This has been a year of lost. Four of my friends and former colleagues have died, way before their time. A remarkable man left us last Sunday. My friend, Michael Johnson, died at his home in South Africa. I attended a memorial Tuesday evening on Zoom. I think there were 20 or more attendees, friends … Continue reading
Category Archives: Avram’s Past
Avram's Past / Finance / Intel
The relevance of Corp Venture Capital
I am Still Alive Several months ago, I was contacted by a contributor to Forbes, com, Gil Press. He was going to spend some time in Israel, where I live (mostly) and wanted to interview me about Corporate Venture Capital. Frankly, I was surprised that at this point in my life, anyone was interested in … Continue reading
Intel’s Board Fails at its most important task
I have personally served on dozen of boards. Five of these companies were public, Maxis, King World, CMGI, PCCW, and World Online. I have not served on a public company board since 2002. The majority of the boards were private companies. I resigned my last board position at the end of 2018. I don’t plan … Continue reading
A little bit of the book
Staying Alive I was seven years old when I began thinking about the universe and my own role in it. Staring at the ceiling in the Stanford Convalescent Home, in Palo Alto, I asked myself why I had such a weak body and such a strong mind. It’s terrifying when you can’t breathe, thinking you … Continue reading
Update on my book
I am very grateful for my successes as it has allowed me to speak freely of about my many failures. Status I am making a lot of progress and now have written about seventy pages so far. I expect the book will about be about 300 pages when finished. At first, I spent most of … Continue reading
Rereading Only the Paranoid Survive
At the suggestion of my friend, David Yoffie, I reread Andy Grove’s book, Only the Paranoid Survive, written in 1996 and I am glad I did. David, who is a professor at Harvard’s business school, served on the Intel Board of directors for almost 29 years leaving in May of 2018. David visits Israel several … Continue reading
about business / Avram's Past / broadband / Business Managment / Intel / Microsoft / Venture Capital
My book in the making
Below is a description of sorts about I book I am working on. It is actually a great deal of work as I have to conduct a lot of research and assure its accuracy. Now, I need some feedback. I am concerned that the companies, people and events may not be relevant to today’s readers. … Continue reading
Drinking the kool-Aid (how billions were lost creating PDAs)
As I try to decide if I should write a book, I have been reading or rereading various books about the computer industry. I just finished Jerry Kaplan’s Startup, written in 1995. Jerry founded GO Corporation in 1987 to develop pen-based computers, and I still think the book has value today for those starting technology-based … Continue reading
Seeds of Discontinuity
A small part of the Apple iOS 12 announcement got me thinking: Live Listen. I love spotting little pieces of new technology that can profoundly affect the evolution of human culture: I call them Seeds of Discontinuity. For example, I vividly remember seeing a flip phone in 1999 that had an embedded camera. … Continue reading
Staying alive
I was very sick as a child. It is surprising that I survived. I suffered from serious chronic asthma. Asthma runs in my family. My father had it as well when he was a child. I think mine was brought on by allergies, but also by emotional stress. My father and mother fought all the … Continue reading
