Digital Indians: How Ruchi Sanghvi engineered her rise

 

 

When Ruchi Sanghvi arrived at the Facebook office in California for a job interview in 2005, she found a menu card outside saying: "Looking for engineers."

The start-up was located above a Chinese restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. It was modest looking place filled with gawky engineers, black sofas, lava lamps, and walls covered with murals and movie posters.

Earlier that year, the computer science engineer from Carnegie Mellon University had fled a job with a bank on Wall Street after three weeks. "I had panicked. I wanted to be in a business that was dependent on my core skills," she says.

She had flown out to California, interviewed with Oracle and started out there, when a friend had told her about Facebook.

"I didn't know much about them. I didn't even know that they had moved to California. I thought they were still in Boston working out of Harvard dorm rooms," she says wryly.

Scooter culture

 We are sitting in the hip Dropbox office in downtown San Francisco, where Ms Sanghvi, 31, works as a vice-president of operations.

Employees at the online storage firm whizz through corridors on skates and office scooters, some take time off to play pool and video games, and a plush music room is ready for a karaoke contest.

But, for the moment, we are talking about how Ms Sanghvi got the job at Facebook and became its first female engineer.
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“Start Quote

    It is difficult to do exciting things in India. There are a lot of issues and barriers, simple things like a good internet line to the office”

Ruchi Sanghvi

"When I started out in Facebook, it had only 20 people. I saw it grow to a thousand employees and from five million users to over a billion users. I saw it evolve from a service that served college students to one that served the world," she says.

"It was extremely chaotic, but it was a wonderful experience. I learnt everything there."

At Facebook, she was part of the team that developed the news feed.

How was it, I asked, being the first female engineer at Facebook?

Ms Sanghvi says she was used to being in a minority: at engineering school, she was one of the five female students in a class of 150.

But at Facebook, she says, she truly came into her own.

"You had to be opinionated, you had to make sure your point of view was heard, you had to ask questions. Sometimes people would tell you were stupid and you'd start all over again," she says.

"But it was, by and large, a meritocracy. It had one of the best environments for learning."

                                                                                                                    

"It is difficult to do exciting things in India. There are a lot of issues and barriers, simple things like a good internet line to the office"

Ruchi Sanghvi 

The journey from employee to entrepreneur was a complex and taxing one for an immigrant like me”

Ruchi Sanghvi 
 Facebook was also where she met her future husband who was the first Indian engineer the company had hired.

I ask her for a story about Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders and chief executive. She frowns, thinks hard, and says she doesn't quite like talking about Mr Zuckerberg. Then she relents.

It's a story about how the news feed launch outraged users and nearly killed it.
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“Start Quote

  

"We had less than 10 million users when news feed arrived. Mark was at a press conference (announcing it) and over a million users began protesting against it," she says.

Last year, Ms Sanghvi spoke about the time in vivid detail.

"Groups with names like 'I hate Facebook' and 'Ruchi is the devil' had been formed. People camped outside our office and demonstrated. But we realised the very people who hated it were able to spread the word because of the news feed," she told a talk.

But Mark Zuckerberg stuck to his guns, Ms Sanghvi tells me.

"Typically in any other company if 10% of your users decide to boycott a product you are obviously going to reverse the changes or do something about it. But Mark was really adamant about his vision about the potential of news feed."

 

When Ms Sanghvi left Facebook in 2010 after an itch to start her own company, the social networking site had more than 1,500 employees and more than 500 million users.

As a young girl growing up in India's industrial city of Pune, she had dreamt of taking over her family business.

Her father, a second generation businessman, runs a heavy engineering company. Her grandfather ran a stainless steel business. "We are an entrepreneurial family," she says.

But now, she was in the US, having studied computer science and worked at Facebook. The world beckoned.

So she went ahead and set up her own company, Cove, with her husband in 2010. There, helped by a team of engineers, they made "collaborative software" for communities and networks.

"The journey from employee to entrepreneur was a complex and taxing one for an immigrant like me," says Ms Sanghvi, who has been lobbying US authorities to ease immigration laws.

"When I started Cove, I spoke to three immigration lawyers who gave me a long checklist of things to do before my company could hire immigrations

Diverse roles

Two years later, in February 2012, Cove was bought by the cloud-sharing service Dropbox.

At Dropbox, a six-year-old company with more than 175 million users, Ms Sanghvi has diverse roles. She has led hiring - "only great people can make great products," she says - and managed marketing and communications.

I ask her if she plans to do anything back home in India

"I'd love to do something if it was easier to do it. It is difficult to do exciting things in India. There are a lot of issues and barriers, simple things like a good internet line to the office," she says.

