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Twenty Years in Silicon Valley is like an eternity everywhere else. Consider the massive changes in the way we live that have occurred over the last two decades: Then and now are basically two different worlds. And the Valley is largely responsible for the shift.
Sustaining a tech company over that span has required a combination of vision, focus and adaptability. Since I launched Loka in 2004, the company has responded to evolving market dynamics and technological advancements, pivoting by need or intuition toward untapped fields and potential opportunities. Sometimes our evolution reads as strategic, sometimes a bit random—which makes sense if you know me.
Looking back at those last two decades, the movie fan in me can’t help but see the dramatic arc to Loka’s lifespan. It’s more an outsider indie film than mainstream blockbuster—we’re no unicorn—but 20 years of doing business is a real accomplishment. In a remorselessly fickle industry like tech, longevity itself is a virtue.
Today Loka is a globally distributed software consultancy pushing the bounds of AI and ML, employing more than 200 people in 18 countries. We are streamlined but mighty, remote but tight-knit, AWS Premier Tier against all odds.
All these years later I still love the work. I still relish the rush of collaboration and innovation. I still thrill at building cool stuff with brilliant people. I’m certain that this sense of joy is inextricably tied to Loka’s success. It starts at the top and trickles down into a stream of gratitude and pride and just plain fun shared by my entire team, and, I hope, every one of our partners and customers. It’s a collective joy: When one of us does well we all do well. This is one of my primary tenets as a business leader, and I also preach it to my mentees at Stanford, hoping to instill my enthusiasm for leading teams and developing novel products into the young folks who will shape our future.
Loka’s story is humble, but it’s unique. And it’s instructive. It hangs on a series of plot points that have helped me figure out how to run a business, how to define success, how to endure the roller-coaster tech world. It’s a good story, and it’s still unfolding—and I think that’s worth sharing.
Phase 1: Discovery
(2004–2012)
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
—Pablo Picasso
Young(ish), ambitious and restless, I’m determined to make my mark on the tech world. How? Good question.
My wife gives me a name: Loka, the Sanskrit word for “world.” It looks good in a logo (an early mentor told me to pick names that look good on the tail of a private jet—#dreams) and encompasses, well, pretty much everything.
Initially I envision Loka as a product company: Loka will ship a SaaS product to improve the user experience. Then I change my mind: Loka will help customers boost SEO. Then it’ll combine machine learning with Instagram-inspired filters to craft the perfect resume. (This last tangent ends with a grateful customer getting a job because of his well-designed resume and sending me an amazing chocolate mousse as thanks. Unfortunately, to make payroll you need more than chocolate mousse.)
As I take Loka in various directions, I moonlight as an independent engineering consultant. Pretty soon I land a whale of a client in Cisco. Later I sign Tickr, an ML-driven insights company. This consulting sideline is just a means to an end, but it presages what Loka will eventually become. It also brings me into the orbit of dozens of major players across industries and sectors, honing my communication style and pitching prowess.
Meanwhile, digital life as we know it comes into being.
Lesson Learned: When I fail, I fail with purpose.
I scored an entrepreneurial win early on, when I was basically a kid, and it gave me an irrational sense of confidence—which turned out to be exactly what I needed to move forward. I assumed that because I succeeded once, I could therefore succeed again, without much trouble. Which was totally wrong, of course. Getting Loka to where it is now took years of hard work and a scary amount of luck. Success was far from given. But without that naive bravado I might not have had the guts to commit and recommit over and over through all the struggles I faced in the following years.
I try to keep this beginner’s mind today—tempered with adult perspective, of course. That way even my missteps carry me forward.
Phase 2: Implementation (2012–2020)
"I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
—Michael Jordan
After eight years of searching for a nail with a Loka-shaped hammer, I realize that my work as a consultant brings the most satisfaction—to myself, and more importantly, to customers. And I’m getting lots of them, and they’re staying longer and buying more. I’m putting my 10,000 hours into helping companies build and launch, and I’m getting better at it over time.
