

The power of regulation

A simple model will tell us that the media space is largely driven by three forces: regulation (what can and cannot be done at some point), consumer (what user want) and technology (how can users' wishes be better served).

Yesterday a couple of big legal events took place:

(1) in Spain, the so-called "Sinde Act" or "Ley Sinde" (named after the current Minister of Culture) was not passed by the Spanish parliament.

This legislation has been referred to as the "anti-piracy" one, since it would have allowed to shut down streaming/downloading sites - let's not forget that Spain tops the world rankings in piracy practices.

The parliament's decision has been widely celebrated among internet users, who regard the act as an instrument to limit users' freedom. On the other hand, content creators complain that their IP rights will continue to be breached and have stated that they will go to European instances to protect their rights.

It is obvious to me that piracy - not freedom - is what is at stake here. Piracy is a damaging problem to the Spanish media industry and measures must be taken to limit it. That being said, it would also be useful to re-regulate the way content creators' (writers, musicians, etc.) are compensated as it is a big "mafia" at present. And if the Spanish media industry acknowledged that it is a new era for content distribution and made a decisive move to become more up-to-date with the current state of play (i.e. changing or modifying traditional business models), that would also be beneficial and quite eye-opening.

(2) in the US, the FCC has voted in favor of net neutrality (subject to future actions by Congress and courts), which is a step towards an open and freer internet for all users, preventing big players from discriminating specific services and controlling "pipes" as they wish.

Regulation matters in any industry but in a fast-changing space such as TMT, its importance becomes exponential.

BBVA a explotar su patrocinio de la NBA

Alla por el mes de septiembre de 2010 BBVA anuncio a bombo y platillo su alianza como banco oficial de la NBA, por la nada desdenable suma de $75 millones por un periodo de 4 anhos.

Cifras las anteriores poco sorprendentes para las maquinas de hacer dinero que son las ligas profesionales americanas y para un experto como David Stern, comisionado de la NBA, acostumbrado a estirar al maximo los dolares para la liga. Tampoco se puede decir que la mareante cifra sea algo insolito en caso de BBVA, que ya es el patrocinador oficial de La Liga.

Parece que ahora es el momento de sacarle jugo al patrocinio y para ello BBVA ha preparado una campanha publicitaria importante - denominada "Team Works" - en colaboracion con la NBA, que ojala resulte tan espectacular como algunas de la liga tipo "where amazing happens".

EE.UU es un mercado clave para BBVA, sobre todo en la zona oeste y suroeste del pais, caracterizado por gran presencia hispana. La minoria hispana se ha convertido en la mayoritaria en EE.UU y se caracteriza por su mayor poder adquisitivo que otras minorias. Es un "demographic" con mucho potencial y de ahi que el intento de BBVA de ganar notoriedad parezca tener sentido.

Dicho esto, el hecho de ir adelante con una campanha tan potente, a nivel nacional, y en un deporte que la poblacion hispana que vive en EE.UU no sigue tan masivamente como el futbol, por ejemplo, me sugiere que pueda haber algun movimiento corporativo por parte de BBVA para ganar presencia en el pais, no solo entre la comunidad latina en todo EE.UU sino a todos los niveles. El tiempo dira...

Telefonica y "su" Tuenti

Esta manana me he desayunado la noticia de alguno de los planes de Telefonica para Tuenti, apenas unos pocos meses de formalizar la adquisicion de la red social.

Parece que esos planes pasan por crear un operador movil virtual (OMV) homonimo que permita a Telefonica atacar a un segmento de poblacion con (generalmente) un menor poder adquisitivo y lanzar un dardo envenenado a otros OMVs nacionales que se han hecho, gracias a sus tarifas mas bajas, un hueco en el mercado nacional.

No uso Tuenti, me ha pillado mayor. Ademas, con tener Facebook, que me cumple la misma funcion, me vale. Pero al final, se trata de que mis amigos estan en FB y no en Tuenti. Si no, seguro que cambiaria...

Tuenti tiene una amplia implantacion en Espana y su usuario tipico es, me atrevo a decir, bastante mas joven que el de Facebook. Al menos, yo lo encuadro dentro de la categoria de teenager. Con una cqpacidad de gasto y usos diferentes (musica, video, internet, sms, etc) al resto de la poblacion. Y es ese target al q Telefonica quiere seducir.

El otro dia pensaba en como sera capaz de sobrevivor Tuenti al imperio FB. Algo parecido a lo que le ocurre a Google con Orkut en Brasil. Por un lado, creo que siempre existira el riesgo de que los usuarios de Tuenti en algun momento en que se hagan mayores se pasen a FB (o dejen de usar las redes sociales) - no veo riesgo en la otra direccion - y, por otro, la posibilidad de que algunos de esos teenagers dejen de considerar Tuenti cool por pertenecer a Telefonica.

Telefonica tiene que ordenhar a la vaca mientras sea suya y la idea del OMV me parece a priori bastanta buena. Crear un servicio movil que se ajuste a las necesidades de un colectivo muy especifico y contribuir a su fidelizacion en el uso continuado xe Tuenti parecen a priori pasos adecuados

Mobile blogging

After more than two months I am back to my blog. For quite some time I had been able to honor my mid-year resolution about recurring blogging... But once again I got trapped in work and lazyness... As I say, more than two months.

I was flying back from Lisbon today after a day of work and I was reading the last issue of Fast Company. Damn, a lot of cool stuff, and once again, I told myself "c'mon, try harder!"

