startup story

Ex-Goldman Trader Building New California City Will Need to Appease Local Opponents

The veil of secrecy surrounding an ambitious project to transform California farmland into a sprawling green city has been lifted, revealing a fascinating endeavor backed by Silicon Valley magnates.

The visionary behind this project is Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader, who has received a hefty $800 million in support from prominent tech industry investors including Mike Moritz, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and more. However, the project’s journey has been far from smooth, entangled in legal disputes and met with skepticism from local residents in Fairfield, situated about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco in Solano County.

Recent reports by the New York Times divulge that Flannery Associates LLC, an entity linked to Jan Sramek, conducted over 100 land acquisitions in questionably mysterious circumstances. The financial backing from high-profile tech investors like Moritz, Hoffman, and Andreessen has further heightened intrigue. The project’s core concept, as pitched by Moritz, envisions an innovative urban development boasting unique design, construction, and governance elements, all within convenient proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Despite the promising vision, the project faces notable challenges. Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader who rose to prominence at a young age, has kept a low profile in response to media inquiries. Similarly, investor representatives, including Andreessen and Dixon, have either remained silent or declined to comment.

Flannery’s spokesperson, Brian Brokaw, expressed enthusiasm about the project’s potential to deliver employment opportunities, affordable housing, sustainable energy, and a healthy environment to Solano County residents. Brokaw’s statement also hinted at the company’s intention to collaborate with local communities and elected officials.

This isn’t the first instance of wealthy individuals striving to shape urban landscapes in their image. Renowned names such as Elon Musk, Les Wexner, and Larry Ellison have embarked on similar undertakings. Musk’s land acquisitions for an employee-focused town near Austin, Texas, Wexner’s transformation of New Albany, Ohio, and Ellison’s conversion of the majority of Lanai Island into a haven for the wealthy all underscore the trend.

However, Flannery’s project has been shadowed by legal entanglements, notably a lawsuit filed against local landowners who are accused of inflating property prices. The lawsuit provides insight into Flannery’s considerable investments in Solano County rangeland properties over the past four years.

While the project aims to bring progressive changes to the region, it has triggered skepticism and suspicion, especially among Fairfield residents. US Representative John Garamendi has even raised concerns about potential national security threats linked to the development. Additionally, navigating California’s intricate zoning laws and development regulations poses a considerable challenge for Flannery’s plans.

Also Read: Dropbox Ends Unlimited Cloud Storage Following Google Change

Ultimately, the vision for a groundbreaking green city in California appears to have immense potential, backed by influential investors and conceptualized with modern urban development in mind. However, its path forward is punctuated with hurdles, legal battles, and the need to garner local support. Whether the project can truly appease its opponents and materialize as a transformative city remains to be seen.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Vietnam’s Richest Man Slurps Up $39 Billion in 24 Hours

Leave a Comment / News, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

VinFast Auto Ltd., the Vietnamese electric car manufacturer, has defied conventional wisdom with its stunning debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Despite the automaker’s electric cars facing criticism and the specter of lower sales than industry behemoths like General Motors Co., the company’s shares soared an astonishing 255% on Tuesday, catapulting the net worth of its chairman, Pham Nhat Vuong, by a staggering $39 billion. This meteoric rise pushed his total fortune to $44.3 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

VinFast’s robust stock performance also propelled the company’s market capitalization to surpass established giants like General Motors and Mercedes-Benz Group AG. At the current valuation, VinFast dwarfs Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng Inc. by sixfold.

The automaker’s debut exemplifies the trend of companies soaring after merging with Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). These impressive initial surges, however, have often been followed by significant market corrections in the days following the debut. This volatility is attributed to the limited availability of shares for trading. Vuong’s substantial control of approximately 99% of VinFast’s outstanding shares via his conglomerate, Vingroup JSC, has led to larger price fluctuations.

According to Professor Jay Ritter from the University of Florida, “The stock will be very volatile until more shares are available for trading.” This volatility has been a hallmark of the SPAC debut trend, with 2023’s de-SPACs experiencing a median decline of about 45%, and a notable 18 of them plummeting over 70% in value post-merger.