"It doesn't seem as easy as Silicon Valley where you have an idea you can simply execute it with hard work. But I admire folks who are doing things in India. It requires a lot grit and determination.

"You know I think I have had it pretty easy here in US actually," she adds, with a laugh. Then she skates away for her next meeting.

BlackBerry

EXCLUSIVE - BlackBerry bidders may want to carve up business: sources

 

  A handful of potential bidders, including private equity firms, are lining up to look at BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY.O) (BB.TO), but initial indications suggest that interest is tepid and buyers are eyeing parts of the Canadian smartphone maker rather than the whole company, several sources familiar with the situation said.

Private equity firms are mostly interested in businesses such as BlackBerry's operating system and the patents around its keyboard, two of the sources said. However, one possibility is for a Canadian pension fund to team up with an investor to buy the whole company, which is currently worth a little more than $5 billion, one of the sources said.

BlackBerry's biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd (FFH.TO), has approached several large Canadian investment funds about forging a deal to take the smartphone maker private, Reuters reported last week.

Fairfax has a 10 percent stake, and its chairman and chief executive, Prem Watsa, has left BlackBerry's board already to avoid any possible conflict of interest as the company assesses its strategic options.

Nevertheless, in recent days a few private equity firms have signed confidentiality agreements or have agreed to meetings with the company to gain access to the company's books, the sources said, adding that the sale process was expected to start in a few weeks.

BlackBerry declined to comment.

The apparent lack of interest among private equity firms in the whole company underscores the challenges BlackBerry has been facing in competing with rivals such as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone and devices using Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Android technology.

Its new BlackBerry devices hit store shelves this year just as the high-end smartphone segment was showing signs of saturation in markets such as the United States. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) recently reported results that fell shy of expectations, while Apple earlier this year reported its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade.

The new BlackBerry device has so far failed to gain traction with consumers, and the company - which pioneered mobile email with its first smartphones and email pagers and was once a stock market darling - has seen its shares plummet. Its market value has fallen to $5.4 billion, from $84 billion at its peak in 2008. Shares closed down 1.4 percent at $10.28 on the Nasdaq on Friday.

Last month, the company said it was weighing its options, which could include an outright sale, after Reuters first reported that company's board was warming up to the possibility of going private.

Industry sources said several of the biggest private equity firms and some of the Asian hardware makers had decided against a deal for the company. Still, the sources added some BlackBerry's assets could be of interest to buyers.

According to analysts, BlackBerry's assets include a shrinking, yet well-regarded services business that powers its security-focused messaging system, worth $3 billion to $4.5 billion; a collection of patents that could be worth $2 billion to $3 billion; and $3.1 billion in cash and investments.

Even at a conservative estimate, that is more than the company's $5.4 billion market value. Analysts said the smartphones that bear its name have little or no value and it might cost $2 billion to shut the unit that makes them.

Many hurdles remain to a deal. Private equity firms have circled the company for more than two years and have tried without success so far to figure out ways to structure a deal.

Moreover, Ottawa reviews any big takeover of a Canadian company for competitive and national security reasons. Government officials have often said they want BlackBerry to succeed as a Canadian company, but concede they do not know how things will play out.

 

Future technology

Ten Future Technologies That Will Revolutionize Your Next Car

1.) Alternative fuels

Until we all hold our breath for Citroën to work out its high pressure air-hybrid system, let's talk about current technologies. Basically, fossil fuels won't lost long and it kills those precious pandas, hydrogen needs massive containers and has no infrastructure, while batteries are heavy without providing enough range. Whoever comes up with a cheap green petrol (ha-ha!) will be the next king of the universe.

2.) The self driving car

Purists can say whatever they want, but with CVTs, sensors and self-parking cars already on the roads, we have to face the fact that most people just don't feel like driving, not to mention the problem of constant traffic jams. For those who just want to get to their destination as quickly and comfortably as possible, Google and other companies are working on a solution. But what will the feds do?

3.) Camless engines

Getting rid of camshafts would mean smaller engines with less moving parts, higher power output and lower emissions. Sounds like a dream, and a certain Swedish gentlemen promised us it will become reality very soon.

4.) Affordable carbon fiber

Pushing down the price of lightweight materials like carbon fiber is the only way car makers can improve fuel economy significantly. Just ask Lamborghini.

5.) Predictive suspension

For a fair bit of money, you can get an adaptive suspension with magnetic dampers nowadays. That's fantastic, but how going one step further?

