2023

 Another year of lot of activiteis 

Jan : India trip to Bapu function. Traveled with Amma and uncle to India. 

Feb : Cabo trip with class mates. Fun game played Mafia. Guru fooled me in the first game.  Tinku's 40th. celebrated at home ; Aunty left to India . Abhi became interested in Soccer. 

Mar :  Celebrated Abhi birthday at home. took kids out to play Soccer at FSP. Busy understanding high school curricula to pick subjects for Pranav.

Apr : Seattle trip , Stayed at Raghu's place. lot of fun. Visited Starbucks, space needle. Visited Hari/Tanjua, Bharat ,  Sweety's friend home. Tulips didn't bloom.  Reddy/Laxmi's 25th anniversary. Kids practiced at home for party in May. Finished Shoe Dog book.

May: Camping trip for Mother's day.   Abhi and Pranav graduated from elementary and middle respectively.  Did Stand up at Laxmi/Reddy's anniversary. kids danced well. 

June: Pranav went to D.C. First long trip by himself. He attended Summer class Biology.  Went to Yosemit for Father's day. Vernal falls are wonderful but lot of traffic. Vacation home was nice. Did 1 week of no-electronics . it was great. Finished books Atomic habits and psychology of money. Great books.  Chinnakka purchased house.

July : Prepped for Yk's function dances. Trip with Classmates near russian river. lot of fun. Raghu's hysteric behavior is memorable.  Yk's function went well. Couple dance in front of lot of audience. did stand up as well.  Prabhdhn visited and Raghu visited as well.  Abhi went for Ballistic try outs.

Aug: School time. Busy with Offsites. Vignatha fell from bike at Tassajara/Gleason intersection. Surgery was recommended by docs. Went to Giants game on Birthday party.  Abhi started Soccer with Ballistic in the Select/Black team. CFT project kicked off. Met Atrm team at the requirement workshop.  Chinnakka house repair work started.

Sep : Littu visited bay area. went to visit GG/ eat at Ghiradelli. Bought new sofa from Living spaces.  Attended Dreamforce with the team. Bought Musk auto biography. Abhi started drinking Star bucks coffee. He also started playing Tuba. Attended Current event. Met president Erca shutz and spoke 10 minutes about the CFt project. Almost every week, we had Abhi's soccer games. it was lot of fun to watch the games. Abhi improving defence skills.

Oct: Ravali blessed with second baby boy.  Went to Cabos as family trip.  fun trip. Abhi played a lot with water proof soccer ball in the pool. return flight got cancelled and had to stay extra day in the cabo at another hotel.  Had reddy hostel get together in Dallas. Enjoyed India world cup games. went to BJ's for vigntha birthday.

Nov:  Rakesh blessed with second baby boy. Attended DPTG diwal party. Adhya's saree ceremony. all hostel friends came. it was lot of fun. met with hostel friends at home for Thanksgiving. Family diwali at hari's home. Abhi joined Futsol. Pranav started Soccer with high school team.

Dec: Pranav birthday. his friends came to home. Abhi's team lost in state cup finals ( 1-1; lost on penalties).  Went to India. Chinnakka's work in progress. went to blr and met the team. spent lot of time on CFT deployment. attended house warming function. prabh anna came. spent time with Rakesh. visited Rakesh' house under construction.  Came back to US. Ravi's family visited. kids played soccer together. Went to Cancun . stayed at Moon palace (Sun rise). Hd great time. Visited chicteniza and my highlight is cenote. Jumped from 9 ft high. Prnav was able to jump. Abhi jumped 3 times but lil scared. 

Jan 24. Pranav did first assist and hit second goal in EHS history. He improved a lot in Soccer. Snow trip with cBIT family is fun.

First time W2 exceeded 500k

Bapu 10th memorial

 Bapu Event 

It’s been two days since Bapu’s event and I’m unable to get out of it. Wow. What an event.  I’m not sure how we were able to pull out such a massive event at Scale. 

