Meditations on technology, science, future, life, and photography
Hi, I am Om.
I am a San Francisco-based writer, photographer, and investor. I have spent three decades in the trenches of Silicon Valley as a journalist, entrepreneur, and, more recently, as a venture capitalist. I have been writing about the commercial Internet since its birth.
I write about technology, photography, and general observations about life on this website. I use the twin lenses of technology and humanism to connect the dots and understand our present and future. I like to write like a human, steering clear of jargon and B-school speak.
My photographic portfolio is available at PhotosByOm.
I was born and raised in Delhi, India, where I earned my undergraduate degree in chemistry from St. Stephen’s College. In the early 1990s, I moved to New York City, where I started Desiparty.com, an online South Asian events listings service, and co-founded Masala magazine, which focused on the South Asian diaspora. My interest in learning and writing about technology and networks drew me to San Francisco, where I continue to live and work.
- Founder of GigaOm: With seed funding from True Ventures, he turned the one-person technology blog, which he started in 2001, into a pioneering media company and research firm.
- Reporter & Writer: Previously served in various editorial roles for Business 2.0, Forbes.com, Red Herring, and Quick Nikkei News.
- Other Work: His writings have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, Fast Company, Wired, and The Wall Street Journal.
- Books: He is the author of Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist. (Take a look on Google Books or buy it from Amazon.)
- Etc: Om regularly provides commentary for television and radio programs on Bloomberg, NPR, BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other stations.
In 2008, about nine months after a major heart attack adjusted my focus and priorities, I became a venture partner at True. I eventually became a full-time partner at True in 2014. These are my current investments. I have since transitioned to partner emeritus. I currently focus on technology trends prediction and prognostication while guiding the True team to take bigger and bolder technology market risks.
I am an amateur photographer and a Leica enthusiast. You can view my minimal landscapes on my photography portfolio at my website, PhotosByOm.com. My photos are also available on Glass. @Om
Follow me on Twitter @Om, Threads @Om & Mastodon @OnMyOm.
Investments
I joined True Ventures in 2008 as a venture partner. As a True partner, I currently am:
- On the board (as an observer) of System, a data, machine learning, and intelligence platform based in New York.
- On the board of Ditto, a San Francisco-based distributed infrastructure company.
- On the board of Petasense, an Industrial Internet-of-things company based in Silicon Valley. (#)
- On the board (as an observer) of Academia.edu, an academic and research community-focused media company based in San Francisco.
Angel Investments
- Slack a corporate messaging co-founded by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield. (No longer holder of any equity in the company.)
- Sightglass is a San Francisco-based iconic artisanal coffee establishment.
- Stoffa, a New York-based on-demand made-to-measure menswear company.
Previously
- Was on the board of Socialcast, a San Francisco-based social collaboration software company that VMWare acquired on May 31, 2011.
- Was a board observer for Sponge, an enterprise knowledge management company. Sponge was acquired by Kurtosys in August 2011.
- Was a board observer for Lexity. Acquired by Yahoo in August 2013.
- Oversaw True’s investment in Glider, a productivity web service. Acquired by FPX in April 2014
- Was a board observer for Little Inc., a mobile app company behind the MessageMe app. Acquired by Yahoo in October 2014.
- Was the founder of Gigaom and was on the board of the company. It was shut down in March 2015.
- Was on the board of directors of Narrative, a Sweden-based wearable cameras company. It went out of business in mid-2016.
- Was on the board of directors of Storehouse, a San Francisco-based visual storytelling platform. Acquired by Square in mid-2016.
- Was on the board of directors of TwinPrime, a Redwood City, California-based wireless technology company. Acquired by Salesforce in late 2016. (#)
- Oversaw True’s investment in Metamarkets, a San Francisco-based data analytics company focused on programmatic advertising. Acquired by SNAP in October 2017.
- Oversaw True’s investment in Projector, a new data mining effort from Tim Young (Socialcast) and Aaron Gotwalt. Suspended operations.
- Was on the board of directors of Callstats.io, a communications company based in Helsinki, Finland.
- Was on the board of Everywear Games, a Finland-based company developing entertainment experiences for wearables such as Apple Watch.
- On the board of directors of Over, a social media marketing and content-focused startup based. Acquired by GoDaddy in January 2020.
- Oversaw True’s investment in OpenDoor, a real estate company that was co-founded by Keith Rabois and Eric Wu. (No longer holder of OpenDoor equity)
- Was on the board of directors of Veniam, an Internet of moving things platform company. Acquired by Nexar.
- Oversaw True’s investment in IntentionNet, a networking infrastructure company based in Seattle, San Francisco. (Acquired by Amazon.)