People and ideas together
Enabling a new generation of technology entrepreneurs and thought leaders
After a stretch as corporate executive (most recently at Google), I am returning my entrepreneurial roots in 2024 with a giving spirit, and aiming to collaborate with innovative startups and nimble businesses and share experience, expertise, resources, connections, insights.
Experience
- Entrepreneur, multiple exits
- CTO, Datacenter/Networking
- Sr. Director, Technology, Google
- Coach/Instructor, Stanford SCPD
Functional Areas
- Thought Leadership/Strategy
- Product & B2B Marketing
- SW, HW, Data Engineering
- Operations & Customer Engagement
Domain Expertise
- Telecom & Networking
- Customer Engagement platforms
- Data Center & Infrastructure
- Embedded/Enterprise Software
Cautious and analytical most of the time.
Bold when necessary.
Progress is gradual and deliberate. Regression is sudden and unexpected. Technology adoption is not linear.
Timing and decisiveness are key to business success embedded in my thinking.
Personal
Though my professional interest revolves around technology, I also cultivate interest in travel, food & wine, Chess, the outdoors and fiction writing
Consulting
I seek to support technology projects and companies through sharing investment, advice, expertise, strategic thinking and market insights
Brazil Business
Brazil is where I grew up. Silicon Valley is where I live. I bring people and ideas together in the entrepreneurial ecosystem across countries
Services
- [Still working at Google until Jun/24, this is experimental]
- Corporate | Consulting – Product, Technology, Strategy
- Personal | Coaching – Career Preparation meets Opportunity
- Startup | Advisory – Build, Validate, Fund, Scale, Exit
Previous Musings
Marcio New Directions – Update Mar/2024
I joined Google in 2020 and led the organization responsible for all technical platforms supporting operations, customer engagement and partnerships for Google consumer products. Since Oct/2023, been working on a time-limited assignment defining systems and platforms strategy for management of Alphabet’s contingent workforce until Jun/24. I am still interested in renewing my commitment (an L9-L10…
Marcio New Directions 2024
I joined Google in 2020 and led the organization responsible for all technical platforms supporting operations, customer engagement and partnerships for Google consumer products. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I feel very good about what the team has accomplished and the collective learning and impact. As that cycle closes in 2023, I…
Working at Google
I became a Googler in July of 2020 and since then I get questions from friends, ex-colleagues, recruiters and acquaintances on how to get a job at Google. You won’t find “secret tips” here, this page is just an effort to normalize my response to those requests with publicly available helpful information. Internships Internships at…
On joining Google
It was 1999 when this loop started. Cyclades had helped the first generation of Internet companies (notably, Yahoo!) to figure out how to manage large Internet data centers and Google called us as they prepared to build some very large ones. It quickly became our largest customer (Cyclades was acquired by Avocent in 2006). As…
The acquisition of Opengear by Digi International
Three years ago, I joined Opengear as CTO, with a mission of setting strategies for company growth. For me, it was like jumping into a time machine and having a second take in the market space I helped to create 20 years earlier with Cyclades. Over this period, Opengear multiplied investments in product and technology,…
Let’s Grab Coffee
I believe in random encounters. I believe in free exchanges. But, because of professional context, a lot of people ask me to “grab a coffee”. I just cannot do it with everyone who asks. If you are seeking my opinion or advice… I like to and often share my thoughts and experiences with others. Make…
Thanksgiving and meaning it
This week is the time of the year when we in the US take a break from our busy lives to express Gratitude. I have plenty to be thankful for this year. Gratitude is a positive emotion we feel in acknowledgment of a benefit we have received. Saying “Thank You” is the way to express that emotion which…
The Launch of Graava
In 2015-2016, I joined Graava, a startup project designing a consumer camera. On Aug 5th, 2015 we run what was arguably the most successful (from a media exposure perspective) marketing launch for a crowdfunding HW project to date. We were hoping for significant coverage, but what we got surpassed all expectations. Graava was featured in…
How to think about my startup valuation?
