Jul 4, 2020An Ode To My Father I Am Finally Ready To MournOn Oct 18,1999, my dad wrote me a letter. Yes, an actual physical paper letter, six pages long in his bold, clear writing with his ink pen. I was 25 years old, about three months into my life in America, an Indian Muslim student in Indiana trying to fit in…Father And Son4 min readFather And Son4 min read
Jun 26, 2020The Challenges In Building An Inclusive Organization Even As A Minority FounderI’ve created two companies that have employed a couple hundred people during the past 15 years. Much through that time, I’ve shared thoughts and lessons on that journey here and in my other essays. Today, I’d like to share a few more because I believe all founders and CEOs in…Inclusion7 min readInclusion7 min read
Published inSkift’s Team Blog·May 8, 2019Our Dining Vertical Is Now Part of Our Main Travel CoverageMany of you have watched us at Skift as we expanded beyond our main focus of covering travel in to the business of dining through Skift Table over the last two years and, more recently, into the business of wellness through Skift Wellness weekly newsletter. After these two years, attempting…Travel2 min readTravel2 min read
Published inSkift’s Team Blog·Feb 24, 2019How We Connect Our Boutique Vertical Media Company To Larger Global IssuesAs the consumer economy moves to “experiences, not things”, Skift has expanded to cover the experience culture, by covering travel+dining+wellness together, which we believe is the best lens to understand then modern consumer. In travel, we decipher and define the trendlines in travel and we have built our editorial, conferences…Travel2 min readTravel2 min read
Feb 2, 2019Digital Media: What *Really* Went Wrong in 2018Seven years into running Skift as a fiercely independent business media company, I have become a fan of this financial term called “optionality” which by the way is also Mohamed El-Erian’s favorite word. What it means in Buzzfeed’s context is it lost a number of options when it took so…BuzzFeed4 min readBuzzFeed4 min read
Nov 29, 2018It *Should* Be Freakin’ Hard To Be In MediaI have usually held unpopular views well enough, so I will go for it: it *should* be hard. Starting something in media, building in, being in it, building a career in it, it should be hard. It should be hard to have and hold down a job in media, to…Entrepreneurship2 min readEntrepreneurship2 min read
Published inSkift’s Team Blog·Aug 31, 2018Getting a Job At a Company Like Ours: It Is All About the BasicsI’ve conducted hundreds of interviews over my lifetime as I’ve built two different companies over the last decade. …Recruiting2 min readRecruiting2 min read
Published inSkift’s Team Blog·Aug 25, 2018How We Use Conferences As A Strategic Weapon For Company GrowthIt took us about six months to pull off our first conference. Little did we know how those six months would end up changing our small company Skift in all possible ways. When we first started thinking about creating a different type of conference in the travel industry, in March…Travel5 min readTravel5 min read
Aug 18, 2018Six Essential Reads to Understand My Building PhilosophySince 2015, I have increasingly been writing about the process of how I look at building companies — specifically boutique media companies — the lessons I have learned while doing them, and the philosophies on creating, nurturing and sustaining that I have developed as a result. Thought I would gather the six longer writings/presentations I have created and posted, in one place; it may be helpful to many of you looking to ways to think through your own businesses. So here you go:Startup1 min readStartup1 min read
Aug 4, 2018Patience: The Radical New Business ModelSkift is turning six. Of all the achievements anyone can ask of a company from its infancy, staying power — mere survival — is the toughest of them. Let no one tell you otherwise. …Startup9 min readStartup9 min read