What can and will be

My wife, Shonali, is insane with dates.

If she meets you and you mention your birth date or anniversary to her, she will comfortably remember it 10 years later. Shonali and I celebrate not only the anniversary of our engagement AND the anniversary of our wedding but ALSO the anniversary of the first time that we met and I’ve always attributed this tradition to Shonali being insane with dates.

“Remember dates, will celebrate.”

But I was reflecting on our tradition of celebrating the first time that we met and I think its importance transcends the weird wiring of my wife’s brain.

When you meet someone important for the first time, that moment of first meeting is filled with unlimited possibility. In that moment, your relationship is unfettered by any past or present history and entirely comprised of what-can-and-will-be.

We should all be so lucky as to travel long roads together… that are marked by recurring renewal of possibility.

Happy anniversary Shonali.

Shaming myself into writing more

OK, I’m going to try to shame myself into writing more by… writing about what I should be writing about.

I should be writing about… how we’re thinking about our office space at SnapStream. In a nut shell, we’re going to “unbundle” our current office at 601 Sawyer– get a separate space for the shipping/receiving and critical infrastructure equipment — and then go “no office” come February and then wait until there line of sight on a widely available vaccine. And then we’ll start making plans for an office that serves our completely new set of needs. Oh and we’ll definitely be upgrading our landlord along the way.

I should be writing about… how we’ve embraced working from home at SnapStream to re-shape how we run the company, trying to write things down more (and our embrace of Notion for internal knowledge sharing), trying to make more decisions asynchronously, the journey from lots of zoom meetings to a mix of zoom meetings and phone calls.

I should be writing about… what I’ve learned on our journey at SnapStream as we’ve been rebooting the company in the last 5 years to set ourselves up to have more impact and grow faster, especially everything we’ve done in the last one year. Which reminds me of this tweet:

How do I solve this, “I don’t write and share publicly enough” problem? What’s missing? A writing coach? A platform (so what I write gets in front of a larger audience)? A community of other wannabe writers (I know the “I want to write/blog more” is a common desire amongst a bunch of my friends)?

Video conferencing: You need better lighting.

Since most of us are working from home and doing more video calls, this is a good time to think about better lighting.

No one wants to look like they’re in a dimly lit bunker in Idaho (even if you happen to be in a dimly lit bunker in Idaho)!

The idea is that you want to be lit from the front. (If you work directly in front of a window, you can ignore this post!)

For the rest of us that have no natural lighting or have lighting from the back or from the side, you need to get some front lighting. Ideally you want something with an 1) easy-to-access switch, 2) something that’s AC powered (vs. rechargeable), and 3) something that provides diffuse light so you’re not blinded.

I use this LEPOWER clip on light that I bought off of Amazon at work and it does the trick (see attached photo). It has two color tones (a bright white and a soft white) and two brightness settings, clamps on the back of my standing desk and costs <$20:

(tip: I stuck the switch to my desk with some double-sided tape to prevent it from constantly falling off the back of the desk*)

And in my home office where I’m now working from all the time, I have a fancier pair of tripod mounted Neewer lights that stand off of the floor to the left and right of my desk (see photo):

I also got a foot pedal switch for them… because I’m too lazy to go behind the lights and turn them each off manually.

There are lots of other options… just search on Amazon. “Ring lights” tend to be nice and diffuse, so that’s a good category of options to look at.

*It probably happened once, but I’m a diligent procrastinator, always looking to solve problems that don’t really exist.

The Station Houston Mafia – where are they now?

(Updated October 25, 2019 to add several people I had missed)

I was having a chat with my good friend John Reale (JR), co-founder and former CEO of Station Houston, and we got onto the topic of what an amazing group of people comprised the Station Houston team. As we went through the list, it was clear to me that Station Houston attracted, nurtured and amplified a lot of local talent in Houston.

So what is the Station Houston Mafia up to now? Let’s take a look…

Moral of the story: get good at recognizing special teams and cultures like Station Houston’s and if an opportunity to join one presents itself, take it!

(Did I miss anyone or make a mistake? Let me know in the comments or on twitter at @rakeshagrawal.)

How to hire tech talent in Houston

I’m often asked you hire tech talent in Houston. Most recently my friend Krish, the founder of rapidly growing ethical jewelry maker, Doamore, asked me the question. So decided to write a quick blog post.