I often get this question from early stage entrepreneurs: “How do I calculate the valuation of my startup?” The valuation of a startup is the value of the company at the moment when the first round of venture capital is raised. Valuation should not be the focus of the early stage entrepreneur. For more on…
Traveling to Cambodia – Phnom Penh, Kampot, Sihanoukville, Siem Reap
This trip on the first half of Aug/2014 was my first time in Cambodia. If you are reading this and considering whether or not it should be in your bucket list, I say: go for it! The impressions you find below are from the perspective of a relatively seasoned traveler who is used to explore…
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many…
Thanksgiving 2013
It is again that time of the year when we in the US take a break from our busy lives to express Gratitude (and eat, shop, etc). Gratitude is a positive emotion we feel in acknowledgment of a benefit we have received. Saying “Thank You” is the way to express that emotion which is the basis of life in…
The Road to Continuous Delivery in SW Development
(this post originally written for Daitan Blog) Once upon a time, people just wrote code and then run it to find how well it worked. Working individually, the developer was able to iterate quickly until the software was useful to solve a real problem. By the 1990’s, as software became more complex, it was broken…
The Road to Universal Coverage in Real-Time Communications
(this post originally written for Daitan Blog) It took more than 100 years from the invention of the telephone to the point where virtually every home in the developed word had a phone line. In the mid-1980’s the first cellular networks appeared and, 25 years later, we get to the point where there are 6…
The Myth of Fixed-Price in Software Development
(This post originally written for Daitan Blog) There are two rational reasons why customers of software development projects are still attracted to fixed-price contracts: Budget predictability Transfer of technical risk to the provider The title of this post calls that a myth because in exchange for offloading the technical risk, the customer usually assumes the…
Beer Tasting: A Visit To An English Pub.
A group of friends get together once a month to try different beers. I happen to be the host of this month’s meeting and the theme will be “A Visit to an English Pub”. England brews beer since pre-historic times, mostly top-fermenting Ales. Originally, a brew was an “Ale”. Add hops to ales and you…
The End of Telecom (as we know it)
(Originally written by Marcio Saito for Daitan Blog) It was early 1900’s when the telephone become a medium for real-time communications. It took us 100 years to build a telecom infrastructure that brought a phone line to virtually every home in the developed world. But that picture of universal coverage is changing rapidly. As of…
WebRTC and Business Applications
(originally written for Daitan Blog) In the past years, communications applications such as Skype and FaceTime have revolutionized how consumers use computers to communicate in real-time. Grandma talks and interacts with her grandchildren even when they live thousands of miles apart. Now WebRTC, an emerging standard for real-time communications, is gathering a lot of attention.…
Customer Service and WebRTC: A Technology Game Changer
(This was originally written for Daitan Blog) What is WebRTC? Why is it Relevant to Customer Service? WebRTC is an emerging standard to enable real-time communications (voice, text, video, data) directly on a web-browser running in any machine or mobile phone. It is like having ubiquitous Skype, but without the need to install any proprietary application or…
Top 3 Requirements for Agile Outsourcing
(originally written for Daitan blog) In the past decade or so the software industry has moved from waterfall to Agile Software Development methods. In waterfall development, marketing and engineering signed a “contract” based on a fixed scope of work (the “Product Requirements Document”) and embarked in a long project based on engineering estimates of execution…
A Sub-Atomic Particle walks into a bar…
A couple of days ago, Simon Allen, a friend in the UK got a “Neutron walks into a bar…” joke from Carla (from Oxford High School) and posted it in his Facebook timeline: This neutron walks into a bar, orders a drink, opens his wallet to pay when the barman shakes his head and says……….…
Dinheiro em Árvore? Nem no Vale do Silício
(in Portuguese, originally written for IVP) Nos últimos anos, encontrei centenas de empreendedores brasileiros visitando o Vale do Silício. Quando pergunto “qual o seu objetivo nessa visita?”, invariavelmente ouço “tenho uma startup, vim procurar um VC e tentar pegar um investimento”. Nesse post, eu o convido a visitar a California, mas também explico alguns conceitos…
Thanksgiving in a Social World
This week is the time of the year when we in the US take a break from our busy lives to express Gratitude (and eat, shop, etc). Gratitude is a positive emotion we feel in acknowledgment of a benefit we have received. Saying “Thank You” is the way to express that emotion which is the basis of life in…
Marcio Looking for New Directions
Marcio is looking for a new job or professional project. Let him know if you have or know someone who has ideas of what that project could be.
