Power of Consistency (Notes from Jan. 20 to Jan 26, 2020)

April 15, 2021
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It's impressive for how much consistency matters, as long as you're open.

Sometimes, it's every week. Maybe it's daily. Maybe more than that? Is it a post? Is it a photo? Tweeting 10x a day? There is probably some magic number for each frequency, based on platform and content that, over time, eventually takes off. I don't think it's spelled out because there are likely ranges for each. That's the beauty of the internet, now. Niches are actually very large - and if you're consistent in posting about something you enjoy - eventually, if you landed in a sweet spot, you may be rewarded for it. The opportunity arises where you land on an audience of a community you enjoy being a part of - and now you can share at will. It becomes easier to be public.

Maybe the ease by which any of us continue down this path is rooted in the writing or habit itself. Maybe it's your work. Maybe how you spend your money. A tool you use? Something you picked up knowledge from friends or a trend you happened to stumble on in a podcast that piqued your interest. Any way you draw it up, if you can repeatedly talk about it and enjoy it, it stays the course. If you're public in a manner that others can find you, you can reach that audience.

It feels like we have plenty of solutions to get this out - it takes the effort of an individual or group of individuals to be motivated enough to repeatedly produce that content. Thankfully, I write a bit here and on Twitter, mostly. Should be more consistent myself. Used to be a part of a weekly podcast. Now I feel like I have ideas to push others - without accountability, it falls off. Groups and communities like Indie Hackers, No-code and Makerpad or other niches on Facebook/LinkedIn/Slack/Discord, Substack or even Wordpress here provide that. Seek your people out!

  • CES 2020 - Screens, 8K, 5G, Cars, Micromobility, Smart Home (16 Minutes News by a16z 1/18/20)
  • Flexible screens in phones (Samsung), folding - around a business as billboard
  • Fold and unfold - suboptimal experience for usage of the phone outside of big screens
  • Phones as biggest volume driver in displays - grow market
  • Should make folding PC was next step - Dell, Lenovo, Intel (B5 is half A4 - tablet-sized to 11 or 12" notebook)
  • Mainstream high-performance folding screens and touch surfaces - everywhere you go
  • Screens and production process now on Moore's Law, as well
  • Production too fragmented, software in tv slows down innovation
  • 8K will happen but it will cost more
  • WiFi 6, 5G at current and new mm
  • 20 carriers are spending $100bn extra a year to roll this out
  • Last mile is the battle - IEEE for WiFi - commodity access points, sim cards
  • Cars stealing show - Sony, this year
  • Power battery - USB-C is now the AC input of the home
  • Batteries and storage for energy will be everything very shortly
  • Rob Salvagno, VP of Corp Dev at Cisco Investments (20min VC 12/30/19)
  • M&A efforts, investment capital, lead Meraki ($1.2bn acquisition) and AppDynamics ($3.7bn), along with recent Duo ($2.3bn)
  • Prior investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
  • Went to Stanford thinking he wanted to be a doctor, Netscape went public in early days there and wanted a way into tech
  • Wanted to go into investment banking or consulting - entry into tech was IB, first in SF then in Sand Hill - analyst at DLJ (president at Oracle's first analyst)
  • Very transactional without any role or ownership - sent resume into resume @ Cisco . Com and got his role
  • Investments or M&A, bringing perspective - boom over past decade but we lived through 2000-01 and 07-08
  • How's this business model stand up without capital flowing? How's the CEO going to perform in challenging times? Growth multiple of 20-30x
  • Capital efficiency: attractive of business model - will look at valuations
  • Cisco wants to know if they create value in business, what are the levers for that - distribution channel, product within their architecture
  • Can improve operating model in a few ways - accelerate profitability with Cisco (growing at 30%, but maybe 60%)
  • Cisco starts with their measure of CorpDev - can they get company to do something that they wouldn't be able to do with them
  • Companies think they can often do things on their own - Cisco recognizes the broader source of innovation within VC and outside capital
  • Strategy first and deal second - work hand-in-hand with biz unit to collaborate with teams inside to shift pov for where to go
  • Acquisitions can get them there - magic happens with the business units inside Cisco
  • Motivation for investment wants to make portfolio companies successful to help Cisco
  • Believe opp to invest in best-in-class company in market that is interesting - tight partnership over 2 quarters or 3 years, shared expectations
  • High multiple transaction to be avoided isn't necessarily true
  • If you're GM of Cisco Security Business - outside innovation as strategy is fundamental for the business
  • If you decided acquisition makes sense, have to position it for success inside Cisco from financial, opex, funding position
  • Levels of approval to CFO, CEO compared to billion-dollar acq with board (mentions AppDynamics acquisition within 3 days of their IPO)
  • More PE firms getting involved into tech companies is better for the business and more innovation
  • Multiples that are unprecedented for PE firms
  • SDRAM, iRAM - 10-12 startups for big market and seemingly new oppy
  • Cisco had an internal company and went out to talk to startup called MetaCloud
  • Market started to take off and they looked at M&A - scan of industry, acquired
  • Cisco has done 200+ acquisitions, knows their mistakes
  • Platform to accelerate founder visions, they're also enabled - David Yooliwitch (Founder of OpenDNS, former Cisco investment)
  • Acquired, 100mln company but David became head GM of Security of Cisco - multibillion
  • Difficult with Cisco - going from hardware to cloud - belief in a successful transition
  • Changing about tech industry - entrepreneurs not getting best advice when they need it (first time vs multiple, etc..)
  • CloudCherry - acq in collab - customer journey and future of work - predictive analytics on contact center (how to deal with customers)
  • 2nd acq - Voicea - AI and ML on top of Cisco portfolio (ex WebEx - transcribe, meeting notes, flag action items agreed and integrate into workflow)