Q&A

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Q&A

GoDaddy’s Quest to Master the Upsell

By Steve Nellis · Jul 8, 2015 7:00am PDT
Integrating Microsoft Office 365 email with a new domain name used to require clicking through 22 screens. But sign up through GoDaddy, and it’s just one; the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based firm takes care of the rest of the work automatically, says CEO Blake Irving. It’s all part of the Web domain seller’s strategy to draw more revenue from small... Integrating Microsoft Office 365 email with a new domain name used to require clicking through 22...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Meet the Man Amazon Fears in India

By Amir Efrati · Jul 1, 2015 10:31am PDT
The horse race in India’s online retail market is a fascinating show of investor faith. Investors have bet more than $5 billion on the notion that, despite fierce competition, a group of Web retailers will ride the growth in India’s mobile-Internet users and eventually generate big profits. That group includes Snapdeal, Amazon India and... The horse race in India’s online retail market is a fascinating show of investor faith. Investors...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Making Microsoft a Little More Like Google

By Steve Nellis · Jun 23, 2015 7:01am PDT · 2 comments
Julie Larson-Green has had a lot of jobs at Microsoft over the past two decades. Her latest might be the most important, even though it dropped her lower on the org chart. Since last year, Ms. Larson-Green has been in charge of unifying the look and feel of all major software groups, from Office to Bing to Skype. Her job, in a nutshell, is to... Julie Larson-Green has had a lot of jobs at Microsoft over the past two decades. Her latest might...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Area Man Skeptical of All These Digital Roll-Ups
By Tom Dotan · Jun 17, 2015 7:02am PDT · 1 comment
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Area Man Skeptical of All These Digital Roll-Ups

By Tom Dotan · Jun 17, 2015 7:02am PDT · 1 comment
For a site that’s designed to be a sendup of the news business, The Onion bears amazing resemblance to the very subject it mocks. Born 27 years ago as a print publication at the University of Wisconsin, The Onion has transitioned to a digital business (theonion.com), dropped the paper, expanded into online video (Onion Studios), dabbled in... For a site that’s designed to be a sendup of the news business, The Onion bears amazing...
From left, AJ Brustein of Wonolo and Divya Bhat of Rickshaw. Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

The Next Phase of On-Demand: Labor as a Service

By Steve Nellis · Jun 3, 2015 1:17pm PDT · 1 comment
As on-demand apps like Uber and Instacart grow, there’s one thing standing in their way: people. These companies work tirelessly to recruit and vet enough workers to meet spikes in demand and to keep them happy. A loyal and engaged labor pool is critical for industry leaders, like Uber, and losing a labor advantage is a big risk. (Hence, all the... As on-demand apps like Uber and Instacart grow, there’s one thing standing in their way: people....
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Symphony CEO Aims To Drum Up Discord at Microsoft, Slack

By Steve Nellis · May 27, 2015 10:01am PDT
If you’ve heard of Symphony, the Palo Alto-based startup that raised $66 million last October from more than a dozen major banks, it’s probably as a possible instant messaging replacement for the service offered by Bloomberg, the financial data and news giant. Banks’ relationship with Bloomberg have been in the spotlight in the past two years... If you’ve heard of Symphony, the Palo Alto-based startup that raised $66 million last October...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Has Social Commerce Found Its Time?

By Martin Peers · May 20, 2015 7:00am PDT
In the late 1990s, Paul Allen tried to take on Amazon.com with Mercata, an online venture in which consumers could get discounts on goods by buying in bulk. The company lasted only a couple of years before closing its doors. Since then, the idea of collaborative buying groups has undergone a revival, particularly in China. And now Rick Braddock,... In the late 1990s, Paul Allen tried to take on Amazon.com with Mercata, an online venture in...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
China’s Unicorns Are Coming
By Amir Efrati · May 13, 2015 7:01am PDT
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

China’s Unicorns Are Coming

By Amir Efrati · May 13, 2015 7:01am PDT
Tech firms in China aren’t ready to reinvent existing industries on their own, but they’re closing the gap with the U.S., thanks to a stronger work ethic and a greater desire for success. That’s the view of Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwan native and former head of China operations for Microsoft Research and Google. Few people have straddled the tech worlds... Tech firms in China aren’t ready to reinvent existing industries on their own, but they’re...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Moving Up the Labor Value Chain

By Steve Nellis · May 6, 2015 7:00am PDT
When Vishal Sikka last summer became CEO of Bangalore, India-based Infosys, what he found was “extremely depressing.” Infosys, which provides outsourced IT consulting and custom software, has 182,000 employees and $8.2 billion in revenue and is basically India, Inc. But Infosys is facing a big challenge: Cloud-based software and easy-to-use... When Vishal Sikka last summer became CEO of Bangalore, India-based Infosys, what he found was “...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Lighting a Spark Beneath Big Data

By Steve Nellis · Apr 29, 2015 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
The so-called Big Data industry is a jumble of open-source software projects with such odd mascots that it resembles a box of animal crackers. There’s Hadoop (an elephant), Pig (see Porky, The) and Hive (an elephant’s head and a hornet’s body). The latest flavor is called Spark, whose logo is (mercifully) just a spark. Spark has become wildly... The so-called Big Data industry is a jumble of open-source software projects with such odd...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Has Live Video Arrived in the West?

