Irfan

Startups

[Sabeer Bhatia @sabeer]

Popcorn? Ready. 🍿 Drink? Ready. 🥤 I’m settling in to watch this film. Why don’t you grab your popcorn and join me? Let’s watch it together!

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

@PropertyDecoder Trust me - I work at NoBroker & we’re at all time high in resale of properties includes investor liquidation units too.

Buyers are just more vigilant in terms of documents.

[Carl Pei @getpeid]

https://t.co/fgiloX1pCi

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

@18RawatG @letsblinkit Crazy

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

Crazy artist.

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

Very Protest-y thing to do.

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

@AkshayNarisetti Can I get one in Bangalore?

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

@dejavucoder Ozone evergreens?

[Andrew Lynch @andrewglynch]

if a toddler puts a sticker on you, that’s a sign of great respect in their culture

[Siddharth @s7ddharth]

finishing a workout or run before 8am will teach you how much time you actually have in a day

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

The most important decision of your life

[Veloria🐬 @veloriahq]

“𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳.”

— 𝘍𝘺𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘳 𝘋𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘦𝘷𝘴𝘬𝘺

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

The acclaimed psychologist Abraham Maslow, burn this into your brain

[Gurpriya @GurpriyaSidhu]

You will get over most bad stuff others did to you sooner than you think.
What will pinch you more, in the long term, is how you behaved with others.

In challenging moments, try to be the better person and do the right thing, not for others, but for yourself.

Being at peace with yourself is a privilege.

[Blake Burge @blakeaburge]

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got: If you want a calmer life, you need to address small problems while they’re still small. The cost of dealing with an issue rarely gets cheaper with time. Procrastination turns uncomfortable things into unavoidable things.

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

I’m a huge fan of High Agency. But 2 things I now understand about it:

1) Not everyone can develop High Agency—and High Agency people will find it hard to accept this

2) It has major professional upsides, but also creates chronic anxiety in life situations you can’t control

[Revathi @revathitweets]

IT TAKES A LOT TO BE REVATHI…!!!

While the whole country is celebrating the landmark judgement of death penalty for the NINE policemen in the Santhanakulam custodial torture and murder of Jeyaraj and Bennix, you should know about Revathi.

Revathi was a constable in Santhanakulam police station in 2020 when the gruesome incident took place. She was the key witness and the sole reason for all the arrogant officers getting punished today.

The police men involved in the brutality were all big men, Revathi was a small time constable. But she stood unperturbed.

When Magistrate Bharathidasan, who initially investigated this case, arrived at the Santhanakulam police station he had no clue that constable Revathi will help close the case.

"Sir, I will tell you everything, every detail, the truth that is being hidden. But I am the mother of two young girls... can you guarantee the safety of my children and my job?", she had asked the magistrate.

Revathi was on night duty when the cruel incident took place. She witnessed the brutality being inflicted on Jeyaraj and Bennix and narrated every single detail.

She told how SI Balakrishnan, inspector Sridhar and SI Ragukanes, kept beating the father and son with whatever they found, and how they also stomped on their private parts with their shoes.

She remembered their screams. She saw how the officers took pause only to sip alcohol while the victims withered in pain.

When the father and son were semi-conscious, unable to bear it, Revathi asked Jayaraj if he needed anything. She gave him coffee which the officials spilt it immediately.

Revathi couldn’t stand the brutality but being a woman constable there was only so much she could do. She then offered water to the victims.

The so called policemen then stripped Bennix naked, tied his hands and legs separately, and beat him up. They did the same to Jeyaraj. Revathi couldn’t bear the pain of their screams, she left the place.

According to the postmortem report, their entire back was skinned, iron rods were inserted and they bled from their rectums.

When the case was being discussed by the media, when even the CM of Tamil Nadu tried to brush it away, Revathi knew the truth.

The police officials, cleaned up the station of any DNA evidences, erased the CCTV footage and warned everyone to shut-up and not try to become heroes.