Short answer is… there’s is no short answer. You have to grind it out!

Probably the first step is to have a great story to tell– ie a great business thesis and a story on why you’re the one to make it happen. And then things that are a plus:

– built product or prototype
– actual users
– actual revenue

After that, some of the places to show up and tell your story and recruit:

– Station Houston has a quarterly startups gigs event. (Next one is Feb 19, 2019)
– Startup Career Fair is held once a year at TMCx – http://startupcareerfairhtx.com/ (next one is really soon – February 4th)
– Get on the roster to present at Station Houston’s monthly demo day – they usually pack the house and it’s a great place to tell your story and spread the word to potential technical recruits (I know one founder, John Kennedy, who met his partner, John Ruff, at this demo day– Mesa, http://mesa.digital/)

List your job postings:

– http://htxtalent.com/ (this is a site created by the Houston Exponential Talent committee)
– Houston Digital Jobs group on Facebook (has about 7000+ members)
– Rice University has two big career fairs each academic year, one in the fall, one in the spring (which is this Friday, February 1st, 2019)

I’ll try and keep adding to this. If something’s worked well for you, post it in the comments here and I’ll add it.

On Children by Khalil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Even This Shall Pass Away by Theodore Tilton

Once in Persia reigned a king,

Who upon his signet ring

Graved a maxim true and wise,

Which, if held before his eyes,

Gave him counsel at a glance

Fit for every change and chance.

Solemn words, and these are they;

“Even this shall pass away.”

Trains of camels through the sand

Brought him gems from Samarcand;

Fleets of galleys through the seas

Brought him pearls to match with these;

But he counted not his gain

Treasures of the mine or main;

“What is wealth?” the king would say;

“Even this shall pass away.”

‘Mid the revels of his court,

At the zenith of his sport,

When the palms of all his guests

Burned with clapping at his jests,

He, amid his figs and wine,

Cried, “O loving friends of mine;

Pleasures come, but do not stay;

‘Even this shall pass away.’”

Lady, fairest ever seen,

Was the bride he crowned the queen.

Pillowed on his marriage bed,

Softly to his soul he said:

“Though no bridegroom ever pressed

Fairer bossom to his breast,

Mortal flesh must come to clay –

Even this shall pass away.”

Fighting on a furious field,

Once a javelin pierced his shield;

Soldiers, with a loud lament,

Bore him bleeding to his tent.

Groaning from his tortured side,

“Pain is hard to bear,” he cried;

“But with patience, day by day,

Even this shall pass away.”

Towering in the public square,

Twenty cubits in the air,

Rose his statue, carved in stone.

Then the king, disguised, unknown,

Stood before his sculptured name,

Musing meekly: “What is fame?

Fame is but a slow decay;

Even this shall pass away.”

Struck with palsy, sore and old,

Waiting at the Gates of Gold,

Said he with his dying breath,

“Life is done, but what is Death?”

Then, in answer to the king,

Fell a sunbeam on his ring,

Showing by a heavenly ray,

“Even this shall pass away.”

–Theodore Tilton

Newly launched: Houston Exponential TV

I’m an enthusiastic board member of Houston Exponential, whose goal it is to grow the Houston startup and innovation ecosystem. I’ve always believed that one of Houston’s greatest challenges is communications — Houston is so spread out that the left hand often doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. I’m super connected here and I often meet people and organizations doing amazing work that I’ve never met or heard of before.

So I’m excited that Houston Exponential has launched HXTV, a YouTube channel with video interviews of Houston entrepreneurs and innovation leaders/do-ers. You should subscribe!

And to whet your appetite, here’s an interview with one of Houston’s great entrepreneurs, Chris Church, the founder of Macrofab (which does on demand manufacturing of PCBs and electronics products):

Father’s Name

A good friend and his wife are about to become parents for the first time. Thinking about it reminded me of this story from 13 years ago:

The year was 2004 and my wife had just delivered our first child and we were at the pediatrician’s office for her first doctor’s visit. The check-in nurse handed me a clipboard, asking me to fill out my new patient paperwork.

Patient name… address… insurance info… I filled out the form.

I got to “Father’s name” and instinctively filled in “Durga Agrawal” (my Dad’s name) and continued on, with a vague sense that I had made a mistake. And then a few seconds later:

“WAIT. A. SECOND. FATHER… THAT’S ME!?!?”