Key Stats 

========

Total Budget : 11 Lakhs 

Food Served : 8k-9k people over three days  (500 Kg of meat served and 1200 kg of Rice )

Volunteers worked : 100 + 

Total teams : 42

Total Matches : 46 ( 4 courts on day 1, 2 courts on day 2 and 1 court on day 3)

Final Match watched by 2k+ people 

Video recordings 

Number of Vehicles : 1k  and parked over 1 km stretch 

Core Team : Sudhakar, Rakesh, Saireddy Bapu, Lakshma Reddy, Vinoda, Padma, Baba, Damodar, Nawab, Nagesh, Swamy Goud, Rasoon, Santosh, Cook

• One match went to Tie and then super tie , decided by Golden Ride 

I started SFO on Wed 4 PM and reached Hyd by Friday 01/20 4 AM . It was 8 AM by the team I reached Kankal. I went straight to the school ground and it looked great. I went to school around 10 AM and met School teachers and village Pedda Manushulu.  The event got started around 11 AM with Garland to Bapu and Tenkay.  DEO & SI were guests and after speaches, I spoke about why I organized the event . Three reasons 1) Sports teach life (winning vs losing) 2. Importance of Health 3.  Gather as many people that my dad knew.  School kids did dance performances , March fast.

We played Friendly match between Gurjakunta and Kankal to begin the tournament. After that start, the games continued and the PET, volunteers, players continued the matches till 9.30 PM.  All the players went to lunch  and the food was great. We gave two 1.75 bottles to all the teachers and PET’s. I slept very well on day1. Total of 8 teams qualified for league matches (3 teams stayed over night ). One low light was between the match between Tadwai and Sadasiva Nagaer. SS Nagar protested over umpire’s decision and decided to not to play for 10 minutes and sat on the ground. They were forced to walk them out.  Kankal A & B teams didn’t qualify for the leagues. I met Sripad thatha at Stadium and he is exactly kind of persona I was expecting to the event

Next day we went to Ramalayam & Baba temple. The matches started at 4.30 PM for 5 hours and 12 matches were played.  The match between Tadwai & Brahmanpalli was intense and it was a tie match.  4 teams qualified for Semis (Mupkal, Bollaram Thanda, Brahmanpally, Tanda).  Tadwai & Brahmanpally were tied for Semis but Brahmanpally qualified as they lost with less margin to Mupkal than Tadwai. We ate dinner around 10 PM and went to bed around 12 AM and I couldn’t sleep well.   18 Goats arrived and the cutting started around 10 PM.  Got good responses to live matches in the You tube channel.

On Final day, we started pooka at home around 10 AM and 5 priests did pooja. We recorded some videos in Bapu’s memory.  Ram Reddy Anna came home. We were in the ground by 11 AM and the first semi final match started around 12.30 PM  . We handovered Vaikunta Ratham to GP around 11.30 AM .  Before the matches started Ramreddy Anna spoke very highly of Bapu. First semi final vs very tight match and second one was one sided. We started food serving at 11.30 and the villagers came to eat the food and matches happened in parallel. The crowd/relatives started trickling in and there are total of 2k+ people at the stadium and 4k meals served.  We hand covered the mementos to PETs and volunteers in-between the matches. 

I spoke around 5 minutes just before the final match. I spoke about the values I learned from Bapu and honored people who are exhibiting those values.  

