Watch the internet on November 18th – spent today in a recording studio to talk about… to be announced 😉

In a world where code writes code, where builds are automated, and where AI assists every step of development, “trust” can no longer stand alone.

For years, we’ve relied on digital signatures as proof that a piece of software came from who it claimed to come from. That used to be enough. But as supply-chain attacks evolve – from compromised build systems to stolen signing certificates – it’s becoming painfully clear:

A signature without transparency is just a locked box with no audit trail.

Microsoft’s latest initiative, Signing Transparency, moves the industry toward a new standard: verifiable accountability.

💡 From Trust to Verification

Imagine a world where every signing event – every binary, container, or firmware – leaves a cryptographically verifiable footprint in an immutable, tamper-evident ledger.

That’s exactly what Signing Transparency enables. It’s not about replacing code signing; it’s about augmenting it with visibility. Each signing event is logged, time-stamped, and confirmed in an append-only Merkle-tree ledger, so anyone can verify who signed what, and when.

It’s like going from a handshake agreement to a notarized public record — without slowing the process down.

🧭 What This Means for Secure-by-Design

This is where I see something bigger: secure-by-design evolving into secure-by-default.

Transparency doesn’t just protect you from external threats; it also protects you from your own blind spots.
It makes internal missteps visible. It turns “we didn’t know” into “we could have known.”

In practice, this means that release pipelines, AI-generated code, firmware, and even open-source dependencies can all have a traceable, verifiable chain of custody – not just a promise of integrity, but proof of it.

⚙️ The Chain of Accountability

Every stage of the software lifecycle – from build to deployment – can be thought of as a ledger entry.

Every signature tells a story: who signed, what was signed, when, and under what conditions.

That kind of transparency doesn’t slow innovation; it amplifies trust across teams, vendors, and customers.

And in regulated industries like finance and healthcare, it’s a game-changer – not because it adds bureaucracy, but because it replaces assumptions with evidence.

🧩 The Bigger Lesson

We often talk about “Zero Trust” in infrastructure. But it’s time to apply the same mindset to software provenance.

• 🔒 Zero Trust doesn’t mean suspicion – it means verifiable confidence.
• 🤝 It means designing systems that can prove their integrity without asking for your blind faith.
• 💎 And that, ultimately, is what builds resilient ecosystems – in technology and beyond.

🚀 Closing Thought

Transparency is the new trust.

Accountability is the new assurance.

And in a world where every build, every AI model, and every line of code travels faster than ever before, the most innovative thing you can do might just be to make your process visible.

A few weeks ago, I ticked out a big bucket list item of mine – I keynoted the IEEE conference! Here is a summary of my session:

♟️ In 1997, Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov.
⚫ In 2016, AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol.
➗ In 2025, GPT solved Math Olympiad problems.

Every time, humanity was “doomed.” 🔥

And every time – we adapted, evolved, and led again.

The next chapter? 📑

🤖 AI assistants and agents are becoming part of our daily workflows.
🧑‍🏭 Workers are shifting from writing text to curating intent, from syntax to context, from task execution to strategic design.

We’re not disappearing.

We’re moving up the stack – to creativity, empathy, and leadership.

Spatial computing, quantum breakthroughs, neural linking, robotics, and fusion energy are not replacing us.

They’re amplifying us.

By 2040, we’ll still have 🧑‍⚕️ doctors, 🧑‍⚖️ lawyers, and 🧑‍🔬 engineers – but they’ll be augmented, accelerated, and inspired by AI.

🌍 The future of work isn’t man or machine. It’s man with machine, building what’s next – together.

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new role as an external part time remote Expert at Primary Venture Partners! As an Expert, I provide a unique vantage point into early-stage innovation, where emerging technologies, bold ideas, and visionary leaders intersect. Through this top-tier seed-stage network, I get to collaborate with exceptional people shaping what comes next.

Forbes Councils bring together leaders shaping technology’s future: innovators, builders, thinkers, and doers; and I’m truly honored to be among them.

To me, this isn’t just a recognition; it’s an invitation:

• 💡 to share ideas that move our industry forward
• 🤝 to collaborate with peers who care deeply about technology’s impact
• 🌍 and to continue amplifying the human side of innovation: openness, empathy, and purpose.

From hackathons to high-performance computing, from open source readiness to quantum discussions – every step in this journey has been about learning, sharing, and building together.

I’m excited to contribute thought-leadership pieces, engage with this incredible community, and bring the conversations I’ve been having in the FINOS, Microsoft, and open tech ecosystems to a global stage through Forbes.

Here’s to the next chapter of building bridges, not silos, in technology. 🚀

This month I am hitting 15 Years at Morgan Stanley – and What a Tech Journey It’s Been 🚀! – and looking back, it’s hard to believe how far technology has leapt forward in that time.