6.) KERS

If it works in racecars and high-end supercars, it should do well in your grocery getter as well. Somethingwittyer is the Anti-Grammar Hammer tells us about the benefits of a KERS flywheel system:

7.) Utilization of waste heat

An internal combustion engine generates a lot of heat energy, most of which goes to waste. While regenerative braking is a great way to save some of that, we could do much better at improving efficiency by harvesting more of that grilling power, especially from the exhaust gases.

8.) Rev-matching manuals

Car makers claim manuals are dying because they are inefficient, but that's hardly true. With a rev-matching stick shift, you get the most out of the engine without being Walter Röhrl. The 2014 Corvette Stingray is getting the technology, but why don't all new cars

9.) Head-up display as standard

If you've ever driven a car with HUD, you know how much safer it is. You don't have to shift focus and your eyes are can stay on the road thanks to all the important information projected to your windshield. This is probably one of the best thing that came out of fighter jets.

10.) Solar chargers

Fisker might be dead, but some of the Karma's technologies should really make it into the mainstream. Solar panels can charge the battery, power the air conditioner or the infotainment system as long as it's sunny. It's a great way to improve your mileage without sacrificing performance. Sure, you can have it as an option on your Prius, but why isn't it standard equipment?

Tchnologies

5 Future Car Technologies That Truly Have a Chance

In the technology world, the latest advancement is only as good as the next thing coming down the line. The auto industry is constantly bringing us new technologies, whether it be for safety, entertainment, usefulness or simply for pure innovation.

Many new car technologies are either specifically built for safety or at least have some sort of safety focus to them. Some of the latest car innovations we've found are some truly exciting technologies that could revolutionize not just the automotive industry but human transportation in general.

So what's in store for future cars? Well, we don't know for sure, but based on what's currently being tested and what's on the road today, we have an idea of some new technology that will most likely make it into production. Some of it will help keep us safe, some will give us information like never before and some will let us kick back and just enjoy the ride.

Read the next page to begin learning about five future car technologies.

Apple

Apple testing 6-inch iPhone models, new report claims

The company is once again said to be testing iPhones with larger screens than current models -- up to 6 inches, in fact.

Apple is reportedly testing iPhones with larger screens than previous models, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal says Apple is going as large as 6 inches, which would be 2 inches bigger than its current models.

Devices of that size, which are 4.8 inches to 6 inches, are not anticipated alongside the ones in this latest crop of models, the Journal says, citing sources.

Apple stuck with the same 3.5-inch display on the first five generations of the iPhone, making the jump to a 4-inch display with the iPhone 5. Along the way, the resolution changed three times, forcing developers to update old software and design for multiple screen types. A move to a larger display with a similar pixel density would likely bring another such change.

This is just the latest in a series of reports to suggest that Apple is tinkering with larger displays on its devices. A report from the Journal this past July suggested the tech giant has been testing a 13-inch model of the iPad, as well as iPhone screens ranging up to 5.7 inches. That followed a similar report from Reuters in June that claimed the company was working on both a 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch screen.

Nearly 80 percent of Technologyaandcars.blogspot.in readers who responded to a poll last month said they wanted a larger screen than what's found on the iPhone 5. Those results come as many of today's top-end Android devices ship with screens that are larger than 5 inches, and going into the 6-inch territory. A report from IDC earlier this month noted that models between 5 inches and 7 inches actually overtook shipments of portable PCs and tablets in the Asia-Pacific region during the second quarter of 2013, suggesting people are buying them in place of traditional computing devices.

The Journal's report comes just days before Apple is expected to unveil two new models of the iPhone -- the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5S. The latter will be a lower-cost model that makes use of plastic and comes in several bright colors, if multiple leaks and reports are correct. Apple's event takes place next Tuesday, September 10, at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

Samsung

Friction in the gears of Samsung's Galaxy Gear

analysis The Galaxy Gear, with a $299 price tag and a day of battery life, isn't going to be the iPhone or iPad of smartwatches. But you can be sure Apple, Google, and others will be watching closely.

Smartwatches have been around for more than a decade. The problem is that they haven't been very smart or very useful. The new crop of smartwatches, from Sony, Qualcomm, Pebble, and others, are primarily smartphone accessories, offering notifications for messages, phone calls, and more, along with a variety of apps, wristband colors, and watch faces.

Announced at CES in 2003, Microsoft's SPOT watch received tidbits of information over the air via FM radio frequencies. It shipped in 2004, and was discontinued in 2008.

(Credit: Suunto)

Enter the Galaxy Gear. Samsung is raising the bar for what a smartwatch can be, aiming for functionality closer to that of Google Glass. You can answer phone calls, control Galaxy Gear with your voice, take pictures, and share content -- just like you would on a smartphone, but you don't have to pull it out of your pocket.