But Revathi didn’t just narrate the entire ordeal in exact detail…she even helped the investigating officials obtain other crucial information.

Despite everything being cleaned, Revathi gathered DNA of the victims in crevices of the walls and floors, on furniture and other objects.

She was questioned, threatened, intimidated, bribed and even abused. She stood by justice. She had to go against her colleagues for justice of comman man.

In the time when police force is often looked upon with reasonable suspicion, there are people in uniform like Revathi.

Today court could pronounce death sentence to nine police officers - only because one woman decided she will stand by truth!

Kudos to Revathi, an amazing woman and an absolutely fabulous police officer.

The world is a better place because of her courage.
Salute ma’am 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

Now!! - Job nailed on both sides.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Oracle Corporation.

Last Tuesday, I sent an email to 30,000 people at 6 AM.

Yesterday morning, I onboarded 1 person at $950,000 a year.

Both were my responsibility. Both were executed flawlessly.

The email said: "After careful consideration of Oracle's current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change. As a result, today is your last working day."

I signed it "Oracle Leadership." Not my name. Not the co-CEOs' names. Not anyone's name. Leadership. Leadership is a signature that cannot be fired.

At 6:01 AM, our infrastructure team disabled 30,000 badges. Revoked 30,000 VPN tokens. Locked 30,000 laptops. Wiped 30,000 voicemails. Suspended 30,000 email accounts. By 6:04 AM, 30,000 people were staring at a login screen that would never accept their password again. The email reminded them they were "prohibited from downloading, copying, or retaining any Oracle confidential information."

3 people called the HR hotline before 6:15. 2 asked if the email was real. 1 asked if she could retrieve a photo of her daughter from her desktop. I directed all 3 to the separation portal.

That's data security.

I've managed 11 separation events. This was the cleanest. 30,000 endpoints terminated in under 4 minutes. I sent the email from a template in PeopleSoft called TERM_MASS_COMM_v4. The v4 is important. Version 1 had a paragraph that said "we value your contributions." Version 2 shortened it to a sentence. Version 3 shortened it to "thank you." Version 4 removed it entirely. Legal flagged it in 2024. You cannot say you valued something you are discarding at 6 AM. Liability exposure.

That's risk management.

The co-CEOs approved the plan in 11 minutes. I timed it. I always time approvals. Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia. They received $250 million and $100 million in stock option grants when they took the roles in September. They asked about the WARN Act filing timeline. They asked about the restructuring charge projection. They did not ask how the employees would be notified. They did not ask when.

That's executive alignment.

In January, TD Cowen published an analyst note. It said cutting 20,000 to 30,000 employees would generate $8 to $10 billion in incremental free cash flow. We needed that cash. Our AI data center capital expenditures are projected at $50 billion this fiscal year. We had a $20 billion shortfall.

The 30,000 people were the shortfall.

I don't call it that in the board deck. Slide 14 has a waterfall chart. The left column is labeled "Current Headcount Cost." The right column is labeled "Redeployable Capital." The 30,000 people are the bridge between the 2 columns. They are a blue arrow. Calibri 11pt.

That's strategic planning.

1 day before the email, on Monday, our 5-year credit default swaps hit 198.6 basis points. That is the highest level in Oracle's history. Higher than December 2008. Higher than the financial crisis itself. The market is pricing our debt at levels not seen since Lehman Brothers still had a lobby. We carry $124.7 billion in debt on the books. We added $39 billion in 9 months. Our trailing free cash flow is negative $24.74 billion.

I included this in the board deck on slide 3. Nobody discusses slide 3. Slide 3 is where we put the things that are true.

That's transparency.

By Thursday, the H-1B data reached the press. 3,126 petitions. We filed them while scheduling the separation event. Same department. Same quarter. Same PeopleSoft instance. The termination workflow is TERM_MASS_COMM_v4. The visa sponsorship workflow is ONBOARD_H1B_STD. They share a database. They share a help desk queue. They share a budget line.

1 workflow removes 30,000 people who built the cloud infrastructure. The other sponsors 3,000 replacements to continue building it. I manage both workflows from the same standing desk.