By Amir Efrati · Apr 22, 2015 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
Visiting the live-video app or website of YouNow can quickly become a voyeuristic journey into the narcissism of American Millennials, or their counterparts in other parts of the world. At any moment, hundreds or thousands of them are cursing, crying, laughing, rapping, singing, playing guitar, gossiping or even sleeping. They use the... Visiting the live-video app or website of YouNow can quickly become a voyeuristic journey into...
ResearchGate Aims to Create the ‘Cloud’ of Scientific Knowledge
By Steve Nellis · Apr 15, 2015 10:01am PDT
Q&A

ResearchGate Aims to Create the ‘Cloud’ of Scientific Knowledge

By Steve Nellis · Apr 15, 2015 10:01am PDT
Ijad Madisch built ResearchGate to counter a great unspoken problem in scientific research: the incredible amount of time scientists waste on approaches that have already failed. This so-called “research redundancy” is caused by scientific journals’ practice of emphasizing hypothesis-proving studies in what they publish, rather than those where... Ijad Madisch built ResearchGate to counter a great unspoken problem in scientific research: the...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Is This the Fate of Native Ads?

By Tom Dotan · Apr 8, 2015 7:01am PDT
Native advertising, savior of the online publishing industry, could already be doomed. And if that’s the case, the disease that kills it may have been accidentally hatched in the very labs that were trying to fix its biggest weakness. Let’s back up a bit. Native ads, traditionally described as advertising that matches the form and function of a... Native advertising, savior of the online publishing industry, could already be doomed. And if...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Meet the Woman Who Runs Founders Fund

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 1, 2015 8:11am PDT · 1 comment
Venture capital is a clubby industry and, as we know, full of men. So it’s all the more interesting when women do rise through the ranks, women like Lauren Gross, the energetic and very under-the-radar chief operating officer of Founders Fund. Since late 2013, the 32-year-old Ms. Gross has been keeping Founders Fund—the high-profile firm founded... Venture capital is a clubby industry and, as we know, full of men. So it’s all the more...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Airware CEO: Putting the Drone Supply Chain on Autopilot

By Steve Nellis · Mar 25, 2015 7:01am PDT
In the consumer tech business, hardware and software tend to play pretty well together. Not so in the world of commercial drones, which are increasingly being used for everything from monitoring crops to delivering vaccines. The hardware and software in the drone world is often still custom-made from the ground up each time. San Francisco-based... In the consumer tech business, hardware and software tend to play pretty well together. Not so in...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
After a Forgettable 2014, Juniper Networks Picks Up the Pieces
By Steve Nellis · Mar 18, 2015 7:00am PDT
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

After a Forgettable 2014, Juniper Networks Picks Up the Pieces

By Steve Nellis · Mar 18, 2015 7:00am PDT
The past year has been nothing but trouble for Juniper Networks, a maker of routers, switches and security gear. In addition to intensifying competition from startups like Big Switch Networks, not to mention dominant player Cisco Systems, major customers like Verizon cut spending. Juniper’s revenue fell marginally in 2014, forcing layoffs. Amid... The past year has been nothing but trouble for Juniper Networks, a maker of routers, switches and...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

Are There Any Good Deals Left in Digital Publishing?

By Tom Dotan · Mar 11, 2015 10:01am PDT · 1 comment
The key for a media company trying to reinvent itself during this digital era is to have a strategy. And, preferably, one that works. The problem is, nobody really knows which ones do. But there are no lack of glittering lures. Companies like BuzzFeed and Vice have raised big money at enormous valuations by selling themselves as quasi-ad... The key for a media company trying to reinvent itself during this digital era is to have a...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

What’s the Big Deal About Wi-Fi?

By Amir Efrati · Mar 4, 2015 10:01am PST · 1 comment
Wi-Fi is a hot topic these days, which is somewhat ironic. For years, we’ve been trumpeting how cellular can keep us connected everywhere. Now, companies ranging from Google to Comcast want to build wireless services that rely partially on technologies that are tethered to one spot.  This could be a boon for companies like Cisco Systems or... Wi-Fi is a hot topic these days, which is somewhat ironic. For years, we’ve been trumpeting how...
SAP Chief Technology Officer Quentin Clark. Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

SAP’s Survival Strategy: Become a Database Company

By Steve Nellis · Feb 25, 2015 10:00am PST · 2 comments
If business software firms’ prospects in a cloud-based world were described in the language of a high school yearbook, SAP would probably be voted “least likely to survive.” Critics of the $21.2-billion-a-year German company say it missed the big shift, allowing startups like Workday and Salesforce.com to grab billions of dollars in market... If business software firms’ prospects in a cloud-based world were described in the language of a...
Apus Group CEO Tao Li. Illustration by Matt Vascellaro.
The Hottest Mobile App Startup in the World?
By Amir Efrati · Feb 18, 2015 10:01am PST · 6 comments
Apus Group CEO Tao Li. Illustration by Matt Vascellaro.
Q&A

The Hottest Mobile App Startup in the World?

By Amir Efrati · Feb 18, 2015 10:01am PST · 6 comments
Few mobile app companies have seen faster or more mysterious growth than China-based Apus Group. The company’s “launcher” app for Android phones allows people to customize their phones and search for apps. It received a million users within the first week of its launch last July and had more than 80 million monthly active users as of... Few mobile app companies have seen faster or more mysterious growth than China-based Apus Group....