<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table lead-image-large"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Guru Khalsa</span></p><p class="caption">Steve Huffman is cofounder and CEO of Reddit.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Reddit, known as the "front page of the internet," has weathered a lot of storms. Over the years, the site has been dogged by user revolts, controversial content, and public oustings of its leaders.</li><li>The situation made hiring a nightmare. When Steve Huffman, the site's cofounder, rejoined the company as CEO in 2015, he learned that very few people in Silicon Valley wanted to work at Reddit.</li><li>This is a story about how Reddit convinced hundreds of engineers to come work for the company - and gave Reddit its mojo back.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Steve Huffman returned to Reddit, the company he helped launch and later abandoned after its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-cofounders-saw-a-therapist-together-2017-11">multimillion-dollar acquisition</a>, to find it had become one of the most radioactive companies in the Valley.</p><p>Almost no one wanted to work at Reddit in 2015.</p><p>In seeking to hire engineers, Huffman told Business Insider, "It was hard to get people to respond." </p><p>He explained, "Reddit was in the press for all the wrong reasons. All of them. ... Our reputation was in the dumps across pretty much every dimension."</p><p>Reddit, known as the "front page of the internet," is the <a href="https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US">fifth most-visited website</a> in the US. And yet, it's nearly imploded on several occasions over the last decade. The site has been engulfed in controversies fueled by internet trolls and disgruntled users. A revolving door of CEOs did little to stabilize the startup's reputation or improve morale among a shrinking number of Reddit employees.</p><p>Huffman stepped back into the role of CEO to save Reddit, but he didn't do it alone.</p><p>Despite a series of crises, the San Francisco-based company would double its staff, growing from approximately 75 to 150 employees, over 2016. They would transform the site from looking like a <span><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-redesign/">dystopian Craigslist</a> - or </span>"hot garbage," as one top Reddit executive described it - into a place where new users could more easily find their people online and share news, images, memes, and video.</p><p>Today, Reddit has more than 400 employees on its payroll, with the biggest gains in engineering. <a href="https://www.recode.net/2017/7/31/16037126/reddit-funding-200-million-valuation-steve-huffman-alexis-ohanian">The company raised $200 million</a> last year from a <span>number of well-known Silicon Valley investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, to continue its hiring spree. It seems that Reddit's renaissance has just begun.</span><span></span></p><p><span>Business Insider spoke with Huffman and a handful of engineers at Reddit - as well as checked out journalist Christine Lagorio-Chafkin's excellent, upcoming book about Reddit called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Are-Nerds-Tumultuous-Internets-Laboratory-ebook/dp/B079L5FTJD">"We Are the Nerds"</a> - to learn how the internet's front page got its mojo back.</span></p><h2>Reddit put out a call to 'every engineer in the Valley,' Huffman said</h2><p>Reddit hadn't hired an engineer in nine months when Huffman - who left Reddit after his contract with the company's buyer, publisher Condé Nast, ran out - rejoined in 2015. And it showed.</p><p>The site looked very similar to the original version that Huffman and his cofounder, Alexis Ohanian, launched ten years earlier. </p><p>"It wasn't really hard at that time to look at Reddit and think about ways to improve it," Nick Caldwell, vice president of engineering at Reddit, told Business Insider.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reddit</span></p><p class="caption">Reddit got a new - but still familiar - look in 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Over the course of 15 years, Caldwell had worked his way up from intern to general manager at Microsoft. When a recruiting firm approached him about going to Reddit in 2016, he was skeptical.</p><p>"I visited Reddit like four times before I took this job," Caldwell said.</p><p>Huffman needed help trying to staff up Reddit. New hires would allow the company to give the site a refresh, replace much of the original, clunky code, and build new products and features aimed at stamping out hate speech and other noxious content on Reddit.</p><p>That was easier said than done. Not only did few people want to work at Reddit in 2015, but the San Francisco Bay Area faced a shortage of engineering talent. The problem worsened over the years, according to a recent <a href="https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/resources/linkedin-workforce-report-august-2018">Workforce Report from LinkedIn</a>, as demand for data scientists in particular outstripped supply.</p><p>In addition to its struggles recruiting engineers, the company had trouble holding onto its existing employees.</p><p>According to <span>Lagorio-Chafkin's book, about fifty staffers quit or were terminated in the months following Huffman's return to Reddit. Some of those defectors <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-chief-engineer-quits-after-two-months-says-pao-was-on-a-glass-cliff-2015-7">left in protest</a> of Ellen Pao's ousting. (The Silicon Valley power player was asked to resign as CEO of Reddit amid a user revolt.) Others said they <a href="https://www.recode.net/2015/7/13/11614676/reddit-chief-engineer-bethanye-blount-quits-after-less-than-two">couldn't get behind Huffman's vision</a> for a new era at Reddit, the CEO told Lagorio-Chafkin.</span></p><p>Reddit hired a recruiting firm that, according to Huffman, "called every engineer in the Valley" in a "brute force" attempt.</p><p>After accepting the job, Caldwell also hired as many Microsoft employees who were interested in jobs at Reddit as he could.</p><p>"That turned out to be not a huge number of people," he said.</p><p>With his network tapped out, Caldwell had to search in new places for candidates. It required a change in perspective.</p><h2>Reddit widened the pipeline for talent</h2><p>At Microsoft, Caldwell <a href="https://thinkgrowth.org/thoughts-on-building-a-diverse-team-at-reddit-5006bd984efb">has admitted</a> to being one of those hiring managers who scanned people's résumés for top schools and major companies before "taking a deeper look." This strategy can often surface the usual suspects: white male engineers in the Bay Area.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reddit</span></p><p class="caption">Nick Caldwell, Reddit's vice president of engineering, said the stigma against hiring from coding bootcamps is fading.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In seeking to widen the net, Caldwell began recruiting from coding bootcamps, such as <a href="https://hackbrightacademy.com/">Hackbright Academy</a>, whose mission is to help women from diverse backgrounds land jobs in tech. It specializes in providing opportunities to women with a few years of work experience under their belts, those who want to explore a new career path.