VinFast’s journey to this point has not been without challenges. The company has faced operational difficulties, with a recall of electric SUVs due to software glitches and a handful of unfavorable reviews. Despite these hurdles, VinFast remains steadfast in its commitment to improvement. CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy emphasized, “We take [negative reviews] very close to our heart, we reflect on the feedback from those reviews and we make our vehicles better.”

The road ahead for VinFast appears promising, especially when compared to other electric automakers that have entered the market via SPACs and witnessed significant value erosion post-merger. While companies like Lordstown Motors Corp., Nikola Corp., and Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. have seen their market value decline by over 90%, VinFast is in a unique position if it can sustain its initial gains.

Also Read: Apple Plans Major ‘Watch X’ Overhaul for Device’s 10-Year Anniversary

VinFast’s strategic shift from a traditional initial public offering (IPO) to a SPAC listing with Black Spade Acquisition Co. speaks to its adaptability and resilience. With chairman Pham Nhat Vuong’s successful track record, including the sale of his instant noodle business to Nestle SA, and Vingroup JSC’s diverse portfolio, VinFast is positioned for growth. Despite the operational hiccups, the company forecasts sales of 45,000 to 50,000 units this year and aims to break even by the close of 2024.

In an industry prone to rapid change, VinFast’s spectacular entry into the US stock market signifies the triumph of innovation and adaptability over initial challenges. As the electric vehicle landscape evolves, all eyes are on VinFast’s continued journey and its potential to redefine the narrative surrounding SPAC mergers.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

From Star Managers To Star Providers – Story Of StarClinch.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Team YTS

– How this solution-oriented startup set its foot in the most unorganized, unstructured industry in an attempt to streamline the infamous ecosystem.

Entrepreneurs are natural at thinking up solutions to problems people face. They have a vision of correcting a wrong in their environment and end up creating something exceptional and offering succor to everyone around them. Similar is the story of Mr. Varun Agrawal, founder, and CEO – StarClinch aka disruptor of the entertainment industry.

The reputation of the Entertainment and Arts industry has been besmirched brutally due to various reasons openly known to the public and followers of footlights. The showbiz industry seeks to captivate, shock, inspire and amuse audiences of every stripe, in spite of all the attractiveness of this arena, some risk-taking is certainly essential — but this industry is likely among the most difficult to manage.

The challenges and risks associated – some already established and some emerging are third-party liability, surety/guarantee of performance deliverance, shortage of talent, digitization, non-standardization, etc.

Today, the global market for art is over 50 billion dollars. It is not standardized, the prices are not transparent, and there is no regulation of the sector as a whole. The aforementioned elements are crucial characteristics of any investment asset. The absence of these qualities leaves the art market open to manipulation. These limitations were unimportant in the past because art was mostly purchased for personal use. An example would be if you purchased a painting because you liked it and put it in your living room where you could enjoy looking at it. However, it wasn’t yet a valuable investment asset. Today, however, things are different; art is more diverse than just paintings, and not all artists focus exclusively on producing them.

To consider the art, entertainment, and recreation industry as an investment asset, rectifying the challenges and risks is an uphill struggle. It requires a great deal of determination, vision, ceaseless efforts, and ardent passion to create a smooth ecosystem out of unorganized industry.

The art, culture, and entertainment domains today include audiovisual, cinema, live performance in all its disciplines, music in all its components, museums, and heritage, visual arts, design, architecture, crafts, video games, books, and press. A wide variety of opportunities is available for the artists to express themselves as well as explore what the market has to offer. However, due to the disorganized and unstructured nature of this arena, artists and clients are unable to connect effectively with each other. To provide a solution for this untapped space in the gig economy, the aim of StarClinch is to act as a trust layer and ensure a transparent, efficient business between parties.

Starting in 2015 from a basement with just 3 people and tremendous zeal in their minds, Varun entered the arts and event industry with a vision to capture the management aspect of it. Cut to 2022 with a workforce of 15 people equivalent to 30 in a co-working space, survived a deadly pandemic and its consequences, and completely digitized its website for easy browsing, shortlisting, and booking of talent, the journey of StarClinch has been no less than a rollercoaster.

Back in 2015, StarClinch was more or less an offline business with a website as a listing platform for artists primarily focussing on Live Bands and Singers. The team physically visited their clients which were mainly restaurants and bars in and around Delhi to provide them with lower-budget artists who performed at the cafes. In the good old days, the website was not used as a gateway for online transactions and was not technically forward.