The Emergence of Collective Intelligence
When we observe large schools of fish swimming, we might wonder who is choreographing that complex and sophisticated dance, in which thousands of individuals move in harmony as if they knew exactly what to do to produce the collective dance.
Crowdsourcing: The Next Step in Enterprise Collaboration
Enterprise Collaboration Tools can improve the productivity of organizations by reducing the friction in the flow of information. This post argues that the application of Crowdsourcing techniques in that context is the next step in blending the best of traditional functional segmentation with the benefits of open collaboration.
Gamification for Kids, Collaboration for Grown-Ups
[This post originally written for publication in the Ledface Blog] Next time you are at a cocktail party, take a step back and observe. What do people talk about? How conversations evolve? When people meet for the first time, they exchange facts. They look for coincidences, they try to establish connections. “Did you grow up around here?”…
Crowdsourcing, Freedom, and Anonymity
This post reflects on the need of trust and freedom to create the conditions where individuals can independently contribute to a co-creation process.
Esse é o Ano das Mídias Sociais em Negócios (você acredita?)
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” Bill Gates [This post originally written for IT Web http://itweb.com.br%5D Perspectiva histórica: Email em 1995 era a Midia Social de 2012 Em 1993 eu já morava no Vale do Silício e comecei a usar minha primeira conta…
Co-Creation: When the Crowd goes Beyond the Experts
With Crowdsourcing technology, we will be able to solve problems, not by analytically decomposing big problems into smaller ones, but by presenting complex problem to the collective intelligence and let it holistically express the solution.
Nigerian Scammers Must Adapt to Social Media or Die
Nigerian scammers, offer millions of dollars and get laughed at. Facebook scammers, offer Cheesecake Factory vouchers and get otherwise smart people to fall for it. Nigerian scammers need to adapt to Social Media… — Dear Sir: My name is Mouhlac Hakzin, I am the nephew of a famous Nigerian politician who passed away in an…
3 fatores para Falar como Gente nas Mídias Sociais
[Esse artigo foi escrito para publicação em itweb.com.br] A melhor linguagem para expressar nossas idéias depende do canal de comunicação utilizado. A mensagem que funciona no catálogo de produtos, pode não ser a melhor para um comercial de televisão. Qualquer um em marketing sabe disso, não é mesmo? A verdade surpreendente é que não. Toda vez…
Monarch Butterflies – Santa Cruz, CA
Every year during winter time, the Monarch butterflies migrate from Northern areas and congregate around the exact same branches of Eucalyptus trees near Natural Bridges Beach in Santa Cruz, CA.
Thanksgiving, Social Business, Community
Gratitude is a positive emotion we feel in acknowledgment of a benefit we have received. Saying “Thank You” is the way to express that emotion which, I believe, is the basis of life in community. It recognizes the fact that we depend on one another to live, to be ourselves.
Minhas Partes Privadas
O mundo está mudando. Estamos evoluindo de uma realidade onde cada um sabe apenas o que é necessário, para onde informação é pública por default. Um mundo de transparência corporativa.
7 Ações em Mídia Social para quem tem mais o que fazer
Esse artigo discute o impacto da mídia social na sua empresa oferece uma lista de ações a serem consideradas por você, o empresário do mundo real, que precisa se manter a frente das tendências em tecnologia, mas tem outras coisas importantes com que se preocupar.
Half Day Tour of Silicon Valley by Marcio
This is a script for an efficient half-day tour of Sillicon Valley for San Francisco visitors who have a special interest in Technology.
Crowdsourcing: Knowledge Has a Long Tail
Why the Crowds will beat the Experts The history of human civilization is tightly connected with our ability to use language to organize groups of people to tackle complex problems and projects that are beyond the abilities of a single person. Today, most organizations in our society (governments, armies, companies) structure themselves in a Hierarchical Pyramid, with…
My Private Parts
When companies become more transparent, they will find that it is easier, not harder, to conduct business that way.