</p><p>There's an old stigma that people who emerge from coding bootcamps are less skilled than those with computer science degrees. That's changing rapidly, according to Caldwell.</p><p>"People are realizing that technology changes so fast nowadays that you don't necessarily get practical knowledge from a college degree," he said. "And bootcamps are like only practical knowledge."</p><p>As a bonus, companies who aim to improve the ratio of male and female employees may find that "bootcamps bypass a lot of the traditional problems that people have with the pipeline," Caldwell said. These programs are often much more affordable than college and can be completed in weeks or months, not years, which <a href="https://www.coursereport.com/blog/diversity-in-tech-why-tech-is-poised-to-see-a-change-in-2018">makes them accessible</a> to a wider range of potential students.</p><p>Building a diverse organization is especially important when you run a site viewed by <a href="https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/04/19/reddit-now-active-users-twitter-engaging-porn/">millions of people</a> each month.</p><p>"You cannot build a product that appeals to a diverse set of people without having a diverse set of people designing product," Huffman said.</p><p>Reddit declined to release its hiring or diversity statistics. However, the company has hired half a dozen graduates from Hackbright Academy alone - and has even more employees, including Huffman, serving as program mentors to aid in recruiting efforts. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reddit</span></p><p class="caption">Reddit has over 400 employees today.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Having an impact matters</h2><p>With its headcount ticking up, Reddit began shipping product again. </p><p>In 2016, the startup overhauled its mobile app, created new tools for tracking site traffic, and launched a new department, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/25/reddit-cto-marty-weiner-on-building-a-home-for-the-internets-wildest-community/">known internally as the "anti-evil" team</a>, that was dedicated to ridding the site of harassment, spam, and abuse. Their efforts slashed the number of <span>spam reports coming from users and moderators by 90%.</span><span></span></p><p><span>Huffman set out to double staff again the following year.</span></p><p><span>By then, the team had made a key discovery about how to get people to come work for Reddit: It had to sell them on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ashton-kutcher-invest-startup-2018-9">story</a>.</span></p><p>Bhavana Shanbhag was comfortable with her gig as an engineering manager at Groupon when she received a cold message on LinkedIn from one of Reddit's directors of engineering in 2017. In it, he described some of the problems they were trying to solve for.</p><p>"We need people like you," Shanbhag remembered him saying.</p><p><span>Shanbhag, who described herself as a "lurker" on Reddit more than a hardcore user, made arrangements to interview with 12 employees - more than what was required of her - before accepting the offer.</span></p><p>"I didn't want to switch my job for the sake of switching it," she said. "I wanted to make sure that I would actually have an impact."</p><p>Caldwell heard this from potential hires a lot. The team started to think critically about how they pitched candidates on the startup.</p><p>"What we settled on in those early days was - the value of Reddit was really about building community. And people coming into the company had huge amounts of opportunity to pick up the low-hanging fruit, to help us toward that mission," Caldwell said. "Once we really understood that, the pitch was pretty straightforward."</p><p>He explained: "Hey, you can be the first person to come into Reddit and help us build our machine learning processes. And by first person, I mean literally, there's no one else here. Please come help us."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/5612583477/in/photolist-dABKSh-gyHyTr-8UsFgm-7SUSrV-9xXXwD-fQpDaK-duGfe1-gyHFt1-4X4SWQ-cCT7Rq-mQ39G2-dAf5bi-oBVfqJ-4fUoXe-4X4zKm-9DQg8v-byqwHg-gK4DZY-9DDaYu-agx7XM">Flickr / Anirudh Koul</a></span></p><p class="caption">Alexis Ohanian, a cofounder of Reddit, drew the company's little alien mascot, Snoo, while he was sitting, bored, in class at the University of Virginia.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A more established company like Facebook or Google could pay them better, Caldwell said. But Reddit offered ambitious engineers huge amounts of impact on a product under rapid development.</p><p>"It's pretty cool, as well," he said.</p><div>In her role as senior director of engineering, <span>Shanbhag said she often hears the question she asked - "Will I have impact?" - from people she's trying to recruit. She gives them a resounding "yes."</span></div><h2>The startup is still hiring, but not without growing pains</h2><p>There's still more to do, according to Huffman.</p><p>"I don't think the pitch has changed tremendously," Huffman said. "Everything is changing here, like we're rebuilding this company that has more potential energy than any company that you're talking to or thinking about joining. I can guarantee you that."</p><p>Reddit grew the number of engineers by 270% since the start of 2017, and it's still hiring. There are about two dozen <a href="https://www.redditinc.com/careers">job listings</a> on the website, spanning data science, engineering, legal, and marketing, across offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.</p><p>It hasn't been all kittens and rainbows.</p><p>Employees agreed that Reddit grew too quickly, and the situation left some new hires feeling underutilized. The company slowed recruiting over the past summer to catch its breath and see what the full capacity of all its new hires was before ramping back up.</p><p>"We're 400-some people now, and fewer than 20 of those people were here in 2016," Huffman said. "Every quarter, we joke that it's a new company. And it is a new company."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/emily-chang-silicon-valley-sexism-exposed-in-new-book-brotopia-2018-2">How Silicon Valley's sexist 'bro culture' affects everyone - and how to fix it</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

After a huge user revolt, nobody wanted to work at Reddit. Three years later, the CEO explains how the 'front page of the internet' rebuilt the team