The team started to analyze the problems and issues they experienced firsthand and decided to shift their gear towards adopting an online model of business and scale their product for a smoother interface for both artist buyers as well as artist providers. In 2018, they upped their game by introducing the “See Price” & “Book Now” options on the website which allowed the clients to initiate payments via the website itself after exploring and ruminating the artists’ profiles.

At present, StarClinch is the first Indian company to be VC funded that works in the entertainment sector and is eyeing to capitalize on the opportunity while addressing unstructured talent discovery, reference checks, and performance assurance. The objective is to act as an umbrella platform for its customers and be a one-stop solution for booking any live artist. It is a product that would help budding entertainers & artists make a presence in the gig economy. They recently have assisted organizations such as Maersk Tankers, Twilio, JTB India, and Meesho to procure artists for their events.

Team YTS

Capgemini: A Big Name in the IT Consulting Services in the Digital World

Leave a Comment / Founder, Inspiration, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By Yashica Vashishtha

The most innovative discovery that the world has witnessed in the past 60-70 years is the discovery of computers and the internet. These two technologies have changed the face of the world and have brought humongous opportunities for people in every nook and corner of the world. The internet has made it easy for people sitting in a backward area to work with a company based miles and miles away from their place.

The scope of the internet and computers is not limited to providing jobs to people, but these have also encouraged the startups to provide their B2C and B2B services in the most innovative ways to make the business even easier. Such a company that has taken full advantage of digital innovation is Capgemini, a renowned name in the world of technology and innovation.

About the Company

Capgemini is a French company having its headquarters based in Paris. Serge Kampf founded Capgemini in 1967 in Paris and now the company has expanded to various foreign countries having multiple offices in each. Capgemini is a technology company with expertise in different services, including consulting, technology, professional, and outsourcing services.

The Foundational Story of Capgemini

Kampf founded Capgemini as SOGETI (Société pour la Gestion de l’Entreprise et le Traitement de l’Information) on 1 october, 1967. In the beginning, it started to work as an enterprise management and data processing company. As SOGETI, Capgemini, in 1974, acquired a New York-based company named Gemini Computer Systems. The next year, the company went on to acquire another technology company, named CAP (Centre d’Analyse et de Programmation), leading to a name change of SOGETI (Due to an international dispute on a similar name as CAP of another company), to Cap Gemini Sogeti.

In the next five years, Cap Gemini Sogeti started its international business by launching its US operations in 1981 and opened 20 new branches in the US only. By this time, the company had employed about 500 people and also made another acquisition of a data conversion company, named DASD Corporation. The company cut the Sogeti from its name and changed it to Cap Gemini. It also redesigned the company logo for every branch in the world. This way, Sogeti became a separate subsidiary of Cap Gemini that solely works as information technology consulting company.

In the year 2000, by acquiring Ernst & Young Consulting, Capgemini entered into the consulting business and started its consulting business as Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. In 2017, the company had another rebranding of its name, and from Cap Gemini, it became Capgemini.

The Founder Serge Kampf

Serge Kampf is one of the leaders who are known for their management and leadership skills and are the role-models for many budding entrepreneurs. Kampf was born on 13 October 1934 in Grenoble, France. He was born to a soldier father. Since Kampf’s father was in the army, he spent his school days at a boarding. After completing his school, Kampf passed the entrance exam of the French Telecom administration. He then obtained a double honors degree in Law and Economics. After completing his education, his first job was for an underground telephone exchange as a Telecom Inspector.

While working for the exchange, Kampf realized that he does not like his work and wanted to try something else. While looking for opportunities, he got to know about the newly emerging technology, which was IT. Kampf became curious about IT and computers and immediately applied for jobs in two companies working in IT, Bull and IBM. Though he got offers from both companies, he went on to join Bull. He started as a commercial engineer, and later, with one after another promotion, he became the regional manager of Bull.

After working for seven years with Bull, Kampf got motivated to start his own business. He wanted to have the freedom of a boss and did not want to serve anyone else than himself. So in 1967, he resigned from Bull and started Sogeti on 1 October 1967, from a two-room office in Grenoble, with a team of six people. The company wasn’t one of its kind, but it was the first French IT services company.

