NOW Magazine: Let's start by talking about how you felt about user interfaces years ago. Did the state of things at that time inspire you to help create Visual Basic?

Alan Cooper: I've always been an inventor of software. There's been a longstanding mythos, a kind of a zeitgeist in the world of software creation that says application software is for the weak programmers...

NOW Magazine: Please outline for us some of the benefits of virtualization in your view.

Alessandro Perilli: Before the advent of modern virtualization technologies, the flexibility and modularity of today's Service-Oriented Architecture models could only be pursued at the application design level. At this level, SOAs-or more properly, web services--could provide good results, but also implied rethinking the way we must develop software...

NOW Magazine: Let's take a brief tour of your background, before you landed the very high-level positions at PepsiCo, and now Best Buy.

Becky Wanta: I've been in technology for about 30 years, starting out in the Department of Defense as a senior systems engineer and then moving into aerospace. I was then able to leverage my IT experience into the financial services world, not only managing IT, but trying to solve problems for the business...

NOW Magazine: Please outline for our audience the history of HBD and its activities. What is HBD all about?

Julia Long: HBD stands for "Here be Dragons" a term used on maps in ancient time to denote unexplored territories. HBD takes both its name, and its philosophy, from this term.
As one of the few true venture capital companies in the country, HBD invests in early stage South African businesses that have high growth potential and exciting expansion plans.