Galaxy Gear is "something that defines tomorrow," an "engineering marvel" that embodies "simplicity, craftsmanship, and glanceability," Pranav Mistry, head of the Think Tank Team for Samsung Research America, said at the product introduction event in Berlin.

Galaxy Gear is packed with a gyroscope, accelerometer, pedometer, and a camera embedded in the wrist strap that captures 1.9-megapixel images and 10-second video clips at up to 720p, with sound. The camera can also be used to augment reality, Mistry said. Gear users can grab images of foreign language signs and translate them automatically or point the camera at a product to surface more information about it.

Samsung expects to have about 70 native apps, optimized for the 1.63-inch Super AMOLED screen, including eBay, Path, Evernote, Pinterest, Pocket, and RunKeeper.

However, raising the bar doesn't mean that Samsung got it right with Galaxy Gear. It won't be the iPhone or iPad of smartwatches in terms of establishing a new, vibrant market. There is too much friction in its gears.

The battery life isn't watchlike, lasting only a day. The Gear will work only with Samsung Galaxy devices, and currently just with the new Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1. The user interface requires some learning, and apps need to be customized to work on the device.

As a $299 super-accessory for Samsung Galaxy smartphones, Galaxy Gear will mostly appeal to early adopters who can't live without the latest cool, wearable gadget.

Canalys estimates that 500,000 smartwatches will be sold this year, growing to 5 million in 2014. Generator Research expects less than 9 million smartwatch sales in 2014, but growing to 214 million in 2018.

Apple, Microsoft, Google, and others hoping to conquer the smartwatch market will be watching closely as the Galaxy Gear becomes available. It's a first-generation product, and in its usual way, Samsung will iterate the device, refining features, adding more apps, lowering the price, and making it compatible with additional devices in the coming months.

Samsung's main rival, Apple, has a team of at least 100 people working to redefine the smartwatch category, and is expected to unveil its progeny in 2014. It's unlikely the "iWatch" will match the prodigious feature set of the Galaxy Gear -- but it is guaranteed that the battery will last far longer than a day, and it will look good.

Samsung Smart Watch

Report: Samsung set to announce smartwatch


Samsung may be the latest company to enter the red-hot wrist-tech market. The South Korean company is planning to announce a new smartphone device that's worn on the wrist in September, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The Android powered device will be called the Galaxy Gear and will be able to handle the smartphone basics: phone calls, Web surfing and e-mails, said the report. Samsung will announce the product at an event on September 4, just ahead of the big IFA consumer electronics show in Germany.

It would be no surprise that Samsung is investing in wearable technology, which could be the next major gadget category. The wearable tech market is expected to hit $1.5 billion in 2014, a huge leap from the $800 million it's raking in this year, according to a report by Juniper Research.



Wrists are the most popular body part for the coming wave of wearable devices, followed by heads. The dream of a smartwatch has been around in popular culture for decades -- cartoon detective Dick Tracy had an early version of one -- but recent advances like smaller, cheaper sensors and low-power Bluetooth technology are finally making it possible to pack powerful features into tinier shells.

There are still limitations, and the current crop of wearables are primarily satellite devices that need to pair up with a nearby smartphone to access the Web. If Samsung's Galaxy Gear is more smartphone than accessory, it could stand out from the competition.

All the major companies are angling for a piece of the action. Apple is likely developing its own smartwatch, Microsoft is rumored to be producing a prototype smartwatch that would run Windows 8, and Acer says it will release a wearable device in 2014, though it did not specific what type.

Sony, Pebble, I'm Watch and other manufacturers already have smartwatches on the market.

Meanwhile, Google is working out the kinks on Google Glass, its connected headset due early next year.

Simple wearable fitness devices like the FitBit are already extremely popular and many of their features, like monitoring heart-rate or tracking movement, will likely be included in the bigger products.

Saviour or slayer

Newsmaker: Saviour or slayer? Either way, Nokia's Elop a contender for Microsoft chief

(Reuters) - When a British bookmaker installed Stephen Elop as favorite to take over the soon-to-be-vacant CEO slot at Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) last week, most tech observers laughed it off as a publicity stunt.

But Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's (NOK1V.HE) handset business, announced late on Monday, has suddenly made Elop one of the most visible candidates for the top spot at the company where he once worked.

Investors and others familiar with the board's thinking reject any suggestion that the deal was done with Elop in mind, and his track record at Nokia is decidedly mixed.

