company-founders

"One of my head pizzaiolos, Laura Meyer, has lived and studied in Italy and speaks fluently. So when the world championships in , Italy, rolled around, she was excited to give it a shot. We flew over together and planned her entry in the pizza in teglia ("," or what we would call ) division. I advised her not to go too off the wall—Italians don't love that, especially from Americans—but to add a little twist that would be just creative enough. Laura settled on a classic pizza alla diavola, which is made with whole milk , , and slices of the spicy oblong known as soppressata picante. Her clever addition was a scattering of on top of the finished pizza. Tasting the mildness of the Italian mozzarella, she decided to blend in a bit of ' for extra flavor. And because we were in Parma, she finished her creation with shavings of , and some for good measure. ... In addition to a title she will hold all her life, she won a , a of , and a five-kilo block of Parmesan cheese, which she hand-carried all the way back home. ..."

"Born and raised in , Mr. Gemignani started making at age 15 in his brother’s pizza shop in When Mr. Gemignani encountered his first on a visit to the city 20 years ago, he was a changed man. “In California, pizza was just that, pizza. But when I started traveling and visiting places like New York, you understand pizza in a totally different and beautiful way,” he said. I felt that there would be a renaissance in the slice business coming,” Mr. Gemignani said. He opened the acclaimed in the in 2009. Shortly after, he realized that the New York slice was just as deserving of respect as the sanctified whole and s that most pizza nerds lauded. So the following year he opened the first Slice House next door — where the pizza boxes read, “Respect the Craft!” in big, bright red letters."

"Myhrvold, whose favortie adjective is "cool," does not conform to the Microsoft stereotype, although he has a master's degrees in geophysics and and also in mathematical economics, and a doctorale in and mathematical physics. His seem endless: he is an amateur (hence the dinosaurs, a cosmologist, a zoologist, an environmentalist, a , a and , a driver, a er, a , a , a , and an . He is an accomplished , too."

"... I was interested in cooking long before I even knew there was a computer. ... I started, I think when I was nine years old — I discovered s at the local library. And I announced to my mother that I was going to cook , all by myself. So I got this armload of cookbooks, and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't that great by my current standards, but it wasn't such a disaster that it turned me away from the topic."

"... Find something you really love. ... Don’t be afraid to change your mind if you find that you really love something else more. ... It really helps if you can find people who are supportive."

"Myhrvold first made his name in technology: he became the first chief technology officer of Microsoft after the company acquired his software firm in 1986, and remained there until 1999. His scholarly credential run far and wide, from degrees in math­e­mat­ics, geo­physics, and space physics from UCLA (he started college at 14) to a doctorate in physics from Princeton University earned at 23 and studies with Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University in England and at La Varenne Cooking School in France. Before , he spent two years as a at Rover’s in . He has also functioned as chief gastronomic officer for . He has nurtured his love of food and science-inspired cooking techniques thanks to numerous travels to the world’s best restaurants, which allowed him to get to know many of their s. The publication of ' is the culmination of many years spent researching, writing, photographing, and editing, and even launching his own publishing company, so that the book would correspond exactly to his standards. The Main Course recently spoke to Myhrvold about the book and how he made it happen, helped by co-authors Chris Young and alumnus Maxime Bilet and a large team at the Cooking Lab."

"Technology contains no inherent moral directive—it empowers people, whatever their intent, good or evil. This has always been true: when , the ancient world got s and awls, but also swords and s. The novelty of our present situation is that modern technology can provide small groups of people with much greater lethality than ever before. We now have to worry that private parties might gain access to weapons that are are as destructive as—or possibly even more destructive than—those held by any . A handful of people, perhaps even a single individual, could have the ability to kill millions or billions. Indeed, it is possible, from a technological standpoint, to kill every man, woman, and child on earth. The gravity of the situation is so extreme that getting the concept across without seeming silly or alarmist is challenging. Just thinking about the subject with any degree of seriousness numbs the mind."

"It's going to be interesting [to see] if there's a land grab on services that they want to be a part of."

"Be ambitious and tackle hard problems. Be in touch with academic and intellectual communities outside the Lab. Intern if you can."

"Israel is my past. My two boys are my future."

"If you’re not willing to fail you won’t succeed."

"A true Modernist revolution in food has begun only recently, as s such as began consciously developing gastronomic experiences that transform meals into dialogues between chef and diner. Avant-garde cooking emphasizes novel, unconventional presentation of familiar flavor themes—the by evoking diners’ memories of past meals while taking the dishes in novel directions. A meal at or other Modernist restaurants often exposes conventions that guests do not even realize exist until the innovative food violates them. Like other good art, Modernist cuisine is challenging and provocative. Dozens of chefs around the world are now advancing this culinary movement as it follows a trajectory that is similar, in many ways, to the Modernist transformations of other cultural disciplines. Like those predecessor movements, Modernist cuisine has faced some resistance and criticism. But it has arrived."

"I'm still looking at potential acquisition targets around the globe."

"You're going to see more M&A activity within the VFX and animation community; I think you're going to see companies bulk up."

"The cost of carrying will weigh heavily on ers of all sorts. successully beat small town merchants because they created a vastly more efficient warehousing, ordering and inventory carrying system, driven largely by a superior . A 'virtual Wal-Mart' which presents goods directly to customers on the Internet, or via in physical store loactions, could extend this model even further."

"Markets are like physics."