That's human resources.

An employee posted on Blind that it was "a slap in the face." I know which employee. We have analytics on Blind. Sentiment tracking, attribution modeling, post velocity. His post received 4,200 upvotes in 12 hours. I flagged it for Corporate Communications. Communications sent me a thumbs-up emoji. Nobody drafted a response.

That's stakeholder management.

Yesterday morning, Hilary Maxson started as our new Chief Financial Officer. Base salary: $950,000. Annual performance bonus target: $2.5 million. Equity package: $26 million — $20.8 million time-based, $5.2 million performance-based, vesting over 4 years. We are also covering up to $250,000 in relocation expenses. Her offer letter is 7 pages. The separation notice I sent 30,000 people is 4 paragraphs.

I managed both documents. The compensation committee approved her package on the same call where we reviewed the $2.1 billion restructuring charge. We have recorded $982 million of that charge so far. That is what 30,000 people cost on a balance sheet. The CFO's equity package is 1.2% of the restructuring line. A rounding error. No — less than a rounding error. A rounding error's rounding error.

That's market-competitive compensation.

Our Slack user count dropped from 165,000 to 155,000 in a single day. If you have access to the admin panel, you can watch the number fall in real time. I have access. It drops fast between 6:04 and 6:11 AM. Then it slows. Stragglers. People who hadn't opened their laptops yet. People in Pacific Time who were still sleeping when their career ended. By 7:00 AM, the line flattens. I watched it from my standing desk with a coffee. The line goes down smoothly. No bumps. No steps. Just a slope.

That's attrition analytics.

In Kansas City, I filed WARN notices for 539 people. 85 software developers. 43 systems analysts. 39 program managers. In Washington, 491 people. 270 software developers. 46 development managers. These are the people who built Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We are now spending $50 billion to expand it with different people on ONBOARD_H1B_STD.

The WARN filing lists the separation date as June 1. The email said today is their last working day. The badge stopped working at 6:01 AM. 3 different dates for the same event.

That's compliance.

12,000 of the 30,000 were in India. Bangalore. Hyderabad. Pune. India does not require WARN notices. This is not why 12,000 of them were in India. But it is why nobody has to file anything.

That's jurisdictional planning.

The quarterly earnings call was March 10. 21 days before the email. The co-CEOs announced $553 billion in remaining performance obligations. They said demand for AI infrastructure "continues to exceed supply." The analysts upgraded their estimates. The stock is down 57% from its peak. It was $326 in September. It is $146 today. Larry Ellison's net worth is $188.7 billion. He has not made a public statement about the layoffs.

He has not been asked to.

That's governance.

Trust in the Q4 engagement survey dropped 34 points. I reported it under "Culture Health Metrics." My manager said the numbers were "expected for a rebalancing of this scale." She told me to revisit it next quarter.

I will revisit it next quarter. By then the Slack count will have stabilized. The Blind posts will have cycled off the front page. The ONBOARD_H1B_STD workflows will have completed. The new CFO will have her equity vesting schedule configured in PeopleSoft. And the 30,000 will be on LinkedIn, adding "open to work" above the Oracle logo they can no longer access.

I will be here. At my standing desk. Managing the workflows.

30,000 separation emails sent at 6:00 AM. 3,126 H-1B petitions filed the same quarter. $26 million in equity for the new CFO. $350 million in stock options for the 2 co-CEOs. $188.7 billion in personal wealth for the chairman. $124.7 billion in corporate debt. 198.6 basis points on the credit default swaps — higher than 2008. Negative $24.74 billion in free cash flow. $50 billion in AI capital expenditure.

1 PeopleSoft instance. 2 workflows. Same server.

TERM_MASS_COMM_v4 and ONBOARD_H1B_STD share a database.

That's human resources.

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

@mrgnk @adityakamath_ Trust me I’ve stand there only for 15-20 mins and at least three other instances with same problem.

[Irfan @Thinkovater]

@jackunheard @Yellowstone