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Hardeep Walia
CEO & Co-Founder Motif Investing
Investing and technology are my passions. In 2010, I co-founded Motif Investing, an innovative investing site that allows individuals and advisors to easily invest in collections of stocks and ETFs centered around specific themes or investment strategies. Prior to Motif, I spent over six years in executive positions at Microsoft, including serving as general manager of Microsoft’s $2 billion Enterprise Services business. I started at Microsoft as director of corporate development and strategy, helping to oversee Microsoft’s investments and acquisitions. I began my career as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.
I hold a BS in economics and engineering from Yale University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. I also hold Series 7, 63 and 24 licenses in the securities industry and am a member of FINRA's Small-Firm Advisory Board. I am a frequent guest on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and Fox Business and blog regularly for Forbes (Hardeep Walia - Real World Investing - Forbes). I love trading commodities motifs and investing in technology motifs. Come friend me on Motif!
Hardeep Walia
3rdAccount HolderOpenLink Network
Hardeep Walia
co-Founder and CEO of a new investing phenomena
San Francisco Bay AreaInternet
Current
Motif Investing
Previous
AHPK Capital, Microsoft, Trilogy Software
Education
University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School
500+
connectionsConnectSend Hardeep InMailMore options
Contact Info
www.linkedin.com/in/hardeepw
Background
Summary
Investing and technology are my passions. In 2010, I co-founded Motif Investing, an innovative investing site that allows individuals and advisors to easily invest in collections of stocks and ETFs centered around specific themes or investment strategies. Prior to Motif, I spent over six years in executive positions at Microsoft, including serving as general manager of Microsoft’s $2 billion Enterprise Services business. I started at Microsoft as director of corporate development and strategy, helping to oversee Microsoft’s investments and acquisitions. I began my career as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.
I hold a BS in economics and engineering from Yale University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. I also hold Series 7, 63 and 24 licenses in the securities industry and am a member of FINRA's Small-Firm Advisory Board and FINRA's Technology Advisory Board. I am a frequent guest on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and Fox Business and blog regularly for Forbes (Hardeep Walia - Real World Investing - Forbes). I am on Twitter @hardeepw and on Quora at (https://www.quora.com/Hardeep-Walia). I love trading commodities motifs and investing in technology motifs. Come friend me on Motif!
Specialties: Building and scaling organizations, management and operations, leading turnarounds, team building, coaching and people development, corporate strategy, corporate restructuring, and corporate development, consumer marketing, consumer finance, investment management, trading, equity investing.
Finovate Fall 2013 - Best of Show Presentation
Finovate Fall 2013 - Best of Show Presentation
Experience
Motif InvestingCo-Founder and CEO
Motif Investing
March 2010 – Present (4 years 1 month)San Mateo, CA
At Motif Investing, we make it easy for you to invest in your ideas. We realize that you see great investing ideas everyday, whether you're inspired by the latest technology gadget, or a news story on a global trend, but something—time, research, inertia—stops you from acting on those ideas. We give you a simple yet powerful tool to turn your ideas into investments. At Motif Investing, we believe that ideas not only move the world, but that they also make the best investments.
Managing Director
AHPK Capital
January 2007 – March 2010 (3 years 3 months)
Founded this Company to invest in and consult to undervalued and distressed small to mid-size technology companies.
MicrosoftGeneral Manager, Worldwide Enterprise Services
Microsoft
June 2004 – December 2006 (2 years 7 months)
Primary responsibility was to turn around the $500M+ Premier Support business and drive top-line growth while turning it profitable.
Secondary responsibility was to architect a three-year strategy to reinvent all of Enterprise Services away from a cost-plus business model to focus on value-priced productized services, and to define a clear “theater of operations” that minimized channel conflict.
Under my stewardship, Premier grew to $800M+ and turned into a 14% profitable business (first time in its history) through a combination of cost reductions, pricing discipline, offering rationalization and new product launches.