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Microsoft has a new app out. It's called Mimicker and, at first glance, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/microsoft-mimicker-alarm-clock-for-android-2016-1">it looks silly</a>: It's an Android-only alarm clock that requires you perform tricks, such as smiling into the camera or pointing the phone at a random object around the house, to switch it off.</p><p>However, apps like Mimicker are part of a bigger plan by Microsoft to lure the best and the brightest into the company to work on a hot new trend: artificial intelligence.</p><p>While the world sees a goofy alarm clock, anyone who works in artificial intelligence understands what the app really is: an example of how a computer can learn to understand the world around it.</p><p>"Mimicker Alarm was built to showcase the power and flexibility of Microsoft Project Oxford, a platform of artificial intelligence APIs," <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-mimicker-alarm">the app description reads</a>, highlighting the true purpose of the free Android app.</p><p>Microsoft has been releasing a steady stream of these kind of apps, all of which are built by Microsoft Garage, an "<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#garage-overview">outlet for experimental projects</a>."</p><p>Here are <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#garage-workbench">a few of the apps</a>:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-arrow">Arrow</a>: A "skin" for Android that "learns from you," according to the description. "The more you use it, the better it gets."</li><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-mymoustache">MyMoustache.net</a>: A silly tool that detects, and measures, the size of moustaches. According to Microsoft, "MyMoustache.net is the latest machine learning-powered game built using Microsoft Project Oxford Face API."</li><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-autoTag-n-search">AutoTag</a>: An app that finds, and tags, your friends on Facebook using AI.</li><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-photo-story">Photo Story</a>: The app collects images and, using computer intelligence, can create a story.</li><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/#app-torque">Torque</a>: According to the app description the app is "powered by Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence technologies" and lets the user "quickly shake your Android phone to voice search the web," among other things.</li></ul><p>Behind these fun apps, Microsoft is pursuing a more serious mission: To get the attention of people who are working on artificial intelligence, people whom it will need to recruit.</p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/j?keywords=artificial%20intelligence&amp;company=Microsoft&amp;openAdvancedForm=true&amp;locationType=I&amp;countryCode=gb&amp;rsid=2028421201453461323787&amp;orig=MDYS">According to LinkedIn</a>, Microsoft is advertising a number of roles related to artificial intelligence and machine learning in the US and <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>. One description for a role in the US <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/97664647?trk=vsrp_jobs_res_name&amp;trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A2028421201453464447066%2CVSRPtargetId%3A97664647%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary">asks for a candidate who is</a> "interested in designing and implementing machine learning algorithms that get used by millions of users."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-enable-and-disable-cortana-in-windows-10/">Greg Mombert/Digital Trends</a></span></p><p class="caption">Cortana running on Windows 10.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"Microsoft is a pretty serious business with clearly a lot going on in the AI and machine learning space," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar">Azeem Azhar</a>, an AI expert, in an email to Business Insider. As examples, Azhar cited Cortana and Xiaoice, a Chinese-based AI experiment which, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/people-in-china-love-microsoft-xiaoice-little-bing-2015-11">according to Microsoft</a>, some users have fallen in love with.</p><p>"On the research side, a Microsoft team recently blew away the competition in Imagenet, the global machine vision contest," he said. The team did this by "applying a very extensive deep-learning network" to the problem, he said.</p><p>"[Microsoft's] wide consumer distribution through operating systems and web properties affords lots of opportunity to make a significant difference," he added.</p><p>Microsoft Research, the research-focused arm of the company that employs around 1,000 people globally, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/microsoft-research-16-predictions-for-2016-2015-12">published its list of predictions for 2016</a> and more than one talked about AI. "In the future, computers will see, hear, speak, and even understand," said Patrice Simard, an engineer and deputy managing director at Microsoft Research, <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/14/technology-artificial-intelligence/">in an interview with Fortune about AI</a>. "Intelligent machines will form the backbone of what we call the invisible revolution: technologies interacting so seamlessly they become invisible."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Microsoft</span></p><p class="caption">Microsoft Office on iPad.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Microsoft has been <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-to-integrate-new-social-machine-learning-technologies-into-office-365/">building artificial intelligence into a number of its current, big-name apps, too</a>. Office Delve, bundled with Office 2016, uses machine learning to surface the information - emails, contacts, or calendar events - that are important right now, for example.</p><p>Cortana, the virtual assistant, is arguably Microsoft's leading AI and machine learning experiment and is being featured prominently in Windows 10, which now has over 200 million users.</p><p>Microsoft has described Cortana as "<a href="https://news.microsoft.com/stories/people/cortana.html">the smartest AI in the universe</a>" before touting its human-like credentials. "Cortana very literally thinks like a person, but she does it at a tremendously faster speed," said Frank O'Connor, franchise development director at 343 Industries, which makes "Halo."</p><p>For Microsoft - which lost some of its mojo in the past decade - the fact that these big, vibrant, somewhat goofy AI apps might get the attention of the professional AI community dovetails extremely neatly with its need to make AI scientists aware of how powerful the technology behind them is.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-mate-8-phone-battery-life-ces-2016-1">This new phone crushes the iPhone in one key area</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JwZWUxMDE6_HS-ONmfMPC8kiMDaJ5Rvf" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Microsoft's new apps may seem silly - but they're part of a much bigger plan