Thus, i am going to try something new: mobile blogging. I have just downloaded the Blogbooster app to my iPhone and it should help me boost my number of blog posts. On a train, at the gym, anywhere... Should work better than just sending emails with an embedded post to my blog email address.

I am using it for the first time to write this post and it seems to work fine. It sync'ed quickly with my Blogger account and let's see if it works fine when I click on "post". And, more importantly, let's see if it helps me be more productive!

RIM officially entering the tablet battle

RIM has made a move and has confirmed today that it will be releasing a new table device to be called Playbook. It is expected to hit the US market in early 2011 and Europe in Q2 2011.

At first sight the design is pretty sleek and well designed. Some of the Playbook's strengths include multitasking (runs on an OS called QNX, which RIM has presented as capable of doing "things that you have never seen before"), front and rear cameras, it will support wifi, 3G, 4G and bluetooth, among others.

The feature that has surprised me the most is its size. It has a 7-inch screen, which makes it significantly smaller than the iPad (9.7" screen), making it lighter and easier to carry around. I just wonder whether this means if the Playbook and the iPad will be competing for the same users. The device is name is pretty good one and does not resonate to the typical "business" theme usually associated with Blackberries; pretty much the opposite.

Another big battle is coming. I have no need yet for a table device - my laptop and iPhone work good enough for me - but I look forward to looking into this further as months go by and new players come to the market.

The Social Network

"The Social Network", David Fincher's movie based on Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook will be coming out in a couple of weeks. There is quite a lot o buzz about it, so I am just posting a pretty thorough article about Zuckerberg published on The New Yorker. It is quite long but worth reading

"The Face of Facebook"

I am also posting a link to the movie trailer (nice song!) and official site. I look forward to watching it.

Baby is home

After two long years struggling with the blackberry storm, the iPhone
4 is finally in my hands. let's see how it works!

Gmail's Priority Inbox

I have just installed Priority Inbox, Gmail's new feature that allows you to have an inbox separate from the actual "Inbox" where you store those emails that you find most important. I have just used it for a couple of hours but it definitely works for me.

I used to conduct this prioritization on Gmail by adding stars to emails but they were not so intuitive and and easy to find as they are with Priority Inbox. When I am working on my desktop-based email program I try to keep in my inbox only those emails that require additional attention or follow up. Now Priority Inbox does this for me.

The new feature is supposed to be able to classify your emails as priority or non-priority and to improve such classification as the user confirms or modifies the status that Gmail gives to each received email.


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Just got my first issue of Fast Company!

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Sent from my blackberry

Wrapping up the summer

After a (too) long blogging vacation, I am back to business. The truth is that there have been quite a lot of things going on in the TMT space over the last few weeks.

At a time when Western economies are not picking up and the fears of a double dip are coming back, I have read a decent number of articles pointing to the TMT universe as the typical anti-cyclical industry where many are looking into.

I am going to make a quick reference to some of the events that I have found most interesting lately:

(1) THE M&A FRENZY

-  Telefonica closed the purchase of Portugal Telecom's stake in Brazilian cell operator Vivo (a great battle with many of the ingredients that are present in M&A cases that you see in b-school and characterize big corporate battles: references to maximizing shareholder value, increasing offers, political influence, strategic considerations, corporate threats...) for the astonishing amount of 7.5bn euros.

- Intel has entered the computing security business by paying $7.6bn euros for McAfee and has most recently purchased the mobile communications business of German manufacturer Infineon for around 1.1bn euros.

- Computing giants  HP and Dell are still fighting for acquiring 3PAR, the cloud storage solutions operator, in a race that has so far seen HP offering around $2bn (Dell's first offer was set at around $1.13bn)

- Telefonica bought Tuenti, the leading social network in Spain, for around 70m euros

- Nokia Siemens joint venture is "courting" private equity investors.

2. THE IP VOICE BATTLE

After changing hands several times over the past couple of years, Skype seems to be looking into an IPO to raise some money and to probably provide some liquidity to its investors. In the meantime, according to Techcrunch, Cisco Systems may be preparing a pre-IPO move on Skype, the leading VOIP provider with 500m+ users,  to take control of it.

This comes at a time when Google has launched Google Voice, its own applications to make phone calls over IP, which hopes to leverage Gmail's large user base.

3. YOUTUBE & HOLLYWOOD

The Financial Times has reported that Google's Youtube is negotiations with the main Hollywood studios to launch a mainstream pay-per-view movie rental service (beyond its current limited lineup of indie movies). Considering the huge Youtube user base, this could be a game changing move in this space. In fact it is a direct attack to a number of diverse models such as Apple's iTunes or Netflix.

4. GEO-LOCATION

Facebook has launched its new "Places", the latest intitiative when it comes geo-location services and apps. Considering Facebook's clout, will this be the beginning of the end for services such as Foursquare or Gowalla?

5. METERED BROADBAND BILLING COMING TO SPAIN

Julio Linares, Spanish leading telephony operator Telefonica's CEO, has "threatened" with a progressive switch to metered broadband use. In other words, it seems like the time of flat-rate pricing will be over soon and we will be switching to "the more you use, the  more you pay". Yoigo's (Telia Sonera's mobile subsidiary in Spain) CEO has pointed out in pretty much the same direction.

Arguments such as the growing use of smartphones, the increasing availability of video content or the need for infrastructure investments are at the core of the justification of such switch. I think that it kind of makes sense but, considering that the average internet rate is around a 140% higher than the European average, I find operators' claims a little harder to digest.

Well, not bad for a quick summary!