Following the implementation of our new three-year strategy, my role was expanded to include key functions of combined $2B Enterprise Consulting and Support Business. Added responsibilities included: Strategic Planning; Product Development and Lifecycle; Marketing & PR; People Readiness and Training; and Customer Advocacy.
Served on Executive Committees focused on critical cross-company initiatives: Software Assurance, Mission Critical Computing, Field Compensation and People Development.
(Open)7 recommendations, including:
Marcio Nobrega
Marcio Nobrega
Services Line Director - United States at Microsoft
I had the privilege to work with Hardeep at Microsoft. He has a unique set of skills that combine business acumen with...View
Luca Barone
Luca Barone
Sr. Director, Strategy and Marketing at Cisco Systems
Working for Hardeep has been the highlight of my career. He led our turnaround of our support business at Microsoft taking...View
5 more recommendations
MicrosoftDirector, Corporate Strategy
Microsoft
August 2002 – June 2004 (1 year 11 months)
Served on a new nine member team reporting to CEO (later CFO) focused on jumpstarting emerging businesses and driving corporate-wide operational improvements. Underlying goal was to proactively source new acquisition targets that aligned with Microsoft’s long-term corporate strategy.
Responsible for managing Senior Leadership Team projects from inception to recommendations. Role provided the opportunity to interact with senior most Executives and allowed me to develop strong relationships across Microsoft.
MicrosoftSenior Manager, Corporate Development
Microsoft
August 2001 – September 2002 (1 year 2 months)
Served on fifteen-member team responsible for handling all investments and acquisitions. Responsible for valuing investments and conducting due diligence.
Trilogy SoftwareBusiness Development Manager
Trilogy Software
September 1997 – September 1999 (2 years 1 month)
Joined this start-up that developed enterprise sales configuration software when it had less than one hundred employees. Wrote my own job description that included: leading strategic marketing; building up sales for the emerging insurance vertical segment; negotiating partnerships with key systems integrators to distribute and jointly market products; helping to develop a corporate strategy; all while leading recruiting efforts for senior hires.
Boston Consulting GroupAssociate Consultant
Boston Consulting Group
September 1995 – September 1997 (2 years 1 month)
Solved CEO-level strategic problems for Fortune 100 firms. Projects included M&A advisory for an office products company, a retail channel strategy, a divestiture for an energy services company and deregulation strategy for an electric utility.
Publications
Real World Investing(Link)
Forbes
Skills & Endorsements
Top Skills
74Start-ups
56Strategy
49Business Strategy
28Mergers & Acquisitions
25Investments
22Management
20Corporate Development
20Leadership
20Business Development
16Team Building
Hardeep also knows about...
16Strategic Partnerships
11Entrepreneurship
10Restructuring
9Venture Capital
7SaaS
7Online Advertising
5Strategic Planning
5Product Management
5Go-to-market Strategy
4Asset Management
4Early-stage Startups
4Business Process...
4Product Development
3Asset Managment
3Executive Management
See 16+
Education
University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School
MBA, Finance and ISSE
1999 – 2001
Dual major in Finance and Information: Strategy, Systems & Economics (ISSE). Graduated with Honors. Director’s Honor List.
Activities and Societies: President of Wharton Technology Club. Director of Alumni Achievement Award. Profiled in Industry Standard’s Top MBAs Report. ISSE Teaching Assistant. Free-lance strategy consultant.
Yale University
Yale University
B.S., Economics and Chemical Engineering
1991 – 1995
Senior Engineering Thesis on plant design for the production of acrylic acid through the catalytic oxidation of propylene.