<p class="source"><span>Seb Oliver/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">VC work is grueling. Books can help.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The work of a venture capitalist can be grueling: having to constantly deliver rejections, facing failure, and working around the clock.</li><li>Six investors, professors, and CEOs offered some of their top books for keeping your head in the VC game.</li><li>Favorites include works new and old - from "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building-ebook/dp/B07ZLGQZYC">The Great CEO Within</a>" to "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/0807014273/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22X1JQ30KUUB9&amp;keywords=man%27s+search+for+meaning&amp;qid=1579201033&amp;sprefix=man%27s+sear%2Caps%2C196&amp;sr=8-1">Man's Search for Meaning</a>."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Venture capitalist <a href="https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/the-real-reasons-why-a-vc-passed-on-your-startup-917c30103ecb">Sarah Downey</a> explained in a 2018 article on Medium that "the day-to-day reality of being a VC is that we spend about 99% of our time saying 'no.'" </p><p>Whether you're a VC delivering a rejection to a startup or a founder receiving bad news, it can help to have support - in the form of apropos books, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-venture-capital-podcasts-listen-to-investors-founders-ceos-professors">podcasts</a>, and other go-to resources - to keep you going in this tough business.</p><p>Business Insider picked the brains of six VC experts to learn what their favorite reads are. The books that they chose offer equal doses of information, innovation, and inspiration for those in the VC space.</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">1. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Give-Take-Helping-Others-Success/dp/0143124986"><strong>Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Adam Grant</strong></h1><p><a href="https://shastaventures.com/team/kenn-so/">Kenn So</a>, an associate at <a href="https://store.google.com/category/connected_home?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImvSc4vGI5wIVl6DsCh3SuwPiEAAYASAAEgLC3fD_BwE&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds">Nest</a>-investor <a href="https://shastaventures.com/">Shasta Ventures</a>, recommended this classic read by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-into-whartons-mba-program-2019-8">Wharton</a> professor and business thought leader Adam Grant. </p><p class="source"><span>Kenn So</span></p><p class="caption">Kenn So.</p><p>"This book says a lot about how the most successful people are 'givers,' while also underlining where to draw the line to not get taken advantage of," So said. "It parallels a lot with how the most successful VCs are those who really give and support their companies - picking up the phone at 3 a.m. without batting an eye ... to being the forever supporter - while also being transparent and tough with the founders when needed." </p><p>The opening story of the book is about successful VC <a href="https://www.augustcap.com/team/david-hornik/">David Hornik</a>, managing partner of August Capital who has invested in the likes of <a href="https://www.splunk.com/">Splunk</a> and <a href="https://www.evite.com/">Evite</a> and "was initially passed over by a founder because Hornik was too nice but [he] eventually got to be part of the deal and more," So said. </p><p>"Sometimes being helpful doesn't get you anything in return, which is what happened to Hornik at first - he didn't get the deal," explained So. "While the book has a happy ending for this example with Hornik, that's not always the case. But it doesn't matter. Givers don't sweat about getting anything in return."</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">2. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Business-Venture-Capital-Practitioners-Structuring/dp/0470874449"><strong>The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Mahendra Ramsinghani</strong></h1><p>Jeremy Harrison is the founder and CEO of <a href="https://hustlelife.net">Hustle Life</a>, a website that helps future entrepreneurs find their perfect side hustle. Harrison admitted that he knew very little about venture capital when he first started as an entrepreneur. That's when he discovered "The Business of Venture Capital."</p><p class="source"><span>Jeremy Harrison</span></p><p class="caption">Jeremy Harrison.</p><p>He pointed out that the book does double duty as a comprehensive resource on the topic for industry veterans, while also being accessible to those with no business background. </p><p>"The book is great for two types of people: those that are interested in getting into venture capital, and also for entrepreneurs who want an in-depth understanding of what motivates VCs," Harrison said.</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">3. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blitzscaling-Lightning-Fast-Building-Massively-Companies/dp/1524761419"><strong>Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Chris Yeh and Reid Hoffman</strong></h1><p>Formerly on the strategic teams of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-management-consulting-job-mckinsey-bcg-bain-accenture">McKinsey</a> and Motorola, VC and entrepreneur <a href="https://www.sputnikatx.com/droksana">Oksana Malysheva</a> is now the CEO and managing partner of <a href="https://www.sputnikatx.com/">Sputnik ATX</a>, an accelerator program that funds startup companies out of Austin, Texas. </p><p class="source"><span>Oksana Malysheva</span></p><p class="caption">Oksana Malysheva.</p><p>One of the books that she ends up recommending most often for this industry is "Blitzscaling."</p><p>"Investing in and running a venture-backed business is a completely different game from almost anything one typically learns about business," she said. "Until Reid published his book, very few people have been able to sensibly explain how, and so it really was a 'secret sauce' known to a select few. Now this problem has been solved!"</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">4. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tools-Titans-Billionaires-World-Class-Performers-ebook/dp/B01HSMRWNU/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26CTJGY1Q2ZM2&amp;keywords=tools+of+titans&amp;qid=1579200963&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=tools+of+%2Cstripbooks%2C192&amp;sr=1-1"><strong>Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Tim Ferriss</strong></h1><p>Malysheva also told Business Insider that "Tools of Titans" is on her nightstand at all times. </p><p>The book is broken into roughly three sections - "Healthy," "Wealthy," and "Wise" - and, Malysheva shared, "Tim Ferris collected advice from the absolute gurus in a variety of fields: from the most prominent VCs to Olympians, artists, actors, and writers. I can literally open it on any page, read for 10 to 15 minutes, and walk away inspired."</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">5. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth/dp/1501111116/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=grit&amp;qid=1579200981&amp;sr=8-1"><strong>Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Angela Duckworth</strong></h1><p>Duckworth's popular New York Times bestseller is another one on Malysheva's must-read list for VCs. The managing partner first picked this book up for inspiration as a parent, and it quickly became the opening read of the Sputnik ATX startup curriculum. </p><p>"Starting a company is a long, hard journey, and grit is one of the most important ingredients for any startup founder," she explained. "It is the trait that can be built up, and Angela does a phenomenal job breaking down exactly what it is and how anyone can grow it."</p><h1><strong>6. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone-ebook/dp/B01H4G2J1U/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Mom+Test&amp;qid=1579201006&amp;sr=8-1"><strong>The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers and Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You</strong></a><strong>" by Rob Fitzpatrick</strong></h1><p>"As a VC, this is the book you want every entrepreneur you invest in to read," Malysheva observed about "The Mom Test." She explained that anyone who ever launches a product or company must talk to their customers to make it better, but noted that "almost everyone does it incorrectly." </p><p>"We love our products, we breathe our products, and we pitch them all the time - including in customer interviews, which is exactly the wrong thing to do!" she said. "When we do that, the person on the other end is sympathetic and tells us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. And off we go wasting our time and money building something they do not need; they were just too polite to tell us so."  </p><p>Malysheva added that by reading this practical book, you will fix a lion's share of these errors. "I end up recommending it to a lot of entrepreneurs, and I always hear, 'I wish I read this earlier!'" she said.</p><h1><strong>7. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/0807014273/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22X1JQ30KUUB9&amp;keywords=man%27s+search+for+meaning&amp;qid=1579201033&amp;sprefix=man%27s+sear%2Caps%2C196&amp;sr=8-1"><strong>Man's Search for Meaning</strong></a><strong>" by Viktor Frankl</strong></h1><p>"As an entrepreneur, you're going to have tremendous ups and insane downs, and in those dips that you think everything is over - reach for this book," Malysheva said of Frankl's book. "This book is breathtaking and inspiring for the toughest moments. It is without fail helping me discover light and strength again." </p><p>She added that Frankl survived the worst of humanity in a Nazi death camp, yet still found the power to give us reminders like, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way," she said.</p><p>"If he could find strength, light, and love living through what he went through, so can I, so can we all; we must choose it," Malysheva concluded.</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">8. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building-ebook/dp/B07ZLGQZYC"><strong>The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Matt Mochary, Alex MacCaw, and Misha Talavera</strong></h1><p><a href="https://www.emcap.com/people/jake-saper">Jake Saper</a>, partner at leading venture capital firm <a href="https://www.emcap.com/">Emergence Capital</a>, selected "The Great CEO Within" as his top VC book pick. Mochary, who has an MBA from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kellogg-school-of-management-northwestern-mba-program-admissions-student-advice">Kellogg School of Management</a>, has coached several successful tech startups, including Coinbase and Reddit.</p><p class="source"><span>Emergence Capital</span></p><p class="caption">Jake Saper</p><p>"This is a highly tactical and practical guide to being the CEO of a high-growth tech company," Saper said. "The author, Matt Mochary, is a seasoned CEO coach who has developed a system for each key process in running a company. It's a terrific distillation of best practices we've shared with our CEOs over the years."</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">9. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist/dp/1118443616"><strong>Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson</strong></h1><p>Tim Schigel, managing partner of early-scale investor <a href="https://refinery.com">Refinery Ventures</a>, has been in venture capital since 1998. </p><p>The entrepreneur characterized "Venture Deals" as "a great primer for anyone new to venture investing." </p><p class="source"><span>Tim Schigel</span></p><p class="caption">Tim Schigel.</p><p>Schigel explained that the book helps to demystify the world of venture, which has historically been secretive and full of technical and legal jargon. This can make it intimidating for a founder trying to attract capital. </p><p>"The more the founder understands the decision-making criteria of VCs, the better," said Schigel, pointing toward Feld and Mendelson's book as a solution. "VCs are like any other service provider. Founders need to do their research and find the best investors who understand their business, can help them grow, and connect them with later-stage funding sources."</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">10. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Play-Bigger-Dreamers-Innovators-Dominate/dp/0062407619"><strong>Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by</strong> <strong style="color: #000000;">Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney</strong></h1><p>Schigel emphasized that in order to understand how to evaluate and support founders and hypergrowth startups, "Play Bigger" can help with understanding the most important variable in startup success: market timing.<strong><br /></strong></p><p>"If you're operating in a large, growing market, you have the opportunity to 'ride the wave' to success," Schigel explained. "However, even the best talent and greatest product cannot overcome unfavorable market dynamics." </p><p>He continued that "Play Bigger" clearly illustrates that in today's environment, there is only one winner, and then everyone else. </p><p>"It's even more important to become the 'Category King," Schigel said. "The authors share that success is not about first to market, but rather first to properly define the problem. This book will help founders frame their vision, providing valuable insights about category design to better architect their strategy.</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">11. "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Great-Companies-Their-Maslow/dp/0787988618">Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow</a></strong><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Chip Conley</strong></h1><p>Schigel also recommended "Peak" for your VC toolkit to help understand the motivations and framework for employees, customers, and investors.</p><p>"Your business plan may make perfect sense on your Excel spreadsheet, but throw in the human element and rational thinking goes out the window," said Schigel. "Leaders play the role of therapist and cheerleader. Humans are not rational, so understanding motivations that lead to behavior is supremely important. Chip Conley does a masterful job mapping the motivations for employees, customers, and investors and then integrates them into a holistic roadmap."</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">12. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Measure-What-Matters/dp/B07BMJ4L1S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38DYD9ADYN10S&amp;keywords=measure+what+matters+john+doerr&amp;qid=1579199569&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=measure+%2Cstripbooks%2C197&amp;sr=1-1"><strong>Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by John Doerr</strong></h1><p>Schigel said "Measure What Matters" is a great introduction to objectives and key results, better known as OKRs, which are strategic ways to set goals.