When I started, IT was a world of:

• Data centers you could walk through – racks humming away like the heart of the firm.
• Applications that lived firmly on-prem, with deployment cycles measured in months.
• Monolithic codebases, waterfall project plans, and coffee-fueled overnight releases.

Today, that world looks completely different:

• Cloud-first strategies and hybrid architectures are the norm, shrinking deployment times from months to minutes.
• Microservices and APIs have replaced monoliths, enabling agility and rapid innovation.
• AI, automation, and advanced analytics are embedded into everyday workflows.
• DevOps and CI/CD pipelines keep delivery continuous, and teams closer to the business.
• Zero Trust security models and next-gen encryption protect assets in a more complex threat landscape.

In short, the pace of change hasn’t just been fast – it’s been exponential. The tools, the practices, the expectations, and even the definition of “possible” have all evolved.

I’m grateful to have witnessed – and contributed to – this transformation alongside incredible colleagues, mentors, and innovators. Here’s to the next chapter, where the only constant will be change.

In tech and innovation circles, two terms often pop up in early-stage project discussions: Proof of Concept (PoC) and Proof of Value (PoV). They sound similar, and they often get conflated, but they serve very different purposes—and knowing when to focus on one over the other can save you time, money, and credibility.

Let’s unpack the differences and ask the big question: should you always focus on the latter?

The Basics: What’s the Difference?

Proof of Concept (PoC)

A PoC answers one question: “Can we build it?”
It’s a limited-scope experiment to demonstrate that a certain approach or technology can work in principle.

• Goal: Feasibility
• Scope: Narrow, often technical
• Output: Evidence that the idea is technically achievable
• Example: Testing if your AI model can detect anomalies in raw sensor data with 80% accuracy.

Proof of Value (PoV)

A PoV answers a different question: “Should we build it?”
It evaluates not only feasibility but also impact—business value, user adoption, operational fit, and ROI.

• Goal: Viability and business justification
• Scope: Broader, often includes real-world conditions
• Output: Evidence that implementing this solution will produce measurable value
• Example: Demonstrating that deploying the anomaly detection AI in the manufacturing pipeline reduces downtime by 15%, saving $1.2M annually.

Why Proof of Concept Often Feels Like a Safety Blanket

Organizations love PoCs because they feel low-risk.

• Technical teams get to explore without committing to production.
• Stakeholders see quick progress in the form of demos.
• Budgets stay contained (at least initially).

But here’s the trap:
A successful PoC doesn’t guarantee adoption, ROI, or even relevance. You can have a technically brilliant solution that solves a problem nobody cares enough to pay for. The graveyard of corporate innovation is full of “great ideas” that died because they never made the jump from possible to valuable.

Why Proof of Value Matters More in Most Cases

When the goal is to secure investment, scale adoption, or align with strategic priorities, a PoV is the stronger currency.
A PoV forces you to:

1. Quantify impact – Tie your work to measurable business outcomes.
2. Align with stakeholders – Solve problems they actually want solved.
3. Test under real-world conditions – No more lab-only scenarios.

In other words, it moves you beyond the cool tech demo and into justified investment territory.

When to Choose One Over the Other

You shouldn’t always skip the PoC. There are times it’s the right move:

• High technical uncertainty: You don’t yet know if the problem is solvable with available tools.
• Early R&D: The primary goal is learning, not selling the idea internally.
• Regulated industries: You must prove safety or compliance before evaluating ROI.

But if your technology is already mature or the technical path is well-understood, jumping straight to a PoV can accelerate time-to-value and prevent “PoC purgatory.”

The Hybrid Approach

One effective strategy: treat the PoC as a technical milestone within a larger PoV initiative.

• Phase 1 (PoC): De-risk the technology in a controlled environment.
• Phase 2 (PoV): Test the solution in a real-world scenario with agreed-upon success metrics—financial, operational, or customer-related.

This way, you keep the agility of a PoC but ensure you never lose sight of the ultimate goal: delivering value.

The Bottom Line

If the outcome you’re after is buy-in, budget, and impact, the conversation should center around Proof of Value. Proof of Concept answers “Can we?”—which is important—but Proof of Value answers “Should we?” and “Will it matter?”

In a world where ideas are cheap but execution and adoption are everything, focusing on value ensures your efforts translate into real-world impact—not just another abandoned pilot.

Recently, I received news that’s a career milestone for many innovators: my patent was officially granted.

It’s one of those moments that comes with both a quiet satisfaction and a loud inner “Yes!” — the kind of achievement that validates countless hours of brainstorming, testing, scrapping ideas, and starting over.

