Stories by Arshad Chowdhury on Medium
Photo by Prateek Srivastava on Unsplash Managing cash when selling to enterprises is hard. There’s both science and art in doing this well. Most enterprises pay their vendors after 60 to 90 days. But your startup’s suppliers don’t give you such generous terms. Your vendors get paid in 15 to 30 days and your employees expect a paycheck at least every month. When customers pay late or projects take…
Should You Quit Your Job To Start That Company? You have a great business idea. With every passing day it seems better and better. You talk to friends and people in the industry and hear lots of positive feedback. You’re now seriously considering taking the plunge, leaving a steady job to become a founder. Should you do it? The answer to this question has little to do with the strength of the…
Liberal Arts FTW Kids: study what you want. Some of the finest minds in venture capital are philosophy majors ( Dan Shipper , Sarah Tavel , Reid Hoffman ). Liberal arts grads excel in product, design and sales. Not everyone needs to be a STEM major to find their way in the world.
When asked what they think is the purpose of one’s life, friends at first scoff as if it’s facile to even discuss. They usually dodge the question of purpose and focus on goals. Then I hear their goals in life include living comfortably, taking care of family and friends, and perhaps doing some good in the world. It’s uninspiring. For people living in the mid-2020s, what should we strive for…
Image generated by ChatGPT These are early days for the industrial-robotics industry. Contrary to popular belief, robots are not actually everywhere in manufacturing. Not even close. In 2024 and 2025, at least half of iPhone final assembly still involves human labor. Somewhere between 10% and 30% of manufacturing operations use any robots at all and the global robot density (ratio of robots per…
Image by ChatGPT It’s midway through 2025 and a lot has changed. Here’s an updated view from the perspective of a GP hiring at Betatron Venture Group where we happen to be hiring for the Analyst role . The Analyst role is the entry point into the Venture Capital industry. Internships help, and can improve your chances of getting a full time offer, but I’m writing this for anyone who is thinking of…
“Shut it down,” commanded an imposing figure in a trench coat. “This whole operation is shutting down.” He was one of three burly enforcers in trench coats from the New York City Department of Buildings (aka the D.O.B.). These men freeze construction work, fine slumlords, and evict squatters for a living, often in the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. On this day in 2004, they were shutting…
Image created by ChatGPT based on the content below. During a recent 26-day family trip to the United States, we encountered multiple simultaneous heatwaves, an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, a massive technology outage, and a powerful resurgence of COVID-19. While the political drama and tech outage were unexpected, the climate-related issues were long predicted and here to stay. Each…
My business partner recently called me out for the umpteenth time for having missed emails and for being late on tasks. I could feel his frustration. I was embarrassed that I wasn’t holding up my end of the relationship. It’s not the first time in my life a business partner has been frustrated with me. I know what my problem is. My problem is long-undiagnosed ADHD. I’m fine in meetings or…
Celebrating 48 with friends and family in Singapore My parents are both in their 70s and thankfully in good health. Their good health has come with an unexpected negative side effect, though: loneliness. They have done for over 40 years what so few people do ever: they exercise, sleep enough, build community, don’t smoke, and don’t drink alcohol. They eat vegetables at every meal, shun soda and…