Activities and Societies: President of International Students Organization, Captain of Yale Badminton Team
Additional Info
Interests
World affairs, politics, history, technology, start-ups, golf, football (soccer), investing, parenting, career coaching, traveling, languages and cultures
Organizations
Additional Organizations
BCG, TIE
Recommendations Received (7)Given (4)
General Manager, Worldwide Enterprise Services
Microsoft
Marcio Nobrega
Marcio Nobrega
Services Line Director - United States at Microsoft
I had the privilege to work with Hardeep at Microsoft. He has a unique set of skills that combine business acumen with passion for developing people and taking them up to the next challenge. He knows how to attract talented people and set up high performance teams. He inspires us with a vision that is so obviously right; and yet nobody was able to articulate that vision before in such a clear way. As an experienced leader he pushes the organization to its limit without giving up on personal and company values. He left a profound footprint in my career. I recommend Hardeep to any company that is looking for a turnaround: from local to global, from negative to positive, from mediocrity to excellence.less
June 22, 2009, Marcio reported to Hardeep at Microsoft
Luca Barone
Luca Barone
Sr. Director, Strategy and Marketing at Cisco Systems
Working for Hardeep has been the highlight of my career. He led our turnaround of our support business at Microsoft taking it from a money-losing group to a high-growth, high-profit business wihtin 2 years.
In this process, I was increadibly impressed wiht Hardeep's capability to:
1) Build a vision people can rally to. There is no doubt in my mind that changing...more
June 1, 2009, Luca reported to Hardeep at Microsoft
Kenneth Durham
Kenneth Durham
Marketing & General Management Consulting
Hardeep is an exceptional leader with a distinctive style. While his raw intellectual capacity is second to none that I know, it is the way he applies himself that separates him from the merely smart: He doesn’t accept conventional wisdom or the preconceived ideas of others. Rather, he relies on his own observations and those of whom he trusts to make up his mind. On the other hand, he is an exceptionally good follower. He will embrace direction from others, even though he may have originally disagreed with it at the formative stage. That is, he has NO tendency to be passive-aggressive even when immersed in wholly passive-aggressive environments.
Hardeep also has a rare talent for protecting his people without coddling them. “Protecting” in the sense of sticking up for them, promoting them to others, and ensuring that they have the best shot at success. That doesn’t mean he endorses everyone on his team equally regardless of talent or results. The “Velvet Hammer,” as some of us called him, can be effusive with his praise when earned but will cut to the bone with his critiques when needed. He doesn’t let loyalty get in the way of delivering clear feedback and effective coaching, to the point that he will help under-performers find career alternatives when that is the right thing to do.
Finally, Hardeep is exceptionally creative. Some of it comes from his natural tendency to suspect conventional solutions. But I think that most of it is in his DNA. Creative people aren’t satisfied with ordinary, trite solutions. They see the world in color, as Hardeep does, and won’t settle for washed-out grays.less
May 24, 2009, Kenneth reported to Hardeep at Microsoft
Alan Horowitz
Alan Horowitz
President at MainStream GS, LLC
Hardeep is a strategic and innovative leader. In my 25+ years in business he has one of the best strategic minds I have seen. He has a unique ability to take complex ideas and break them down into understandable components that form the basis of winning business strategies. I look for him to be one of the business leaders that suceeds in these turbulent economic times.
May 6, 2009, Alan reported to Hardeep at Microsoft
Shemiele Da'Briel
Shemiele Da'Briel
Business Manager at Microsoft
Hardeep is one of the most outstanding leaders I have ever encountered. He has exceptional talent at creating a vision along with the strategy to execute that vision, and to get his team and other key stakeholders onboard.
Paramount to his excellent leadership skills, however, is his interpersonal skills: he connects with people and has great talent for helping people excel in their strong areas while developing new skills.
I recall an offsite with his team of close to 100 people >> he was able to introduce every single person by name, and talk about their contributions to the team. This was beyond belief, and his approach of knowing his team members and showing gratitude for their work is one of the reasons he is so successful.
Hardeep possesses all the characteristics of a true leader, and his passion is contagious. I would work with Hardeep again any day!less
May 4, 2009, Shemiele reported to Hardeep at Microsoft
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