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"We have more than 6,100 years of winemaking history" is a fact, not a fiction. I say this as someone who built a winery in Armenia precisely because I believe in what that history represents. The Areni-1 cave. The indigenous varieties that survived Soviet collectivization. The volcanic soils at altitude that do things to a grape that you can't replicate anywhere else. I'm not dismissing any of it. I've staked sizable and many years on the premise that Armenian wine belongs

There is a version of Armenia's technology future that looks like success but isn't. In that version, Armenian engineers are employed by foreign companies. Armenian universities produce graduates who leave. Armenian startups get acqui-hired before they scale. The country becomes a well-regarded source of talent and a reliable location for outsourced work — and the value created by Armenian minds compounds somewhere else. That version is better than many alternatives. It's not

In 1996, when my co-founder and I were starting Virage Logic, we were working on embedded memory solutions for System-on-Chip. If you said that sentence at a dinner party, people changed the subject. There was no consumer excitement around what we were building. No press coverage. No cultural moment. Just a small team working on a technical problem that most people outside the semiconductor industry couldn't have explained if their lives depended on it. Six years later, compo

Leadership is often discussed as if it belongs only in boardrooms. Strategy meetings. Investor calls. Executive decisions. Quarterly plans. Those environments matter. I have spent much of my career in them. But some of the most important leadership lessons I have learned did not come from a conference table. They came from building companies. From investing in ideas before they were obvious. From walking through vineyards. From supporting families during difficult times. From

Some of the most interesting wines in the world are not made from a single grape variety. They are blends. Different varieties, each with its own character, structure, aroma, strength, and weakness, brought together to create something more balanced than any one of them could become alone. One grape may bring elegance. Another may bring depth. Another may bring freshness. Another may bring structure. On its own, each can be good. Together, when handled with methodical testin

A note from Adam Kablanian There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a winery in the middle of summer. The hard work of spring is done. The harvest is still weeks away. The vines are doing what vines do in July - growing slowly, almost imperceptibly, converting sunlight into something that will eventually matter. I find myself thinking about that process a lot this month. We are halfway through July. The Pinot Noir 2024 has been out in the world for some time now

When we think about costly decisions, we usually think about the ones that failed. A bad investment. A product that never found its market. A strategic move that didn't work. Those decisions are easy to identify because they leave visible evidence. What we rarely measure are the decisions we never made. The investment we hesitated to make. The company we waited too long to start. The opportunity we dismissed because it felt uncertain. In my experience, these are often the dec

When people hear "Armenia," wine is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. That should change. This year marked an extraordinary milestone for Armenian winemaking. At the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, one of the world's most respected international wine competitions, Alexandrea Winery's Pinot Noir 2024 was awarded a Gold Medal, while our Riesling 2024 received a Silver Medal. Even more remarkably, this Pinot Noir is the first commercially produced Pinot Noir from Armeni

When people talk about leadership, they usually talk about vision. Or strategy. Or innovation. Rarely do they talk about stewardship. And yet, after decades of building companies, investing in technology, supporting philanthropic initiatives, and creating a family business designed for future generations, I have come to believe that stewardship may be the most important leadership skill of all. Not because it helps you build something. But because it helps you preserve, stren

Five years ago, FASF was founded in response to one of the most difficult periods in our recent history. The aftermath of war left thousands of soldiers and their families facing uncertainty, hardship, and challenges that could not be solved by words alone. There was an immediate need for action, support, and responsibility. Like many others, I asked myself a simple question: What happens after the headlines disappear? The answer became the foundation of FASF. From Crisis to

When people think about inheritance, they usually think of assets such as a business, a home, an investment portfolio, or a piece of land. Usually material things Those things matter. They represent years of work, sacrifice, and discipline. But the older I get, the more I realize that the most valuable things we leave behind cannot be measured on a balance sheet. As a father, I often think about what I hope my children will inherit one day. And surprisingly, wealth is not at

For years, we’ve been told the same story: The world is flat. Capital moves freely. Talent is global. Location doesn’t matter anymore. It sounds convincing.It’s also incomplete. Because if geography didn’t matter, certain patterns wouldn’t keep repeating themselves - across industries, across decades, and across markets. But they do. The Illusion of a Borderless World Technology has removed friction. You can build a company from anywhere. Raise capital remotely. Access global

Experience has a way of simplifying things. Not because the journey becomes easier - but because the noise becomes clearer. You begin to see what truly matters, and more importantly, what doesn’t. If I were starting again today - in business, in investing, in building anything meaningful , I wouldn’t try to do more. I would try to do fewer things, with greater discipline. I Would Prioritize Direction Over Speed Early in any journey, speed feels like progress. It isn’t. Speed

Slow is not behind. The vines that budded last are producing the most balanced fruit. I spent 15 years rewarding speed. The land keeps correcting me. Your environment shapes the outcome more than your effort. Same grape. Same care. Different rows. The one with afternoon shade produced something more elegant. You can't outwork the geography. You can only choose it wisely. You can't taste April in June. Everything I did this month won't show up in the bottle for a year. Most me

I spent decades as a tech investor. Now I make wine. People think I made a crazy pivot. But honestly? The way I think hasn't changed at all. In a venture, the first thing I ask is: Is this the right market? Not the right idea. The right market. In wine, I ask the same thing - just about Terroir instead of industries. Napa is played out. Overpriced, overcrowded, over-hyped. I went looking for the Napa of 50 years ago. A place with great bones that nobody had fully discovered

This year marks five years since Friends of the Armenian Soldier and Family (FASF) was founded. FASF was not created in a moment of comfort. It was created in a moment of urgency. In the aftermath of the 2020 44-day war, when soldiers and their families faced profound hardship, uncertainty, and loss, it became clear that immediate relief alone would not be enough. What was needed was structure. Continuity. A long-term commitment. FASF was founded to stand beside those who had

And Why IQM Quietly Proved Them Wrong There’s a pattern I’ve observed over the years: Most investors say they want to back the future. Very few are willing to sit through it. Deep tech is not SaaS. It’s not consumer apps. It’s not something you scale in 18 months with aggressive marketing and a growth playbook. It demands something far less fashionable in today’s capital markets: patience. And that’s precisely what most investors underestimate. The Myth of “High Risk” When p

In 2019, IQM wasn’t a headline. It was a small start up team working on a very hard scientific problem. The valuation was € 12M. Quantum computing was still considered speculative by many. Four of us wrote the first € 12M checks. What stood out wasn’t hype. It was clarity of vision, depth of science, and founders who understood the long road ahead. Today, IQM filed via SPAC Instrument to be listed in the U.S. at an € 1.8B valuation. But the real lesson isn’t the number. It’s

It’s about responsibility. Real love isn’t loud. It’s consistent. It shows up every day, especially when no one is watching. The same is true for the work we choose to commit to.If you truly love what you build, you don’t just celebrate it you protect it. You think long-term. You put systems in place.You make decisions that allow it to grow beyond you. Performance fades. Responsibility endures. Today, I’m reminded that the strongest form of love—whether for people, work, or

Today, on International Day of Education, we celebrate the transformative power of knowledge — the force that drives progress, fuels innovation, and empowers individuals to shape the world around them. Education is more than acquiring skills; it is the foundation of opportunity, resilience, and leadership. For over three decades, I’ve been privileged to contribute to education in multiple ways: founding companies that create jobs and technological advancements, mentoring the