Ram Shriram
Ram Shriram
Kavitark Ram Shriram is a founding board member and one of the first investors in Google. He earlier served as an officer of Amazon.com working for Jeff Bezos. Shriram came to Amazon.com in August, 1998, when Amazon acquired Junglee, an online comparison shopping firm of which Shriram was president. Before Junglee and Amazon, Shriram was a member of the Netscape executive team, joining them in 1994, before they shipped products or posted revenue...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryUnited States of America
died early guess raised
I guess the most seminal moment going early way back was my father died when I was 3 years old. I was raised by my grandparents, and my mother went back and got a degree.
beautiful blue coming ethnic finally move sky time warm
I had an ethnic preference, if you will, for the warm weather, coming from Chennai. So I finally said, 'Look, can I move to California?' because every time I come here, it would be in the 70s or 80s, and there would be beautiful blue sky and warm.
happening produced technical
In the U.S.A., technical innovations come out of universities and the research produced by Ph.D. students. We don't have that happening in India.
people produce reach role ways
You learn that different people are made differently, and they have different ways to reach to their goals. Some people reach their limits of what they can produce and create, and that doesn't necessarily make them bad. It is just that they may not be right for that role in that instance.
aol biggest coming connect consumers easy growing remember signing single
I remember when AOL was small and they were growing like mad. Consumers were coming on in droves because they made it easy to connect to the Internet. That was the single biggest innovation of AOL; when grandmas were signing up, AOL had arrived.
cannot lock people
I think, ultimately, open always wins out. It wins out because you cannot lock data in; you can't lock people in. They will find a way out.
customers
Stay externally focused - on your customers - and focus internally when you have to hire.
america companies lead needs opportunity sure wants
If America wants to lead the world, it needs to make sure new ideas can get to market. More opportunity will birth more companies that create more jobs.
became bell bought ended labs northern worked
I ended up working in Michigan for a young company called Sycor out of Michigan, worked there, and that company got bought by Northern Telecom. We became the Bell Northern Research Labs of Northern Telecom.
best business
My only loyalty is to what's best for business, not to any set of constituents.
attribute checking correctly extra homework life lots mentor miss number signing sure tests time
My mother has been my mentor in my life. The number one attribute was discipline. To be on time to school, never miss a day at school, and then checking out homework and making sure I was doing it correctly and signing me up for lots of activities, extra tests and classes.
bands decision digital either industry maintain needed pieces status tv wants wireless
There are still some pieces that aren't being used, like the white-space bands between TV channels. With digital broadcasting, those buffers aren't needed anymore. The wireless telcos want to lease them, while the TV industry wants to maintain the status quo. Either decision would be a mistake.
features few fully lacking though
You want to do a few things really well because you want to come out with a product that is fully baked, even though it may be lacking in a few features or whatever, rather than the one that's all-achieving but not doing anything too well.
applied business gotten
All the social things the consumer has gotten used to are being applied to business.