Value 1 : Education : Award to Ravi V for DPS Warangal (Gave to Phani as Ravi was not there)

Value 2: Creativity , Innovation and Leadership : Ravi M for Drivers

Value 3 :  Help  & Impact : 4 nominees ( Sai Reddy Bapu, Prabhakaranna, Sangam Trust, Hari (Sahaya)). Gave to Hari as I don’t want conflict of interest

Value 4 : Loving nature ; 2 nominees ( Mudigama Veeranna and Shala Balraju thatha). Gave the award to  Sanjeev

In between the matches, Siri danced Solo and group. School kids also danced. I felicitated Ashok for Ginnese book record for holding the flag and riding 100km 

Final match was very intense. Mupkal won by 1 point. I couldn’t watch the full match as I went home for rest room. I returned to the ground just after the match over and I couldn’t get in as the crowd was leaving. There was huge crowd. We distributed the prizes 

Commentary by Ram Chander Anna was great. Everyone loved it. Also Supriya did great job for live videos on Youtube

Best Rider : Saireddy Bapu & Chinnamma 

Best Defender:  Attamma & Yerrapahad Chinnamma

4th Prize : Chinnakka

3rd Prize : Peddakka and Bava

2nd Prize : Anna and Vadina

1st Prize : Me and Amma

We hand covered the mementos to all the people who worked. I thanked each and everyone. 

People started leaving around 5 PM and everyone spoke very high about the event.  We gave 2 1.75 bottles to PET’s and they sat at Damodar Anna home. All the villagers sat at Venkat Reddy Anna home and we spend around 22k on Alcohol. The ground volunteers we gave 25 beers .

The event was 100 times more that what I expected. I delegated all the work to Rakesh and he did a fantastic job. Special thanks to Nawab for self less work, Hari for proactively asking for help. Baba for helping me navigating the situation with Damodar and Saireddy Anna. Sai Reddy bapu for constant support and Damodar Anna for planning 

My highlights 

1. Volunteers work : school kids worked as volunteers and they took care of lines in between the breaks 
2. Sri pasha thatha song 
3. Ram Reddy Anna Speech
4. Commentary
5. Matches played under Flood lights  and with team jerseys 
6. Well organized 
7. Food - The mutton on Final day was great 
8. You tube live 
9. Drone videos 
10. Vehicles parked over 1 KM stretch on both sides of the road 

2022

 2022 Great year, a lot of stuff happened 

Jan : New year celebration in Vegas. Start of Sandesi venture. Hari moved to the bay area.

Feb: SKO in Vegas and Traveled to Pheonix for Srujan's housewarming. Chinni's Engagement in Dublin. 

Mar: Prep for Grand canyon hiking.  Abhi's first Rubik's cube tournament. Met Max park. Abhi's birthday celebrations with the Game truck.

Apr: Closed 4 homes in Orlando.  Sindhu's H4 EAD approval.

May: Traveled to San Diego for Naina's housewarming.  GC Rim to rim hike (North to South). 

June : India trip : Event in Kankal in memory of 20 years of thatha's . 20 years of Work exp.  Travel to Maldives.  Went to Bangalore. Reddy hostel get-together. Hari's house approved in Manteca. Got a $100k grant. Abhi's tournament in India. Watched the Virata parvam movie with amma.

July : Trip to Ballari, back to the US.  got house keys for Hari. Classmates get together. 

August : Family back to the US.  Marriage day celebration. Uncle Aunty came to the US

Sept:  Started with Gym trainer.  going to Gym. 

Oct:  Traveled to LA for Abhi's Rubik tournament. Dasara celebration at Hari's home. Sweety's birthday.

Nov: Amma came to the US. Swapna accompanied her.  Puja at home. Family trip to San Diego & Universal. Thanksgiving celebrations at home. Pranav's first time shaving 

Dec : Pranav's birthday at Rocking jump . Completed half marathon. Hari's housewarming. Prabodhan's visit and New year at home.  Discussion for Bapu's 10 year celebrations . Went to Standford, field of light at Sensorio.

Work front, Drove Agile transformation,  Invesment wise, invested in lot of SPV , Real estate. 

2021

 A lot of things happened in 2021.

Multiple Job offers ;  Apt > DocSgn > Conflt > DD. 

GTM Fund 

Fair field home

Florida real estate

Vignatha business

A lot changed since my last post

I wrote my last post right after my Amsterdam trip in Feb 2020.  When I traveled to Amsterdam there was not much discussion of COVID but while returning back, the discussions increased. In fact, first COVID case report in Amsterdam on my last day's stay.

