Tech Nomads of the Universe

Acknowledgments

As I think back on the incredible people, places and ideas I've come across over the past three decades, I am fortunate to have access to some of the entrepreneurs that helped make today's innovations possible. 30 of them have been the source of a lot of the insight that allowed me to write this story. For all those colourful discussions about tech, entrepreneurship, culture, travel, history and more, I would like to thank them. This is their story as much as it is mine.

James Shanahan — Managing risk is key

Anurag Maunder — All the world's talent in 50 square miles

Debashis Basak — Optimism and success cause a chain reaction

Gopal Dommety — The importance of farmers and hunters

Paddy Ramanathan — Innovation determines the path to commercialization

Boris Mann — People and community are the key

Aranka Anema — Innovation for the benefit of humanity

Frank Rayal — Avoid being a solution in search of a problem

Isabelle Paradis — The challenge of helping others innovate

Richard Jeffares — Ask the hard questions, and demand the difficult answers

Yee Soon — Listen to what the market wants

Sergi Figuerola — A mind without limits

Etienne Piciocchi — Initiatives from the top-down and bottom-up

Michel Levy — A multitude of small successes

Ilya Balashov — Whatever it takes to make it successful

Dion Jerling — Connection is the key to education

Majid AlGhaslane — Women and young people are the key to success

Mussaad Al Razouki — Beware the boxocrat, and focus on organisms, not ecosystems

Mustafa Ergen — Capitalize by catering to younger entrepreneurs

Ashish Wadhawani — In a large market, important to be selective

Ananda Sen Gupta — Expansive growth in one of the world's biggest markets

Po Chi Wu — No single right answer for entrepreneurs

Claude Achcar — Important not to pour venture capital funding on copy-paste startups

Shervin Bakhtiari — Success poised to continue in newly startup friendly China

Suebpong Charoenmechaikul — Sincerity is paramount, and there's no rush

Wendy Chen — Sharp focus on problem solving

David Dupouy — New models of financing are a net positive for founders

Kaz Terada — Building healthy ecosystems can be a long and tedious road

Rolf Lumpe — Learning is best done through experience and failure

Douglas Meirelles — Iterating and persevering till success

There are many others that I have learned a lot from over the years. Our discussions often converged on ways to bring state of the art forward. I would like to thank them for being part of this journey.