Why Patents Matter

A granted patent is more than a framed certificate or a line on LinkedIn. It represents:

• Recognition of originality — proof that your work is not only novel but also non-obvious in the eyes of a rigorous review process.
• Protection of investment — the legal shield that ensures you can develop, commercialize, or license your invention without immediate fear of copycats.
• Negotiating power — in partnerships, acquisitions, and funding discussions, patents often tilt the table in your favor.
• A public contribution to knowledge — each patent is also a published document, expanding the collective library of human innovation.

The Dark Side of Patents

As with many systems designed for good, there’s a flip side.
The same protections that safeguard genuine inventors can also be exploited:

• Patent trolling — entities that acquire patents not to innovate, but to threaten lawsuits and extract settlements.
• Overly broad claims — stifling legitimate competition and slowing industry progress.
• Barrier to entry — smaller innovators may struggle to navigate or afford the legal defenses needed when confronted by well-funded adversaries.

These abuses distort the original intent of the patent system, turning a tool for encouraging innovation into a weapon for protecting monopoly or generating revenue without value creation.

The Responsibility of a Patent Holder

Getting a patent isn’t just an end—it’s the start of a new phase.
Holding one means balancing two roles:

1. Guardian of your idea — ensuring your work is used fairly and in ways aligned with your vision.
2. Contributor to the ecosystem — resisting the temptation to hoard ideas and instead finding ways for your work to inspire and enable others.

If used ethically, patents can be catalysts for collaboration, licensing opportunities, and the kind of cross-pollination of ideas that drives whole industries forward.

Final Thoughts

A patent grant is a privilege, not just a prize. It’s recognition of past work, but also a call to future stewardship.
I’m proud of this milestone—and equally aware of the responsibility that comes with it. Because innovation thrives not when ideas are locked away, but when they are protected enough to be shared, built upon, and turned into something even greater.

Request for Presenters!

Our 2-day Microsoft Tech Conference on Nov 17–18 isn’t just any conference — it’s the Microsoft Ignite: New York Edition 🎉.

Yes… it’s running the same week as Microsoft Ignite — on purpose. Why?
Because we’re bringing the Ignite energy straight to New York City, so you can:

🤝 Connect in person with fellow devs, IT pros, and business innovators
🎤 Learn from MVPs, product teams, and real-world practitioners
🚀 Go deep on AI, Azure, Office365, and all things Microsoft — from 100-level intros to 400-level deep dives
💬 Swap ideas over coffee instead of just emojis (though we still love emojis 😉)

We’re looking for speakers for breakout sessions, panels, and customer stories.

Whether you’re showcasing a Copilot success story, building magic on Azure AI, or running a Power Platform moonshot, now’s your chance to take the stage.

📍 Where: New York City
📅 When: Nov 17–18, 2025
🎯 Submit your session now → Don’t miss your shot to be part of the first-ever Ignite NYC!
🔥 The call for presenters is open.
💬 DM me if you’ve got an question or send this to a friend who needs to be here.

In the age of AI, one of the most underrated but increasingly essential skills is prompt writing. Whether you’re a developer using GitHub Copilot, a designer collaborating with generative tools, or a business professional trying to extract insights from a language model—how you ask determines what you get.

Yet many still treat prompts as throwaway one-liners, assuming that the AI will just “know what they mean.” Spoiler alert: it won’t—not unless you tell it well.

🧠 Prompting Is a Skill—Not Magic

Just as you wouldn’t expect to write perfect code, deliver a flawless presentation, or master Excel formulas without some effort and feedback, you shouldn’t expect high-quality AI outputs from generic, undercooked prompts.

Writing good prompts is not a one-and-done affair. It’s iterative. It’s intentional. And it’s teachable.

Think of it this way:

That transformation didn’t happen by luck. It happened by crafting a better prompt—with tone, style, narrative, and intention baked in.

🔨 Sharpen the Tool, Sharpen the Results

Start small, but practice often:

• Add context: Who is your audience? What’s the purpose?
• Be specific: What style, format, or tone are you after?
• Include examples: Just like giving a junior teammate a reference implementation.
• Iterate: Run it, refine it, and rerun it. Just like debugging code.

Over time, your prompts will go from vague to vivid—from “meh” to masterpiece.

🎤 You Practice Presentations. Why Not Prompts?

You wouldn’t walk into a pitch without rehearsing. You wouldn’t ship code without testing. So why would you expect an AI to perform well when your only input is: “make this better”?

Make prompt-writing part of your skill stack. Practice it like public speaking, like refactoring code, like negotiation. The better you prompt, the more value you unlock.

🏁 TL;DR

✅ Prompt writing is a real, trainable skill
✅ Vague prompts = vague results
✅ Personalized, iterative, clear prompts = 🔥 quality output
✅ You don’t need to be a prompt engineer—but you do need to care

Embrace the prompt. Master it. Because in the era of AI, it’s your new superpower.