At a minimum, though, the understated, steely Canadian will play a critical role in managing Microsoft's controversial entry into the mobile handset market, and thus shape the future of the software giant as it plunges headlong into the hardware business.

On paper at least, 49-year-old Elop fits the role. He knows broadly how Microsoft works, having spent nearly three years there running the highly profitable Office unit, and has just spent three years in the thick of the mobile war at Nokia.

But that is not enough time to cast him as an "insider" in the minds of many looking to shake up insular Microsoft.

"People are looking for Microsoft to go through some dramatic change," said Kevin Walkush, an analyst at Jensen Investment Management, which holds Microsoft shares. "He has a very good understanding of what happens at Microsoft, and he has made hard decisions in the face of big challenges. It's a pretty strong combination."

The jury is still out on whether Elop saved or put a nail in Nokia's coffin by making the pivotal decision to adopt Microsoft's Windows Phone system as its smartphone platform in 2011.

Nokia's shares fell more than 60 percent during Elop's tenure as CEO, and its sales collapsed as it jumped from its long-held but outdated Symbian system to the largely untested and unknown Windows, choosing it over the more popular Android system by Google Inc (GOOG.O).

"They (Nokia) only have 3 percent market share in smartphones. They lost 40 percent of their revenue in mobile phones in Q2. That's not a business on stable ground," said Hakan Wranne, an analyst at Swedbank, summing up Elop's legacy. "Of course we will never know what would've happened if they had chosen Android."

TRAIL TO FINLAND

But perhaps it could have been worse.

The appointment of Elop as Nokia CEO in 2010, making him the first non-Finn to lead the company, was seen by many at the company as a breath of fresh air.

Many who survived the massive job cuts - around 40,000 since his arrival - credited Elop for turning around a culture that many said lacked speed, decisiveness and a sensitivity towards demands of customers and partners.

Analysts credit him for speeding up product launches over the past year by eliminating unnecessary processes and holding individual executives more accountable.

In an interview in July, Elop said the company spent 22 months on the N8, which used the now-obsolete Symbian operating system and was launched shortly after he joined the company. With Windows phones, he got that down to six- to eight-month delivery cycles.

Many Finns were relieved the Canadian was more understated than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer or other U.S. tech executives, bonding with his adopted countrymen over a love of ice hockey.

Many were impressed he answered 10 to 20 emails from customers each day.

"He is a nice guy. Everyone liked him. That's his strength," said one former Nokia employee who worked closely with Elop and asked not to be named. "He is very down-to-earth, he answers all of his email. His communication skills are very good, but he has got a sense for the dramatic."

Elop's dramatic side came to the fore with his startling "Burning Platform" memo sent to staff shortly before he announced the company would adopt Microsoft's Windows Phone in early 2011, which essentially announced the death of Symbian.

"It was an internal memo but he (Elop) knew it would get out given the situation at Nokia," said the former Nokia employee who asked not to be named.

But outside the company it was broadly welcomed as the jump-start Nokia needed to change.

"He (Elop) changed the way Nokia operated. And he did a very good job, he was fast at executing and changing the mind-set of the company," said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo.

Before he came to Microsoft in 2008, Elop was a fairly high profile Chief Operating Officer at network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc (JNPR.N) and before that a president at software firm Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O).

"He's got a technical background, he actually understands engineering, he gets it," said Paul Murphy, formerly Elop's chief of staff at Microsoft. "I've seen him interact with customers, he's fantastic with customers in difficult situations."

Less is known about Elop's stint as Chief Information Officer of restaurant chain Boston Chicken from 1992 to 1998 when the company filed for bankruptcy.

The Nokia deal is not expected to distract the special committee from conducting a thorough search for a new CEO, said one person with knowledge of the matter, hinting strongly that Elop is not a shoo-in for the job, but admitting that he is a probable candidate.

"People can point to his Nokia track record and say that he failed, but he was really dealt a tough hand," said Walkush at Jensen Investment Management. "He's demonstrated a lot of leadership and ability."

Hydro Hybrids

28.09.2012 05:30

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This month, the Tech Up team heads to Gelendzhik to check out the Ninth International Exhibition of Hydroaviation, where the country’s latest hybrid aircraft were strutting their stuff. Amphibious firefighting vehicles like the Be-200 showed their blaze-battling skills to the gathered crowd. The world’s biggest and most powerful helicopter was also on hand to flex its mechanical muscles, and show why it’s in a weight class all its own. One light seaplane stood out among the macho displays and proved that sometimes, less is more. Throughout the exhibition, modern hovercrafts served as a link to the past, and were some of Russia’s most eye-popping maritime creations.