</p><p>Author John Doerr first learned how to create OKRs while working for Andrew Grove at Intel and then passed the methodology to Google in the early days of the company. Schigel shared that he has been using OKRs since 2008, and the Refinery's portfolio companies also use OKRs to improve their ability to plan and set priorities. </p><p>"OKRs are meant to be simple as well as aspirational," said Schigel. "It's amazing to see what happens when teams wrestle through competing priorities to identify and track the one or two key initiatives that will dramatically impact their business."</p><h1><strong style="color: #000000;">13. "</strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil-ebook/dp/B07DRPGGQ7/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=high+growth+handbook&amp;qid=1579199694&amp;sr=8-1"><strong>High Growth Handbook</strong></a><strong style="color: #000000;">" by Elad Gil</strong></h1><p>Schigel pointed to "High Growth Handbook" as your "complete compendium for growth strategies and tactics." </p><p>"Elad Gil draws on his experiences at companies including Airbnb, Twitter, Google, Instacart, Coinbase, Stripe, and Square," Schigel said. "The book covers everything from inception to fundraising from early to later stage and exit." </p><p>He added that this truly is a handbook to be referenced often for specific ideas and solutions to some of the most vexing problems that entrepreneurs face.</p><h1><strong>14. "</strong><a href="https://www.titaniceffect.com"><strong>The Titanic Effect: Successfully Navigating the Uncertainties that Sink Most Startups</strong></a><strong>" by Todd Saxton, M. Kim Saxton, and Michael Cloran</strong></h1><p><a href="https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/profile.cshtml?id=MKSAXTON">Kim Saxton</a>, clinical professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, recommended her own book: "The Titanic Effect."</p><p class="source"><span>Kim Saxton</span></p><p class="caption">Kim Saxton.</p><p>She and her coauthors wrote "The Titanic Effect" based on 20 years' experience working with and researching successful startups, failed startups - even the decisions made in launching the Titanic, one of the largest startup failures to date. They noticed patterns of faulty decisions founders made, called "icebergs."</p><p>"The book shows how these decisions lead to hidden debt, like the part of the iceberg under the water," Saxton explained. "It gives startup founders ideas about how to navigate through these icebergs."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-grant-on-narcissism-happiness-leadership-careers-at-davos-2020-1">Leading behavioral psychologist reveals how to be a successful narcissist and why you should stop trying to be happy</a></h3>

The 14 best books to read to break into venture capital, according to successful investors, founders, and professors in the VC space

<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Rebecca Cook</span></p><p class="caption">Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Tesla CEO Elon Musk has produced the company's "Master Plan, Part Deux," a sprawling update to Part Une of the plan, which Musk authored a decade ago.</span></p><p><span>Part Deux contained many things, some of them expected - there will be a variety of new Tesla passenger vehicles coming, possibly even a pickup truck - and some of the jaw-dropping, particularly Musk's declaration that Tesla will soon build semi-trucks and buses.</span></p><p><span>Somewhat buried in the document was a significant potential pivot in Tesla's business plan and its relationship with its owners.</span></p><p><span>Here's what Musk wrote:</span></p><h2>Mr. Musk, he is a-changin'</h2><p>This is a major change. In 2014, on a quarterly earnings call with analysts, Musk didn't sound very optimistic about car-sharing.</p><p>I think there will be some amount of car sharing for sure, but I think there's like a limit to the whole sharing thing," he said.</p><p>"There is an important role for sharing but it's not - most things don't get shared. People could easily share their house or their clothes or their bicycle or something like that and they do a little bit with like Airbnb or something like that, but mostly not."</p><p>That was then. Now, Musk seems to have accepted the position, often articulated by advanced-mobility experts and car-sharing evangelists, that the very limited degree to which most automobiles are utilized is a substantial economic liability for car owners. </p><p>Tesla owners shouldn't be so burdened.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Tesla</span></p><p class="caption">Tesla Autopilot in action.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Self-driving cars make all the difference</h2><p>Reading the Master Plan, Part Deux, it appears that Tesla's goal is to bring a sharing option online only when full autonomy arrives, which for Tesla means a much more evolved version of its Autopilot technology.</p><p>Other automakers are moving in this direction. Musk is certainly aware that GM CEO Mary Barra, for example, now routinely discusses GM's investment in car-sharing using the lens of Cruise Automation, the self-driving startup that the car maker acquired this year for about $600 million is cash and stock. So Musk may be reluctant to see Tesla fall strategically behind the curve here, simply because it's still a small player, unable to attack new opportunities with the scale of a major automaker.</p><p>Presumably, much of the sharing economy that Tesla aims to join will be served by the forthcoming Model 3, a mass-market vehicle that's expected to sell for around $35,000.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Justin Pritchard</span></p><p class="caption">The Tesla Model 3.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>It's hard to imagine the owner of a $100,000-plus Tesla Model S or Model X luxury vehicle wanting to let their all-electric baby out for hire. Most BMW and Mercedes owners don't want to see their cars turned into taxis when they're at work. Having to clean a bunch of McDonald's wrappers or beach sand out of the back seat trumps whatever extra scratch you might pocket. And don't forget that most Model 3s, inexpensive though they may be, will be financed. Would you want something you owe money on serving as a robot chauffeur for anyone and everyone?</p><p>Musk doesn't often deviate from his own judgments. His usual mojo is to confidently express aspects of his vision - for all his companies, not just Tesla - and then move forward as rapidly as possible, with a risk-welcoming Silicon Valley attitude. </p><h2>Singing a new tune</h2><p>That's why this retreat, modest through it may be, from his earlier position on car sharing is significant. It proves that although he and Tesla have successfully created a car company, they're also aware that every car company around is being threatened by a collective realization than traditional car ownership can be seen as a massive waste of money.</p><p>In that respect, I'd call his change of heart on car-sharing a hedge against an uncertain future. There are plenty of people in the auto industry who think that car-sharing will always be a modest form of economic activity, based on the limited scale of the sharing model as it now exists, confined largely to college campuses and cities where vehicle ownership is less common. The real action will always be with selling the convenience and freedom of a traditional car to buyers affluent enough to have an asset sitting idle for 90% of the time.</p><p>That said, this is an important shift in Musk's thinking - and one we'll want to keep close tabs on over the next two years, as Tesla pushes toward it's objective of producing and delivering 500,000 vehicles annually.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-just-unveiled-teslas-top-secret-master-plan-2016-7">Elon Musk just unveiled Tesla's 'top secret' master plan - here are the details</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BoaTJ2NDE6ewk6Pt7Z8Wx9cnV6tg1bcp" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Elon Musk is on the verge of making a huge change for Tesla's owners

