SRnext - Safa Rashtchy

I got this question quite often, as expected, once I announced my retirement from the sell side in June of this year. In an email to my contacts, I promised that while I’ll be taking some time off, I will be looking at starting some investment opportunities in 2008. SRnext is going to be my website to inform my business friends on what I am up to next. (But as you can see, this site is a work in progress, and it’s just this boring intro from me for now.) However, I do intend to make it a bit more lively by adding thoughts and commentaries on various technology and media trends, as well as observations from my travels and meetings.

Global Media, Internet and Technology Trends continue to draw me in, and despite my temporary retirement plans, I find myself involved in various conferences and presentations. Most of my talks focus on the User Revolution theme (more on this later) and on the global opportunities for companies

Asia Trip – Dec 3 - Dec 13. I am off to see several countries in Asia, catching up with my contacts there, and also observing the markets in some new areas. The compressed trip will take me to nine cities: Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai, and New Delhi. I’ll be meeting with many of the companies that I have known and a good number of new ones, as well as other experts and officials. I’ll post some broad observations when I get return.

Portofino view from the castle – Nothing to do with Google or the iPhone, but it’s one of my favorite places. I took the picture when Alborz and I were vacationing in Europe earlier this year.

Google and the iPhone have continued to capture my interest over the past six months. The former is continuing its aggressive expansion, and I think they have a high likelihood of success in the mobile arena: the current mobile platforms, save for the iPhone, is very much like search was pre-Google: totally user-unfriendly, inefficient, with entrenched players that don’t get it. To be sure, times have changed and the current mobile companies are a lot more alert than the portals were in 1998 but still, they lack the level of understanding of consumer need that Google and Apple, in my opinion, possess. This is not about technology anymore but about User Revolution. More thoughts on this later.

Thanks to all of you who contributed generously to my calls for autism-related fundraising. Our latest was the Dinner Auction for Wings Learning Center, which allowed us to reach our goal for that event. I plan to remain active in this field and help other organizations, especially in the area of education for autistic children – an area that has received little attention from most organizations.

Let me know what’s on your mind or if you want to catch up by clicking here