Solo Traveling in Canada – Hosteling, Technology and Photography
Highlights of vacation in Western Canada and thoughts on how the solo travelling experience is changing because of technology.
Symbols, Storytelling and Corporate Culture
How to manage the culture of the organization as new employees join and mesh with existing employees?
Por que ir para o Vale do Silício?
Porque todo empreendedor (Brasileiro ou não) deve considerar uma presença permanente no Vale do Silício.
8 Checkpoints for Customer Engagement
Only you know what applies to and works for your business, but here are a few points to consider when re-evaluating the way your company engage with customers.
Mirror Image: Hetchy-Hetchy Lake
Hetchy-Hetchy is Yosemite’s sister valley. It was flooded early in the 20th century and today provides electricity and water to San Francisco and areas of SoCal. We hiked along the lake shore for about 6 hours yesterday and visited some of its waterfalls. In the morning, the surface of the water was perfectly still, creating…
Business Decisions, Analysis and Social Media
When we switch from asking (Surveys, Interviews) to listening (in Social Media channels), does the data we collect become less objective?
Are CRM and Social CRM the same thing?
This is just me playing with the eternal terminology discussion on CRM and Social CRM while experimenting with an animation tool, with results that (at least for me) are hilarious.
Customer Service: Not Saving Transaction, but Keeping Company Promise
Customer Service: You are not trying to save a transaction, you are keeping the company promise to its customers.
Sales Presentations: Are You Hot or What?
Being able to deliver a good presentation is an important skill for a Salesperson. Now, beyond the basics, have you thought about how engaging you presentations are? Thinking about use of media and presentation style based on your goals is what make presentations effective.
Briggs Myers for Twitter People
[Humor] You can easily find your Twitter persona through fun comics. Are you a Social Media Guru? A Socializer? Or a Sales, Marketing, Customer Service professional?
The Boundaryless Corporation
A boundaryless organization is not defined or limited by it predefined structure. It embraces its customers, partners, suppliers and establish transparent relationships to co-create value.
Brazilian Churrasco for Americans
Explaining the “Brazilian Churrasco” to US Americans Today is Fourth of July, the day we celebrate Independence Day, usually by lighting up the grill and inviting family and friends to a backyard barbecue. (if you are Brazilian, you should read this post instead). I was born in Brazil, another country where eating meat is an…
Churrasco e Barbecue
O que o brasileiro tem que saber para comer carne nos EUA (if you are not Brazilian, you should be reading this post instead) Hoje é 4 de Julho, dia que se comemora a Independência dos Estados Unidos. E também o dia aqui na California em que se acende a grelha no quintal e se…
Was it as good for you as it was for me?
Adoption of Social Media by customer service departments is mandatory and can have a very positive impact on customer experience and bring change to the Marketing/Customer Service balance in companies.
Business and Relationships
What you can learn about social business in the Farmer’s Market Saturday mornings is farmer market’s day Guarulhos, Brazil, where I grew up. My mom is a customer of this particular meat stand for more than 35 years now. Last week I was in Brazil and woke up early on Saturday to accompany her grocery shopping…
Brasil 2011: O futuro aqui ou exuberância desvairada?
Impressões da visita de um Brasileiro morando no exterior a 20 anos em Junho de 2011.
Uma Visão Brasileira do Vale do Silício
Dois dias (ou décadas) no Vale do Silício Era um domingo em 1991 quando recebi uma ligação. “Quer ir morar na California?”. Em 92 me mudei de São Paulo, onde nasci e cresci, para o Vale do Silício. Vim para ajudar a construir a Cyclades (uma empresa brasileira que se tornou global), com a idéia…
Klout: Like.
This post discusses the usefulness of general social media engagement scores like Klout and Peerindex.
Direto do Vale
Para updates direto do Vale do Silício, siga @Marcio_Saito no Twitter ou monitore #diretodovale. 18/Maio – Depois de fechar a Flip, Cisco está tentando vender Webex e Linksys. [ingles] http://ow.ly/4XVgl
Social Media and B2B Sales – Change is coming
Last week I wrote about Customer Service and Twitter and argued, among other things, that first experiences with social media are not necessarily sustainable. There is unrealistic optimism that social media can solve all problems in Customer Service (and Marketing, of course). Now, when we come to use of social media by B2B sales people, we…
Customer Service through Twitter – Sustainable?