Kampf served Capgemini as its CEO till 2002, and in 2012, he resigned as the Chairman of the company too. He served the Board of Directors as the vice-president till 2016, when he died at the age of 81 in Grenoble.

Capgemini Today

Capgemini is dominating the IT consulting services in the world. It has multiple branches in different countries in the world, and as of 2020, more than 370,000 employees are working for the company across the globe. Currently, Aiman Ezzat is the serving CEO at Capgemini, and Paul Hermelin is the chairman of the Board of the company.

Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

www.xornor.co

The Journey of Applied Materials from a small start-up to a pioneer in the electronics industry

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Annasha

Applied Materials is one of the leading companies in the electronics industry to shape the future with excellent innovations in technology. Michael A. McNeilly founded the company in 1967 and since then it is striving to make our lives better in the modern era. The company not only aims to bring innovations but also works for making technology affordable for everyone. The contribution of the company forms the foundation of the most trending breakthroughs of this century like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Augmented Reality, etc. The company mainly focuses on supplying equipment and software that are required to build semiconductor chips. Applied Materials is currently based in Santa Clara, California, U.S.

The Foundational Story of Applied Materials

Michael A. McKeilly founded the company in 1967 and it went public in 1972. The company started diversifying in the following years and shifted its main focus from semiconductors. But, in 1976 when James C. Morgan became the CEO of the company it again went back to semiconductors only and sales started rising subsequently. In 1984, Applied Materials made a breakthrough as it became the first U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturing company to spread its branches in Japan and China.

In the next decade, the company acquired two big Israeli companies with $285million. The company has made several acquisitions since 2000. It acquired Etec Systems Inc., Oramir Semiconductor Equipment Ltd., Baccini, etc. Another huge achievement for Applied Materials was in 2009 when it opened the world’s largest commercial solar energy research center and development facility. This solar technology center was established in China. Later this year, the company acquired Semitool Inc and in 2011 it acquired Varian Semiconductor.

In 2013, the company merged with Tokyo Electron and planned to change the name of this merged conglomerate to Eteris. But, unfortunately in 2015, the merger was scrapped due to some antitrust issues. In 2018, the company was listed in FORTUNE World’s Most Admired Companies. Applied Materials has always shown interest in making investments towards better education and improving several communities for the better well-being of people. Currently, the CEO of the company is Gary E. Dickerson who is aligning more than 21,000 employees to work for a better future.

Founder of Applied Materials: Michael A. McNeilly

Michael A. McNeilly has a very rich entrepreneurial experience as he started very young in his journey to reach excellence. Before co-founding Applied Materials, Michael A. McNeilly founded Apogee Chemicals when he was twenty-five. After three years, he co-founded Applied Materials. Michael received a loan of $7,500 from his father-in-law to start Applied Materials. When the company has found the name of the company was Applied Materials Technology but while filing an IPO Michael changed the name to Applied Materials.

In his entrepreneurial journey in the semiconductor industry, Michael became the co-recipient of the first SEMI award in the category of “Outstanding Contributions to the Semiconductor Industry.” He also served as a member of the board of directors in more than 30 companies. His journey just began with Apogee Chemicals and Applied Materials as he founded fourteen more companies after it. While he was in Applied Materials he issued over twenty patents. Michael passed away in 2005 but before he passed away he majorly contributed to semiconductor technology. Michael was also the recipient of the “Outstanding Contributions to NASA Technology Commercialization” from NASA.

Vision and goal of the company

Applied Materials designs highly sophisticated technologies and software for complex chips and displays for many companies. The main goal of the company is to help their customers build large capacity and faster memory chips with the help of Applied Material’s technology. The company also works for making high integrated and more efficient processors. Apart from contributing to creating chips and processors, the company also designs technologies for high-resolution displays. Around 30% of the total number of employees are dedicated to research and development and the company invests around $2billion annually for the same purpose. Currently, the company has more than 12,500 patents.

The company has a strong vision towards solving high-value problems providing equal focus from research purposes to customer support. Applied Materials also believe in establishing high-value collaboration and developing a strong work culture globally.

Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Glassdoor: The Story Behind the Biggest Online Review Portal for Job Seekers

Leave a Comment / Founder, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By Yashica Vashishtha

Years ago, people were practicing the traditional approach to finding jobs, i.e., through the newspaper classified section, local ads, brokers, or a reference from a friend or relative. But as the internet evolved with time, people started using online job portals, which became the most convenient method for all sorts of job seekers. Today millions of users, both employers and job seekers, can easily connect through such portals. In the same league, when one is looking for a job and gets an offer, they now can look for the company reviews on similar review-based websites, and easily make their mind on taking or not taking the offer. One such leading review-based online portal is Glassdoor.

Glassdoor is a review-based website that lets its users anonymously submit their reviews about a company, their experience, satisfaction with the company, salary, other workplace-related data, etc. This information is publicly available to job seekers, who want to know about the work environment of a certain company. The website also includes the feature to post or search for a job.

The Founders of Glassdoor

The co-founders of Glassdoor include Tim Besse, Robert Hohman, and Rich Barton. Both Robert Hohman and Rich Barton were working for Microsoft. Barton founded Expedia (a Microsoft spun-off company) in 1996, where Hohman was one of the team members. Later, after the spin-off, Barton became the chairman and Hohman the CEO of Expedia.

**Glassdoor Founders: Robert Hohman, Tim Besse, and Rich Barton**
Image Source: geekwire.com

On the other hand, Tim Besse met his future partners Hohman and Barton at Expedia only. He joined the company as his first job immediately after graduating from the Case Western Reserve University. Besse worked as the director of the Product Management and Online Marketing for the Asia Pacific division at Expedia.

The Story Behind

Rich Barton had been in the online business industry from before and had co-founded companies like Expedia and Zillow. He had a mind that would ask questions and try to answer them, even if he had to opt for an unconventional path. Going off track, with Expedia, he was providing airline ticket prices to the public and, with Zillow, he was revealing the exact real estate prices for the people. With Glassdoor too, he took an unconventional step.

During a brainstorming session for a new business idea in 2007, Barton and Hohman remembered an incident when Barton had left some employee survey data on the printer. This survey had information about employee satisfaction, their salaries, and reviews of their workplace. Though Barton’s assistant had grabbed that file safely, the two discussed the bad and the good aspects of that information going public. It was the trigger point for their new business idea. The two thought that even if that data had got revealed, it would have not caused any harm to anyone. In fact, if there was such a public platform, where people could submit such reviews of their companies, it would have been helpful for the job seekers to make better career choices.

The Working of Glassdoor

Tim Besse was impressed by the idea and left Expedia to join Hohman and Barton for their new business. Finally, in June 2008, with an investment of around $10 million, they founded Glassdoor. The concept behind the platform was the anonymous rating of companies by the people who have worked with them. People now had a platform, where they could put their reviews on their experience with a company, how much they got paid, and how satisfied they were while working in it. Glassdoor also enabled the users to post any company-related media on the platform, to make their reviews more authentic.

The Platform uses smart technology and a team of people to filter the original reviews from original people so that the reviews are always trustworthy. With time, the platform started posting their rating for the companies, by averaging the reviews, salaries of employees, rating for the management, culture, etc. Later, based on the rating, Glassdoor started offering the ‘Best Places to Work Awards’ to the top listed companies.

The Journey of the Company in the Past Decade

In 2010, the company added a new feature to the website, i.e. Enhanced Employer Profiles. This new feature allows the users to add content other than reviews on the website. This feature is paid and offers the users to add content like social media links, interview questions, classified, etc. to their account. This paid content became useful for the people who wanted to prepare for a certain company interview. Glassdoor also provided features to submit a job opening for companies.

From 2012 to 2015, the company had raised around $160 million through venture capital. By 2015, Glassdoor had registered over 20 million users, and in the following two years, there were 41 million unique users at the platform. Glassdoor became a unicorn company within ten years of its founding. More than one-third of the biggest companies in the world have partnered with Glassdoor as its corporate clients. It has become the most trustworthy platform for job seekers. Glassdoor has been a winner of the Red Herring North America Award for Social Media Innovation 2013.

In June 2018, Recruit Holdings acquired Glassdoor for $1.2 billion in cash. Currently, Christian Sutherland-Wong is working as the CEO of Glassdoor.