Startup dreams and some spicy Indian cooking

I just had the most surreal experience. I was able to hook up with an old friend from our days working at a software company in Santa Cruz, California.  His name is Sanjay Manchanda and the company we worked for was called Santa Cruz Operation or SCO.  It’s been 20 years since I was living and working in Silicon Valley (e.g., Cupertino, San Jose and Santa Cruz). That was a five year period of my life (after moving from Pennsylvania) that I’ll never forget both for personal and for professional reasons.

Sanjay and I had the good fortune to travel to London at the same time, he for Box (VP Product Marketing) and I for BBVA (Ecosystem Builder).  It was pretty amazing seeing him again after so many years. He still has the same calm, self-assured way about him and hasn’t lost his sense of humor and enjoyment of life (e.g., he’s always been a jazz enthusiast and a great cook).

In particular, I remember evenings at his apartment talking about startup ideas we each had and debating these.  All the while, I would be enjoying a glass of wine with him while he slowly cooked up an incredible dish Indian food, always spicy since we both enjoyed it that way.

Since I had a very active metabolism and was really bad at being patient when it came to dinner time, I also remember become incredibly impatient to get some food in my stomach.  This, combined with my enviously observing how Sanjay was calmly enjoying the whole experience (without the same hunger pangs) would conspire to push me over the edge and ask for his serving dinner “NOW!” (how’s that for being an ungrateful guest?).

Obviously, I’m saying this tongue-in-cheek as it was all great fun.  The conversation, the company and the food.  We had other conversations at the Java House (coffee shop) in Santa Cruz (I don’t know if that still exists) about our mutual startup dreams.  We had a great group of mutual friends in those days (about 5 of us) with whom we’d do fun stuff together and religiously watch Seinfeld at someone’s house every Thursday night.  Those were quite fun days.  There’s so much more to tell about those days although some things I certainly can’t tell publicly.

All these years later, we’ve both had our startup excursions that, although they didn’t work out exactly as we had imagined, have given us the experiences that have helped us grow as professionals and as people.  One thing I don’t remember us talking about back then was family, which is funny because that, clearly, is what drives us both and gives us incredible joy.  In my case, there’s no better sound in my life than hearing the word “Papi” uttered from my children’s lips.  That’s a title I relish and wear as a badge of honor.

Ok. Sorry for getting mushy.  Getting back to my reunion with Sanjay, it’s amazing how, with some people, now matter how much time passes by, you can just pick up from where you left off. That’s the way it our meeting went.

After our days in Santa Cruz, Sanjay was a startup entrepreneur, successful Microsoft executive and is now happily working at enterprise software startup, Box.  It’s still quite important for both of us to make a difference in our jobs and this is what gets us excited about doing what we do.

I hope to see Sanjay again a bit sooner than another 20 years later, but, either way, it was great catching up.