This post discusses the use and long-term role of Twitter and other social media channels in Customer Service.
social marketing funnel [graphic]
The role of marketing doesn’t end in Loyalty. Turning happy customers into Brand Advocates and then amplifying their voice is how marketing creates more awareness and brings new prospects to the funnel. Your opinions, please. [see very active discussion]
Customer Service and Free Lunches
This post discusses the importance of consistency in Customer Service, both from interaction to interaction as well as cross-channel
The latest E20 wonder: Inter-Dimensional Gate
This post discusses the fact that people and culture, not tools and technology, are the most important aspect of creating a collaborative environment.
How does Social Media Scale Personal Engagement?
This post discusses how Social Media can help to scale personal engagement in Sales and Marketing.
Social Media Campaigns – Market Segmentation
This posts discusses how traditional media market segmentation transposes to social media for marketing campaigns.
“Consumerization” – What is new with that?
This is just the normal process, we should stop being surprised with it The personal computer in the early 1980’s, email and browsers in the early 1990’s, Linux in the mid 1990’s, SMS and Social Technologies in early 2000’s. All technologies that would “never” be adopted by the enterprise. The alleged reason? “Security” All those technologies…
Is Crowsourcing Just The New Stone Soup?
On Tuesday morning, Ray Wang (@rwang0) from the Constellation Research Group posted in Twitter: Hoping someone will write a post titled, “Is Crowsourcing Just The New Stone Soup? I first became interested on the subject in the early 90’s in the beginnings of the “Open Source” movement. I got very involved in community development later…
Professional Services: What is your product?
The rationale for the theme “Commoditization of Knowledge: What is your product?” is provoking thoughts about the core value of professional service offerings and how that will evolve in the future.
Managing the Social Marketing Funnel
The funnel is no longer in your CRM database: it moved to Social Media Adoption of Social Technologies and the shift of the media mix towards Social Media is changing the way we look at the marketing funnel and customer relationships. What used to be a list in our business database system is now a…
Organic Leadership: Business from the bottom-up
This post look into leadership in the context of the organizational evolution towards more social business models, when customers, employees and other stakeholders are empowered by information and have more influence in the direction of successful companies.
Social Marketing Campaigns for B2B Marketers
This post discusses Social Media Marketing for SMB marketers in B2B.
Not My Problem
Ownership and Accountability are two different things I was scanning my Twitter timeline today and saw this post: @BartDeCraene : Without a culture of ownership, issues can’t be addressed. #custserv #leadbiz It caught my eye because it caused an apparent conflict in my mind. The post above matches my experience and intuition. At the same time, my…
Quora vs. Wikipedia – Q&A not effective in Social Media
This post argues that Quora’s Q&A format is interesting, but community knowledge aggregation will continue to happen in places like Wikipedia.
Analyzing is more than just Counting
In the past few days, I’ve had several great conversations in different forums that happened to share a common thread. “Is it possible or useful to analyze unstructured social data?” I argue that it is possible, but it might not be useful. Let’s start with Analysis. Analysis should be: Abstract – detached intellectual process based…
Can Old Dogs Learn Social Business Tricks?
There is broad consensus (at least among industry observers, vendors, consultants, analysts…) that companies need to become more “social” to remain competitive in the next years. “Social”, in this case, mean many different things but generally is the business response to both generational behavioral changes and adoption of social technologies, including social media, with its…
Twitter and I. Our first Anniversary
Not Love at First Sight I met Twitter for the first time a year ago today. I was not particularly impressed after our first interaction. I don’t think Twitter was either. It did not talk back to me. I could not have predicted then that a year later it would take such an important role…
Focus on Mission, Deliver Customer Experience
I have recently written about how moving to a social business model requires us to shift our thinking on metrics and accountability. My argument has been that metrics need to reflect the real business impact (the example was Customer Service being credited for new business because it was result of referrals by happy customers). But partial…
2010 in review
This is an automated analysis of my blogging at MarcioSaito.com in 2010. The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever. Crunchy numbers A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This…
Heavenly Shadow Snowboarding
Join me in a snowboard ride down the slopes of Heavenly-CA, with great snow and magnificent views of Lake Tahoe in a beautiful day before Christmas.