HYDERABAD: It's been barely a month since he took over as only the third <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/CEO">CEO</a> of tech giant<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Microsoft">Microsoft</a> since it was set up 39 years ago, but <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Satya-Nadella">Satya Nadella</a> already has <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword>'s five-year plan chalked out: use software as a driving force to advance the company's devices and services.<br />
<br /> In an exclusive interview with TOI — the first with an Indian newspaper or TV channel since his ascension to the post of <keyword id="5645" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="CEO">CEO</keyword> in February — Nadella insisted that software is "one of the most valuable, malleable resources" of the organization and that his primary objective as Microsoft chief would be to deliver software-driven advanced innovations that would help enrich customer experience. "I want to see us remain convinced that software matters in the future," the Hyderabad-born 46-year-old said, reiterating his "incredible focus" on offering Microsoft customers what they really value and enable them to do more in work, life and play.<br />
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Back home in India too, Nadella aspires to see his "mobile first, cloud first" mantra accelerate future technology advancements. He acknowledges that the country, which boasts of a more than 6,000 employee-strong base, is a vital part of Microsoft's plans. "We are working with our partners to provide a wide range of Azure cloud offerings to accelerate economic growth and breakthrough cloud services in India," he said.<br />
<br /> Nadella hailed Indian talent, saying, "... India is a tremendous source of technology talent, both at home and around the world, and that is something we can all take pride in." He also confessed to being moved by the flurry of congratulatory messages that have flooded his inbox. That includes mails from Shantanu Narayen (CEO, <keyword id="99699" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Adobe">Adobe</keyword>), TK Kurien (CEO, <keyword id="10862" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Wipro">Wipro</keyword>) and <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Ajay-Banga">Ajay Banga</a> (CEO, <keyword id="6368201" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="MasterCard">Mastercard</keyword>) — all alumni of <keyword id="102356" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hyderabad-Public-School">Hyderabad Public School</keyword>, like him.<br />
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"I deeply appreciate all the support and encouragement I have received from people all across India," said Nadella. Though he spent only a few years of his childhood in Hyderabad, he asserted, "I will always be a Hyderabadi."<br />
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Nadella, by his own admission a poetry fanatic, is currently hooked to the works of American poets <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Walt-Whitman">Walt Whitman</a> and WH Auden. "I went through a phase of reading lots of Urdu poetry, thanks to the great transliterated versions that have become available," he said. But what can't stop haunting him are the final lines from <keyword id="1266000" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Romantic-poet">romantic poet</keyword> <keyword id="150109" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="John-Keats">John Keats</keyword>' Ode On A Grecian Urn: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know'.<br />
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<strong>The full interview</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Congratulations on your taking over as Microsoft CEO. How has the ride been so far?</strong><br />
<br /> I've been in the role for little over a month, and it has been incredible. I've been impressed by the passion and energy of Microsoft employees, and their willingness to commit to driving the company forward. I've worked in many areas of the company over 22 years, but there are some pieces of the business I'm getting to learn more about and it's been exciting to dig in deeper with those teams. Together with the leadership team, I'm focused on driving clarity and alignment on the strategy for our path forward with a laser focus on listening to customers and delivering our next waves of innovation. As a side note, I've to admit I was humbled by, and grateful for, the response in India to my appointment. I received congratulations and best wishes from so many people — not just <keyword id="343" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Friends">friends</keyword> and former colleagues, but many I had never met before. I deeply appreciate the encouragement from people across India.<br />
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<strong>What's your priority number one as CEO?</strong><br />
<br />
Microsoft is an amazing company that has changed the world. I firmly believe our best days are ahead of us. I want us to move faster and advance our innovations to deliver new value to customers. I've spent a lot of time with our leadership team talking about these opportunities and focusing on driving clarity and alignment on strategy, providing our teams with the resources and environment to do their best work, and removing internal barriers so our teams can deliver break through innovation faster.<br />
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<strong>On Day 1 as CEO, you said your aim would be to take Microsoft towards a "mobile first, cloud first" world. How will you do that?</strong><br />
<br />
Microsoft was built on productivity, now we're reimagining productivity for a mobile first, cloud first world. I'm focused on zeroing in on what we can uniquely deliver for customers that they really value - this will manifest itself in our cloud services and in the rich experiences we create on devices that enable customers do more in work, life and play.<br />
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<strong>Microsoft seems to have lost its mojo. How do you get the momentum back?</strong><br />
