Mindshare Ventures

Partnering with & investing in #startup and #restartup companies. We help #entrepreneurs who are busy working IN their business to work ON their business.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

You must give up one of your accounts forever starting today; which one do you select to forego?

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

I'm so very proud of the faculty, staff, students under the leadership of @PresidentUofU Randall and his predecessors for the impact @UUtah has had on the state of @UtahGov.

Congratulations, University of Utah, for this well-deserved recognition.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

Kindness isn't standing with only one's own people. It's exactly not that.

Kindness requires empathy, a condition that can only exist when one is able to feel for someone who is different, distant, and/or living under disparate circumstances.

Kindness is a painful affliction.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

True friendships are so incredibly rare making them so incredibly valuable.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

As a computer scientist, I’m not afraid of AI at all; but I’m afraid of what humanity will do to weaponize it.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

Four times a year, and for 31 quarters in a row, we go off-site for a day of alignment, commitment, accountability, and, most importantly, bonding.

Congratulations to Corey Vorsanger for winning the coveted Culture Role Model award with a record number of #workfamily nominations

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

For the 8th year in a row, and now part of @NICELtd Global Community Month, it was so wonderful to witness this amazing Atlas #workfamily enjoying such a cool annual tradition in support of public education: "Running with ED".

I care deeply for this crew.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

Exactly 30 years ago, I attended commencement as a 20-year-old foreign student who’d only been in the country for 6 years. Graduation signaled the expiration of my student visa as I hadn’t been accepted into any graduate programs that’d enable me to renew it, and it was incredibly difficult to make ends meet having no authorization to work off-campus.

I was nervous and scared. I felt like an outsider.

30 years later, I attended commencement as a 50-year-old, foreign-born American who’d earned four degrees from the University of Utah, built a family, community, company, and career here, and now has the honor and privilege of congratulating and celebrating 8,723 new graduates representing 63 countries, 54 US states/territories, and 26 Utah counties.

I was proud and hopeful. I felt like an insider.

If you’re a foreign student who is struggling with your journey, please drop me a note and I will do what I can to guide you through. You will make it. You will look back one day and reminisce about what you had to overcome. But you will make it.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

I feel so bad for those who think about their work as a transactional, mutually-non-committal obligation that must be escaped in order to build a separate "real" life.

I hope we can all find ways to turn our work into intellectual fulfillment, authentic community, and places we can go to feel part of something bigger.

I continue to believe that humans need work to create meaningful lives; society doesn't thrive without each generation inheriting the fruits of prior generations and paying those fruits forward by leaving the world better than it found it.

The struggle, for me, is not allowing the little things to overehelm the big -- not worrying about what i can't control, and focusing on all of the good this championship team is and does everyday.

After all, I "get" to work with these people every day. That is reward enough. #WeAreTheChampions

[Morissa Schwartz 📚 (Dr. Rissy) @MorissaSchwartz]

The best form of transport

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

This was 9 years ago today and I'm afraid we haven't made much progress as a country on #Immigration policy reform.

I genuinely believe that if we reframe the conversation, there would be broad-based support for what is ultimately an indicator of a rising society: hard-working immigrants wanting to come here to help us build and develop.

I fear we will remain restrictive until we reach the point where few want to come opting for alternative countries that are more welcoming and more effective at attracting the world's "best and brightest".

Just as a successful company is a function of its ability to attract and groom the best talent, a successful country is a function of its ability to attract and groom the best citizenry.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

It's interesting to consider a show like @60Minutes disclosing use of #AI or, in their case, lack thereof: "the preceding was created with 100% human content." The world is changing more quickly than ever.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

I'm inspired by those who put it all on the line, those who dream, build, overcome, and manifest new companies out of a mere vision.

To those aspiring entrepreneurs, I say, "answer these five questions."

1) What's the problem?
2) How painful is it?
3) Who has it?
4) How do we relieve it?
5) Why is our relief best?

Good luck out there. 💪🏼🙏🏼

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

This Michael Hopf proverb has been going around of late, and it really resonates with me.

Relatively speaking, it wasn’t that long ago that the Egyptians, then the Greeks, and then the Romans thought they had reached peak civilization. After all, exceptionalism is easy to believe when you’re on top.

But, as they say, while history may not repeat, it absolutely rhymes, and this maxim captures civilization cycles so succinctly:

“Hard times create strong [societies]. Strong [societies] create good times. Good times create weak [societies]. And, weak [societies] create hard times.”

We’ve had a long run of good times in the US.

I hope we’re able to intellectually overcome the urge to rhyme with history.

[Spencer Cox @SpencerJCox]

Friends, please be cautious over the next few days. Usually we can anticipate and even trigger avalanches safely, but we’ve literally never had this much snow/water. Wet (avalanche) slides and potential land slides are possible in areas not seen before. Please be vigilant.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

Fulfillment is waking up energized and going to bed proud every day.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

There’s been a consistent pattern I’ve witnessed in life.

[Bassam Salem (بسام) @BassamSalem]

It's a lot heavier than it looks.

Thank you, Jason and Natalie, for bringing and showcasing the @pac12 football championship trophy recognizng @UUtah.

TaylorV, bravo to you for a job very well done representing the student body on the board.

Go Utes!

[KO Law @KOlawyers]

We had a great dinner in Park City with our client @AtlasRTX and Leonis Partners last week. We always appreciate the opportunity to get together in person! @BassamSalem @JennRosenthal @logan_desouza

[SimpleCitizen @SimpleCitizenUS]

Super excited to welcome so many guests from Utah and beyond to our event celebrating immigrants and their journeys! #accessjustice #legaltech