"The twilight of the twentieth century is driven by a mixture of technology and resources very like that which drove nineteenth-century America. This time, it is and software rather than and steel. Instead of s, we have a that links us as the railroads did, but at the speed of light. And, once again, this change is being driven by people from around the world, making possible an unprecedented level of economic growth. Workers may start out sewing , but chip plants and more diverse enterprises will eventually follow. In the nineteenth century, you had to cross an ocean to find economic opportunity, freedom from repression, or a respite from famine. The pioneers of the twenty-first century can stay put—their diaspora is to cyberspace. Still, we may not be able to gauge the real impact of the information revolution for fifty or sixty years more. Consider our cities, which in many cases have been transformed into artifacts of industrialization. Will large numbers of people begin to telecommute and, in that way, return to a pastoral America? Or will the cities somehow become even more necessary to our lives? Technomania, like its industrial equivalent in 1897, is a reminder that all this lies just beyond our knowing. What has happened already is bound to be very small in comparison to what lies ahead."

"We create and improve every day, something all entrepreneurs have to master if they will make a difference. However, every prospective entrepreneur must be aware that all entrepreneurs face challenges and must be prepared for that. Managing a growing team is a challenge that one has to deal with daily. There are, of course, also the standard ‘Nigerian problems’ of power and internet."

"I observed that travel was also going to be the next big thing. I compared the Brazil and Indian hotel experience and travel tech space and I figured that it should be possible to replicate the model in Nigeria, as both countries bore similarities to Nigeria at that growth phase."

"I am of the opinion that startup CEOs in Africa should use social media to amplify their brands and reach a wide audience."

"I am motivated by the ability to build technical solutions for problems people face."

"We’re expanding now not just to grow, but to optimize."

"What really excites me about Nigeria is the warmth of the people. On the professional side, the opportunities for scaling and creating impact in the market keep us in Nigeria – and jollof rice is an important part of life, of course."

"Every transaction in the FMCG value chain has two sides: the movement of goods and the movement of funds."

"... if a picture is worth a thousand words, an insight is worth more than a billion numbers."

"Sharing insights, trends, and educational content helps democratize knowledge and foster a community of continuous learning. It’s incredible."

"The challenge in the market is that FMCG distribution is really fragmented."

"Taking the product from the manufacturer to the retailer is a tough task and there are various threads in the mix."

"Finding essential products at the right price – or even ensuring availability – became a very big challenge, predominantly because distribution has multiple layers of process, and these layers are not digitised or connected."

"The profitability journey was an outcome of our efficiency on utilizing the assets that we aggregated in the network, and this has proven that the model that we put together as a ‘network of networks."

"Better occupancy in warehousing, smarter logistics routes, and deeper category penetration will all improve margins."

"Continuous learning was crucial to stay relevant, but the rapid pace of advancements seemed never-ending..."

"We create and improve every day, something all entrepreneurs have to master if they will make a difference."

"If you meander towards the seemingly inconsequential, yet positive influences of your life, you will be positioning yourself to ride the wave towards defining yourself as the person you would be proud of introducing to other people."

"A potential threat to innovation happens when the innovators get pulled into fields that pay well, but do not require innovation."

"In the past, it used to be mayhem with young people asking for help to get their passports, which had been waiting for months. What I saw yesterday (Thursday) was a world-class system in all forms. Truly commendable."

"Nigeria needs to have more of those critical infrastructures to advance shared prosperity."

"The e-commerce platform would hit a market valuation of over four billion dollars by 2022."

"I never compare myself with others even though I get inspiration from others. But daily, I try to beat Ndubuisi Ekekwe of yesterday."

"Greatness has been achieved not because of extraordinary talent but due to total dedication, perseverance and commitment through mastering of time ."

"No matter your circumstances, do not be hard on yourself because doing so freezes your energy."

"When you compete with the "big boys",with resources in terms of cash,human capital, structure,and are global with a very strong brand,you have to be very courageous and have the heart of a lion but the great humility of a sheep."

"I think one of the key differences is, we started with the technology first. We are not focused on accruing assets. We are more focused on finding partners who could do it. We don't do any of the logistics or the warehousing. We get it done. So most of the other companies are doing it. Doing the warehousing or the logistics piece, or some of them doing both of them on their own. Our differentiation is that we do not get into doing it on our own. This helps us in scaling efficiently."

"They were more than happy to onboard [OmniRetail’s platform]! The retailer can now see the products that are available from the distributors’ inventory. He doesn’t need to worry which distributor he’s buying from, or how many he’s buying from – he places the order on a single platform."

"So we are onboarding partners who understand the logistics, who understand the warehousing bit in these countries and will be willing to be our co partner in that country to drive it. So yeah, we are going to expand very soon into other West African markets that are stage one, and would want to be the leaders in the West African space prior to us moving into other markets in Africa."

"The biggest victory in life is victory over time. If you master your time, you will win your future."

"A man who cannot manage his seconds will wander aimlessly through the boundless of time."

"If you want to compete with multinational companies ,you have to be knowledge driven and you must stay focused on a niche market."

"I tell them we can also support any responsible government of the state which sincerely wants us to add value without us really being in the driving seat."

"I really like ParentSpark — it helps parents with parenting. Their storytelling is great. It’s a mom coaching her kids and they help you as a parent. I also like Jeyant for medical screening; they have over a million users and screen for Zika and other diseases. PullString has done some nice character-based chatbots like Dr. Who. The Mabu chatbot, with eyes that follow you, is neat and I think IDEO designed it."