So, I came back to SF and in a week, there was lockdown.  For the first 2-3 weeks in Pandemic, we didn't go out or meet anyone. It's very different feeling. We celebrated Abhi's birthday over zoom meeting.

I had to postpone my plan of moving to CC. I got the bonus in March and I was able to invest in the stock market when it's 20% down. 

Started evening walks in Pandemic. Some time around July, Srini took me to Mt.Diablo. I didn't ride bike as a kid and Srini didn't know that. I was not aware that It's elevation. It was very difficult ride. 

I decided to focus on bike and did lot of elevation biking . Did Milcreek multiple times.  Went to Mt. Diablo , bought new bike (Scott Speedster Gravel),  Went to Mt. Hamilton, Tam,  Mt. U and many other places. Did 100k ride with Vig.

Biggest career decision

It's been almost 5 years since I joined Apt. It's been a great ride so far. A lot of learning and grew pretty well, in terms of career as well as compensation. After the acquisition of TB, the company's focus changed from growth to operational excellence. Also, the company is focusing heavily on partner projects than PS.  With all the things on, I am not seeing much growth opportunities in the company.

So, I have been thinking about what to do next. We will get a bonus paid in March and the remaining portion of retention will be paid by the end of April. so, I can join any company starting May 1st. I have been exploring the outside opportunities.

I have been watching the CPQ space closely and observed one trend. The big consulting companies are acquiring SF CPQ implementation partner companies. So, I sensed some opportunity to start new company in this space. My idea is to build boutique CPQ implementation companies with below key themes

1. Provide CPQ Advisory services to help customers to review the business processes , optimize it, simplify product, pricing data, build high-level use cases prior to starting CPQ projects.
2. Provide Catalog transformation services to take care of all the activities related to catalog from building the products /structure/rules to moving the data from one org to another.
3. CPQ implementation services for all the CPQ products on the platform,Apt,SB,Vlcty
4. Build tools to convert data model from one app to another so that
5. Upgrade services.

In parallel, I was helping a couple of folks on preparing for Salesforce CPQ certification. So, I completed the certification myself. I posted it on LinkedIn and it got around 8,500 views and got below opportunities opened up.

1. Director of IT for Legal Technology, Sp**k.
2.Commerce transformation leader (Grade 13), Ci*co
3. Chief Sol** officer, CC
4. VP / Partner at Spauld**

In addition to the above, there are some passive opportunities as well.

1. Director role under Jess at Min**T**l
2. BSA (Grade 5 or 6 ) at Goo**Clo**D (I met Yuvon and she is connecting)
3.VP of PS  at Leg** (Don reached to me )
4. Sr. Director of Product at Apt

Regarding the 4 active opportunities, interviews are lined up in the coming weeks.  Regarding the passive opportunities, interviews are not started but there is a 50% chance that I will get an interview in next 4-8 weeks

Among all the opportunities , I'm excited about two opportunities CSO at CC & VP/Partner at SR.  VT called me last Friday ,when I was on my way to meet Yuvon at GC. We spoke around an hour an explained my ideas about building the company and looking for partners as I can't start company on my own.  We spoke for another hour on last Sunday and agreed on comp and decided to meet this Thursday at Amsterdam .

So, we met around 8.15 PM at Renaissance hotel, discussed about variety of topics from his meeting with Laz,Pal,Srik and my Phil expereinces.  I liked his focus on people (esp giving salary from day 1, and 3% match).   I also liked his sales skill. That's the kind of ideal partner I was looking for as I can do delivery and having the combo of Sales+delivery is ideal.  This opportunity also helps me to

It's a coincidence that both of stayed at same hotel.  I share my ideas and he is very impressed.

