OUR GREAT MINDS

Rahul Sood, GM & Partner, Microsoft Ventures

Rahul Sood

GM & Partner, Microsoft Ventures

The man who formed Microsoft Ventures learned quickly in his early days at Microsoft how to survive and thrive as an entrepreneur inside the walls of a corporation. A millionaire at 19, Rahul Sood, a Calgary native, sold his original startup technology to Hewlett Packard, after declining an offer from Dell. With his profits, he launched his career, increased his investments, and became the founder of Microsoft Ventures (MV) at Microsoft Corp.

Sood reflects on how, following the original sale of his company, his next tech company, Voodoo, was a huge miss. “Failure is only great if you learn from it, and, in my case, I had plenty of failures to learn from.” Sood is excited about some of the latest investments that MV has made: BuzzTable, Pinion, Selectable Media, Buddy, LikeBright, SkyGiraffe, Ranku, and Zula. “The biggest impact selling Voodoo has had on me is learning how to work inside of a big corporation as an entrepreneur.”

Sood told The OGM how MV is more than just a fund; the accelerator program has helped other entrepreneurs around the world. “We ran 120 companies through our pilot in Bangalore, Beijing, Tel Aviv, and Seattle. Eighty-five percent of those received seed funding, thirty-five percent have hit series A, and eight have been acquired.”

Identifying as an entrepreneur, Sood explains how MV is not like a corporate fund. “Think of it this way: as an entrepreneur what do you care about most? Solving big problems, building a great team, creating a breakthrough idea, and most of all, acquiring clients and retaining them.”

An Old Persian proverb that aligns to the notion of “This, too, shall pass” helps him overcome challenging times. Working with over 40 of the largest Fortune 500 companies and with other locations in London, Moscow, Paris, and Brazil, MV revisits the most promising companies to reinvest and help advance them even further.

“In total, our companies have collectively raised in the neighborhood more than $50 million from angels and VC worldwide.” Not bad, indeed, for a program in its toddlerhood!

Understanding that ecosystems around the world differ, Sood emphasizes the importance of matching companies and technologies that provide solutions to local issues. “In Berlin and Israel, we want to find companies that are solving large global problems. But if you ask what the constant variables are, I’d tell you that we’re looking for great teams who are solving big problems, and working on something potentially breakthrough.” Despite this seemingly heavy criteria base, Sood assures that MV is a big initiative with an offering of big value to the entrepreneurs who subscribe to it.

He goes on to say, “With the way technology is going, entrepreneurs are emerging as early as grade school.” It’s rare that someone finishes high school, goes to university, starts a job, and then begins his or her own business. “Millennials will continue to disrupt markets by looking for the quickest route to solving big problems.”

When asked what the essentials of being a successful entrepreneur are, Sood shares the following:

  • A deep understanding of your industry.
  • Knowing your competitors inside and out.
  • Defining the problem you’re trying to solve.

Empowering your customers and building that community passion for your product, and knowing your team as well as your own family.

“Look at any big problem space, and you’ll find someone trying to solve the problem, using unique and creative ways.”

“Strong culture can lead to amazing results,” says Sood, stressing the importance of being awake to the world around you, especially in the menial tasks. “I’m talking about the barista who makes your coffee in the morning, the person who picks up your trash, your UPS driver, the person behind the grocery counter. Say ‘Hi’ and ask them a question about themselves.”

When asked to share his proudest moment, Sood recalled joining Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s top dog, who’s rated #21 on Forbes 400 with personal wealth of $18B) on stage to help launch Microsoft Ventures Berlin. “That blew my mind! Pretty awesome experience.”

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Tina Olivero

Tina Olivero

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    Tina Olivero

    30 years ago, Tina Olivero looked into the future and saw an opportunity to make a difference for her province and people. That difference came in the form of the oil and gas sector. Six years before there was even a drop of oil brought to the shores of Newfoundland, she founded The Oil and Gas Magazine (THE OGM) from a back room in her home on Signal Hill Road, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. A single mother, no financing, no previous journalism or oil and gas experience, she forged ahead, with a creative vision and one heck of a heaping dose of sheer determination. With her pioneering spirit, Ms. Olivero developed a magazine that would educate, inspire, motivate and entertain oil and gas readers around the world — She prides herself in marketing and promoting our province and resources in unprecedented ways. The OGM is a magazine that focuses on our projects, our people, our opportunities and ultimately becomes the bridge to new energy outcomes and a sustainable new energy world. Now diversifying into the communications realms, a natural progression from the Magazine, The OGM now offers an entirely new division - Oil & Gas Media. Today, The Oil and Gas Magazine is a global phenomenon that operates not only in Newfoundland, but also in Calgary and is read by oil and gas enthusiasts in Norway, Aberdeen, across the US and as far reaching as Abu Dhabi, in the Middle East. Believing that Energy is everyone’s business, Ms. Olivero has combined energy + culture to embrace the worlds commitment to a balance of work and home life as well as fostering a foundation for health and well being. In this era of growth and development business and lifestyle are an eloquent mix, there is no beginning or end. Partnering with over 90 oil and gas exhibitions and conferences around the world, Ms. Olivero's role as a Global Visionary is to embrace communication in a way that fosters oil and gas business and industry growth in new and creative ways.

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