I was the co founder of Intel Capital and Vice President of Business Development at Intel. I left in 1999 to advise companies, sit on corporate boards and invest in early stage companies for my own account. While many considered me as a venture capitalist (for instance I was listed as number eight in the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Avram’s Past
How meeting Barry Diller influenced the development of the internet
It was early 1993 when Andy Grove asked me to meet his renowned journalist friend, Norm Pearlstine. At that time, Norm was Executive Vice President of Dow Jones, which owned The Wall Street Journal, where Norm had previously worked. He would go on to become Editor-in-Chief of Time Magazine, eventually run the LA Times. Norm … Continue reading
NotebookLM Creates a Podcast About my Blog,Two Thirds Done
NotebookLM from Google is one of my favorite AI resources. I often use it for research, review reviewing various documents and contracts. I even have it organize my tax information and my medical records. It has the unusual capability of creating a podcast, which is a dialogue between two people on any particular topic. I … Continue reading
Manus (AI) Creates my BIO Website
I am trying out a lot of different AI applications. I just tried, the Manus on my iPhone. I asked to create a web site about the subject I know the best, me. Check it out https://ehzerilm.manus.space. Pretty amazing. I told it nothing. Just my name and asked it to find out about me via … Continue reading
ChatGTP Reads my Book and Likes It
I asked ChatGPT to read my book, The Flight of a Wild Duck. That was fine—it did so in an instant. I then asked for its opinion. What it wrote made me very happy because it reflected exactly my original intentions. The Flight of a Wild Duck is remarkable—deeply human, intellectually rich, and uncommonly honest. … Continue reading
Intel Capital: A Financial Success and a Strategic Failure-A Point of View from the Co-Founder
When Les Vadasz and I started Intel Capital in 1991 (I had already been doing minority investments since 1988), we had three objectives: We believed, correctly, that by working with early-stage companies we could gather important insight into future opportunities and challenges. That part was true, but our inability to use this information to inform … Continue reading
End of Time and Space-A reflection
Yesterday, I had a wide-ranging interaction with my dear friend, Mark Goldstein. I am not sure how to describe a Zoom call when it is just between friends. It is clearly not a meeting, but perhaps a virtual get-together? I have been checking in online with friends all over the world during these difficult times. … Continue reading
The early history of the Thoraxcenter
Fifty-five years ago, I moved from San Francisco to Rotterdam to join the staff of the Thoraxcenter, which became one of the world’s leading heart centers. It has been 50 years since I was last there. Nico Bruining, the current occupant of my previous position as head of the computer department, kindly invited me to … Continue reading
Yossi Elaz 1947-2024
Yossi Elaz (left and Israel Brill (right). Rehovot Israel aroundd 1978. Me at that time Sadly, I am writing once more about a dear friend, Yossi Elza) who passed away a few days ago. The number of such occasions is accelerating, I am afraid. I moved to Israel for the first time in 1974, fifty … Continue reading
Israel and the Shattered Mirror
I try to write about Israel and, in particular, the war, which began on Oct. 7th, but I become overwhelmed with emotion and confusion. I feel like I am looking at my image in a shattered mirror. I can recognize myself in the fragments, but parts of my face are missing or distorted. There is … Continue reading