<br /> Our industry doesn't value tradition, it only values innovation. Our 39-year history gives us a strong foundation and capabilities to build on, as an organization. Our quest is to continually renew ourselves, be persistent and push the limits on what is possible. I've been inspired as I've met with our product and R&amp;D teams and got <keyword id="154361" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="feedback">feedback</keyword> from customers. We are on the brink of boundary-less innovation in this industry and, I'm focused on investing in areas where we can drive unique value for customers, and move faster.<br />
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<strong>Where do you wish to see Microsoft five years down the line?</strong><br />
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I want to see us remain convinced that software matters in future. Software is one of the most valuable resources we have, which will be the driving force in advancing our devices and services and driving the next wave of innovations. Culturally, I'd like to see us be known as a learning organization. The ability in this industry to take new learnings, accrue it to what you've done in the past and make it relevant for the future is valuable — I'm energized when I think of the potential here in harnessing the collective brainpower and talent of our soon to be 130,000 employees.<br />
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<strong>With you at the helm, the software industry here is hopeful of Microsoft's R&amp;D units in India (especially Microsoft's India Development Center, Hyderabad) getting a boost. Anything specific in mind for India?</strong><br />
<br />
India has always been a vital part of Microsoft's plans. I think that only increases going forward. India is one of the few countries where Microsoft has the entire range of our operations — including basic R&amp;D and customer services. We have more than 6,000 employees, and over 10,000 partners in India, creating thousands of jobs and a vibrant technology ecosystem. Twenty of the top 20 companies in India use our technology. Five of the top five IT companies, five of the top five manufacturing companies, five of the top five banking organizations — across virtually every sector, Microsoft technology is helping support the economic infrastructure of India. I'm excited about the future technology advancements possible in India in this mobile first, cloud first world.<br />
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The cloud is going to be a huge enabler of consumer services and entrepreneurial growth. We are working with our partners to provide a wide range of Azure cloud offerings to accelerate economic growth and breakthrough cloud services in India. I'm passionate about the work we do to support education and other societal goals across India. Microsoft has been running one of the largest not-for-profit education and skills programmes in India. Over the last two decades, our programmes have helped over 40 million students, teachers and budding Indian entrepreneurs.<br />
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<strong>Your story is an inspiration to many. Some critics argue that your success highlights the unfortunate reality of Indian students who shine only when they give up on their country to work in the US. Your comments ...</strong><br />
<br />
There are many examples of Indian students who have remained in India and built great companies and done great things. Truth is that India is a tremendous source of technology talent, both at home and around the world. That's something we can all take pride in.<br />
<br />
<strong>What or who has been your inspiration?</strong><br />
<br />
My parents have been among my biggest inspirations — they gave me the freedom and confidence to pursue what I wanted to. Beyond that, my teachers, friends and colleagues played a critical role in both introducing me to new things and pushing me to raise my game each step of the way. <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Bill-Gates">Bill Gates</a> has also been an inspiration — from his vision of how technology could unleash the potential of every human being, to the <keyword id="69295" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Curiosity">curiosity</keyword> and intellectual rigour that he brings to every interaction. I've learned so much from Bill, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to work closely with him again as a <keyword id="605495" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="technology-advisor">technology advisor</keyword> to me and the company.<br />
<br />
<strong>When you are not at work or, like you've confessed, signing up for online courses, what do you do? We know you like poetry. Any favourites?</strong><br />
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I do buy more books than I can read and sign up for more online courses than I can finish. My love of poetry has grown. Maybe it's my attention span that needs more work, but I do love the compression in poetry. I went through a phase of reading Urdu poetry, thanks to the great transliterated versions now available. Now I am into Whitman and WH Auden. My all-time favourite is Keats — Ode on a Grecian Urn. Who is not haunted by those final lines — Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.<br />
<br />
<strong>How about cricket? Do you now get any time to play? Or even watch Tests?</strong><br />
<br /> I love the game. I was an <keyword id="244893" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="ordinary-player">ordinary player</keyword>, but was lucky to play under some great captains and other solid players at school who went on to play a decent amount of First Class cricket.<br />
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<strong>You were born and brought up in Hyderabad. What memories do you have of the city?</strong><br />
<br /> Cumulatively I spent five years in Hyderabad. But I will always be a Hyderabadi. It was a laid back place in the late 70s and early 80s when I was growing up there. One got to do what they wanted versus being in a <keyword id="37572" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="rush">rush</keyword> to do what others were doing. I enjoyed that freedom. I have lots of friends from Hyderabad Public School with whom I am pretty close, both in Hyderabad and elsewhere. It was great to get emails from all the CEOs who happen to be HPS alumnus — Shantanu Narayen at Adobe, <keyword id="6385037" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Prem-Watsa">Prem Watsa</keyword> at Fairfax Holdings, TK Kurian at Wipro and <keyword id="44475" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Ajay-Banga">Ajay Banga</keyword> at Mastercard. It's surreal.<br />
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<strong>What's that one message you would want to give young professionals?</strong><br />
<br />
Find something you are truly passionate about, and throw yourself into it fully. Life is too short to just go through the motions on something you are not truly passionate about. Stay curious, never stop learning.

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After a huge user revolt, nobody wanted to work at Reddit. Three years later, the CEO explains how the 'front page of the internet' rebuilt the team

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