Social SMB – Be more Open in 2011
The adoption of Social Business models has to start from the inside-out. As we get to the last days of 2010, we need to recognize that this was the year we reached peak of inflated expectations for Social-Everything. Small and mid-sized companies were told they needed to use Social Media and many went on to…
Agile Professional Services?
Professional Services is clearly not my area of expertise (I have not been a contract-based service provider first hand) but I enjoy participating in the #ProfServ Twitter Chat led by @KRCraft @Berkson0 and @fredmcclimans (bi-weekly, next Dec 23rd 10PM EST). In the last chat a week ago, I was hearing about the challenges contractors and service…
Social Media: The Impact on Customer Surveys
Asking for Customer Feedback is different from Listening Last night, I was in the Customer Service Twitter chat that happens every Tuesday at 10PM PST. I truly recommend this lively, fun, and insightful conversation to anyone interested in Customer Service. Yesterday’s discussion was: “Do surveys after a Customer Service incident improve the customer relationship?”. Here…
Social LeadGen for Real-World SMB Marketers
When we read about the impact of Social Media in Marketing, we see mostly one of two extremes: Social Media is just another media (nothing changes) or; Social Media changes Marketing (everything changes) We live in the real world. So, what is the impact of Social Media in Lead Generation programs for SMB? It is…
Dia de Ação de Graças
Essa semana nos EUA onde eu moro é quando as pessoas param (o único feriado quando as coisas realmente param por essas bandas) por uma razão importante. Não estou falando do peru assado nem das liquidações nos shoping centers. É hora de expressar Gratidão. Gratidão é a emoção positiva nós sentimos quando recebemos um benefício.…
Time to Say Thank You.
This week is the time of the year when we in the US take a break from our busy lives to do something very important. No, not eating turkey and cranberry sauce. No, not researching the new gadget to buy during the Black Friday sale. It is the time we use to express Gratitude. Gratitude is a…
Why Sales People Dislike CRM Software
In CRM, we have solitary experience, engaging with a database. In SCRM, we collaborate and engage with real people.
Social Business is as Old as Business
How Social Media is bringing us back to the future In a recent series of Social CRM seminars, I asked several audiences to complete this sentence: The closing of a sales deal depends on…. Not once did they fail to answer on the first attempt and in unison: Relationships. We all have this deep intuition that…
Electric Cars are Cars
CRM vs. Social CRM – The reason why we need “Social CRM” terminology This post captures my response to a question posted by Jeremiah Owyang in the Social CRM Pioneer Discussion Group. His question was: What is the upside and downside of SCRM branding? My answer follows. Social CRM is CRM (I think that has…
Being Stategic Every Day
Being Strategic means considering whether our current actions move us towards a desired scenario in the future. I have led corporate strategy for a large company and have always though strange that a 2000-people organization would dedicate 6 people to strategy. Does that mean the other 1994 are not? Unfortunately, it does. The CEO says: strategy is…
Corporate Social Networks and Communities
Functional Departments are like Social Networks, Projects are like Communities Events such the Haiti Earthquake or the Chilean miners rescue have the power to bring people from around the world together to collaborate on a common goal. That happens quickly and without central coordination when all undertand unequivocally what the priorities are. “People from all…
Formigas Argentinas
Semana passada, minha casa (na California) foi invadida por Formigas Argentinas. Isso acontece todo ano no final do verão. Então eu sei o que fazer. Tenho que colocar a única marca de veneno que funciona com as ditas cujas e daí ter paciência e viver dois dias com as formigas até o veneno fazer efeito. Não…
The Power of Collaboration
Late last week, my house was invaded by Argentine ants. That happens every year after a bout of high temperatures in late summer, so I know what to do. I set ant baits (Home Depot sells the only brand effective with this variety) and have to be patient and live with the invaders for a…
Coffee Bean Corporate Video
Ok, I admit, there is nothing artistic about this video. But since I produced, directed, wrote, starred, edited from beginning to end and this is the first time I play with video editing software…
Marcio Saito 