Overall, we agreed on what we need to do, my title (CSO) , base & bonus but still negotiating on equity.  I'm mostly sold but my discussion with SR may have an impact as I'm going to do similar pitch with SR.

If things work out,  the plan is to go to India in March for H1 stamping and then apply for transfer and if it works out, I'll join them by Mid May.

fingers crossed.  I need lot of blessings and luck.

2019

2019 was another fun filled year.  One of the best years for work life balance. After TB acquistion, the work load was lessened and hardly worked on any weekend. Compare that to 2018 where I worked on most of the weekend for Phil**

Jan : Started Diet after the heavy trip of Cruise+new year  (10 days). Weight was around 187 pounds. Reduced some weight in Jan/Feb. Had get together for Sankaranthi. New CEO at Aptt

Feb:  Attended SKO in LA and It was fun.  Srujan visited and had get together. Booked tickets for India trip. Won Tennis game with Krishna and Manoj bava.  Started getting wrist pain and saw the doctor , advised to rest.  Marriage alliance for Rakesh started.

Mar: Celebrated Abhi's bday at home. Took the kids to park and played there. Rakesh's marriage finalized. Traveled to Amsterdam and visited Tulips. Was in Amsterdam on Abhi's bday. Wrist hasn't improved and started PT. Went to Boreal for Sking. Started Scoop and active on scoop. made couple of friends and some extra cash. Busy training Sindhu on SFDC and Apt.

Apr :  Took kids to Skiing. Pranav did well, Abhi started learning.  Went to Dodgeridge. Went camping and celebrated Ugadi with panchan's at Reddy garu's home. Gordon left Apt.  Got first portion of retention.

May :  Class mates night out at Vijendar's home. Lot of discussion on Tesla. convinced Kishore to put buy Tesla stock. Went to India.  Enjoyed Rakesh's marriage. Dance on the marriage night was fun. Barat was great. Everyone danced.  Earlier, Jess left Apt** that was sad moment. I tried for RVP position but didn't happen. Sindhu got Job. Pranav got medal in swimming.

Jun : Bonalu in Kankal, it was fun.  Dhoti function for Pranav and Abhi and it was great. Everything worked as planned. Went to Ahmedabad for work. Enjoyed watching world cup cricket. Gained lot of weight. Back to US by end of Jun. End of India trip, weight was 187 pounds.

Jul: Started Gym.  took membership in 24 hr fitness. Got trainer and focused on improving wrist and knee. Started Pilates to focus on overall body. very active in Gym. Losed 7 pounds by end of Jul. Raghu and Rajesh visited home and we had sleep over at my home. YK and kishore joined.  Enjoyed world cup final which was close. Learnt Poker for the first time  Started reading books.

Aug: Vig and kids back from India. School started .Pranav 5th grade and Abhi 2nd grade. Abhi started Eye level as well.  Tinku visited bay area. had pooja at home and had surprise 38th bday for me on Aug 15. Went to down town for marriage day and walked on Pier39 with kids.

Sep :  Got hike of 10k. no promo. Attended Reimagine in San Diego. Traveled to Eind. Went to Del valley for Labor day.

Oct:  Traveled to Kankal for dasara. felicitation happened. Friends get together for sweety bday.

Nov: Power cut in Dublin. Diwali get together at home with families.  get together in San Diego ,ocean side . Teju's enagagement was fun. Neeraj and Sunayana helped a lot.

Dec: celebrated Pranav's bday at Bowling. Enjoyed the time off. Went to Copper pollis for new year. celebrations went well. Kids had lot of fun. Ladies danced well. sweety practiced a lot for dance. I did lungi dance :).

2019 - Books

Here are the books I have read in year 2019. Most I have read in a year after 2014.

• Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It (Books)
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell (Books)
• Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life (Books)
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Books)
• Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change (Books)
• Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs (Books) (WIP)
• Andaimina Jeevitham (Repeat)

Not completed

• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity (Books)
• The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan A Life of the Genius Ramanujan (Books)
• Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley (Books)