Conversely, there’s no guarantee that putting 10,000 hours into product development will yield a successful product. So I ditch my product aspirations. From now on Loka will be an engineering consultancy. I bring in clients entirely through my own network, like a Sequoia-funded Android game developer. I bring on Blue Cross Blue Shield and other life sciences companies, doubling down on this rapidly expanding sector. I hire ML, AI and DevOps experts and brilliant PhDs from around the world and incorporate those services into Loka’s repertoire. With each new relationship and additional field of expertise, Loka grows, stabilizes and opens the door wider to possible futures.
At the same time, I’m hedging my bets by taking on “fractional” VP of Engineering roles for certain clients, including grocery-logistics startup Afresh and online payments company Preo.
Lesson Learned: Existential risk is a part of doing business, but some tactics help avoid it.
In my case, by taking jobs as a fractional exec, I was diverging from my goals with Loka, but I was simultaneously exercising a muscle that had value on the market (in contrast, “founder of a failed company” doesn’t carry a lot of weight on a resume). The better I got as a role player, the better my chances of landing a “safety net” job in a more established company if I had to.
More importantly, I was also accumulating skills and building relationships that related to my primary goal. My side hustle was in service of my main hustle; my divergence added to my core knowledge. I was ensuring I’d never go back to square 1.
Phase 3: Scale (2020–Now)
"Predicting rain doesn't count. Building the ark does."
—Warren Buffett
With almost a decade of consulting under Loka’s belt—exploring AI and ML, DevOps, big data analysis, frontend and backend builds—I realize our next step is going deeper with the world’s leading cloud service. Thanks to relationships I built and maintained over the last two decades, I connect with a knowledgeable representative at AWS. I have one shot at the audition with this guy, to land the part of “Unproven Partner No. 100,001.” (AWS at this point already has 100,000+ partners and weren’t exactly banging down the door to talk to me).
Turns out Loka’s healthcare and life sciences experience is exactly what the cloud giant is looking for to help service their expanding roster of clients. We get the part.
Our relationship with AWS marks the beginning of Loka’s modern era. With one additional twist: ChatGPT arrives in the fall of 2022, launching the GenAI revolution. Loka’s accrued experience in AI and ML sets up the company to capture the wave.
By 2024, Loka is one of 32 companies worldwide to achieve AWS’ new Generative AI competency. Which is just one AWS competency of six that Loka earns on its way to becoming an AWS Premier Tier Partner, making us part of the .08% of AWS Partners to earn Premier Tier status.
At the time of this writing, Loka has helped more than 150 companies explore and implement their GenAI offering, moving the majority from POC to production. Our success rate is amazing, even to me.
Lesson Learned: That amazing conversion rate? It’s because of our focus.
Focus starts with listening to customers. They’ll tell you which path to pursue. You can’t know what they want until you give them something—and once you do, pay careful attention to how they respond. How many companies can you think of started off offering one thing but succeeded by offering something else entirely after the market demanded it?
Once you’re on the path, you can start focusing. Focus is a rare luxury in the business world.
Early on I operated with a scarcity mindset, which led to me saying yes to any and every offer and option, whether or not it was relevant to my real goals. I couldn’t say no for fear of missing out on either income or opportunity. I was shooting from all over the court.
Now I pick and choose where I take my shots. After all those years of anxiously saying yes, I can calmly say no to lesser opportunities. I’ve said no seven times this week! Which feels weird to me, but it’s better for my business and better for would-be customers. And it tells me that today, Loka is focusing ruthlessly on our niche, relentlessly refining our work, getting better and better at what we do.
We have the luxury of focus, and we’re taking it as far as we can.
Phase 4: Beyond
During my recent 5/4 Friday I headed to Paris for the first week of the Olympics. I couldn’t miss the once-every-four-years opportunity to be in the presence of the greatest athletes from around the world, competing and achieving at the highest possible level. Just being there was an honor and a privilege. And what an inspiration! I get emotional just thinking about it.
I see our worldwide squad at Loka in a similar light. We’re driven to be our best, for ourselves and for each other, motivated as much by the love of the game as the desire for victory. Loka is now much bigger than me—and that makes me excited to get to work. There’s no shortage of awesome projects on the horizon, from GenAI to health care and life sciences to untold innovations yet to come. I may have started Loka as a solo sport, but we’re ready to find our greatest potential as a team.