Kiran in San Francisco, Joe in San Francisco, Caitlin in Vancouver, Adrian in Vancouver, Dan in San Jose, Amer in Dubai, Haig in New York, Wael in San Francisco, Aisha in San Francisco, Adel in Algiers, Devid in Kuala Lumpur, Samir in Algiers, Nobu in Tokyo, Ted in Hong Kong, Peter in New York, Kishore in Hong Kong, Karim in Dubai, Anastassia in Zurich, Mehdi in San Francisco, Jean François in Paris, Twee Wong in Singapore, Motoshi in Tokyo, Nizar in Dubai, Malik in Paris, Soh in Singapore, Riadh in Dubai, Hussein in Vancouver, Yangki in New York, Eric in San Francisco, Terri in Toronto, Cameron in Vancouver, Sodam in Singapore, Rawaz in Erbil, Jay in Taipei, Donald in Vancouver, Anand in Dallas, Nadia in Beirut, Remus in Singapore, Kazuo in Tokyo, Sheriff in Hong Kong, Samia in Doha, Mano in San Francisco, Arun in Dallas, Vishal in San Francisco, Takashi in Tokyo, Nil in San Francisco, Anna in Ottawa, Jaume in Barcelona, Ather in Dallas, Jagadish in San Francisco, Dalia in Vilnius, Genevieve in Montreal, Ahmed in Amman, Trinh in San Jose, Andrew in Hong Kong, Joe in Sydney, Sang in Vancouver, Nizar in Tunis, Margarett in Juba, Shahzad in Karachi, Philip in Beijing, Dean in San Francisco, Sanjay in Singapore, Anca in Cincinnati, Lisa in Hong Kong, Rajendra in New Delhi, Salman in New Delhi, Duane in Vancouver, Nilesh in Dallas, Francois in Ottawa, Samira in Paris, Guibert in Tallinn, Patrick in Zurich, Ben in London, Julia in Hong Kong, Adel in Cairo, Raza in Dubai, Takashi in Tokyo, Elisabeth in Singapore, Ganesh in Bangalore, Wael in Ottawa, Greg in San Jose, Ben in Dubai, Handry in Jakarta, Natalie in Hong Kong, Gary in San Francisco, Soumeya in Paris, Tatsuya in Tokyo, Vik in Hong Kong, Thomas in Berlin, Rashad in Kuala Lumpur, Khalid in Ottawa, Mario in Zurich, Reda in Algiers, Hiroshi in San Francisco, Geoff in San Francisco, AT in Taipei, Michael in San Francisco, Wassila in Toronto, Sung in Seoul, Smain in Paris, Francois in Ottawa, Houssam in Algiers, Roderick in Hong Kong, Min in Shanghai, Cecilia in Hong Kong, Xipeng in Bonn, Wendy in Vancouver, Mats in Stockholm, Rehan in San Jose, Nacer in Munich, Richard in San Diego, MC in Seoul, Eve in Montreal, James in London, Mounia in Dubai, Farzad in San Francisco, Suresh in San Francisco, Masa in Tokyo, Rene in San Francisco, Daniel in Singapore, Stephen in Seoul, Fatten in Tunis, Wahid in Montreal, Dallas in San Francisco, Sena in Sydney, Jerry in Hong Kong, Steffan in San Jose, Louay in San Francisco, Clint in Denver, Gab in Ottawa, Amine in Paris, Elhadi in Algiers, Abdenour in Almaty, Amil in San Francisco, Yongjin in Seoul, Artem in Luxembourg, Clare in Sydney, Marju in Tallinn, Dan in San Francisco, Mohamed in London, Erik in Stockholm, Fella in Algiers, Shab in Vancouver, Maya in Beirut, Magda in Praha, Ash in Mumbai, Alina in Zurich, Darrell in Sydney, Khaled in Cairo, Richard in Seoul, Bill in Chicago, Gosia in Warsaw, Mahmoud in Toronto, Walid in Paris, Oksana in Kiev, Paul in San Francisco, Mats in Stockholm, Sabrina in Hong Kong, William in Taipei, Bill in San Jose, Andreas in Singapore, Tayeb in Montpellier, Puneet in San Francisco, Patrick in Paris, Rabih in Dubai, Sheldon in San Jose, Ben in Manila, Naresh in Hong Kong, Karim in Dakar, Lamis in Paris, Vivian in Hong Kong, Tom in Dublin, Farah in Manila, Stephen in Toronto, Nadia in Djibouti, Bev in Vancouver, Sridhar in Bangalore, Petra in Prague, Bernadette in Paris, Stefan in San Francisco, Nico in Buenos Aires, Amr in San Francisco, Katherine in Hong Kong, Sudheer in Raleigh, Jimmy in Tokyo, Jonathan in San Francisco, Hedi in Djeddah, Dileep in San Jose, Lee in Seoul, Farid in Algiers, Andrea in Hong Kong, Richard in San Francisco, Aki in Tokyo, Sridhar in Bangalore, Andrew in Vancouver, Min in Shanghai, Stephen in Seoul, Leila in Paris, Vlad in Moscow, Alex in Johannesburg, Suzane in Nairobi, Adel in Cairo, Andy in Tokyo, Hedi in Algiers, Tobias in Berlin, Paul in Cape Town, Latif in Luxembourg, Luke in Vancouver, Alex in San Francisco, Tina in Hong Kong, Wafa in Algiers, Sarah in Paris....and many others...from many other places... Many thanks to Angela Hamilton for helping me with the editing of this book, Judith Mazari and Fernando Navarro with the cover design, and Isabel Hughes with the formatting.

I want to thank my parents and my wife, for their immense and unconditional support.

To all of those I have learned from throughout this journey of adventures, thank you. Priceless it was. You are the real story.