Q&A

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Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Building the ‘Comcast of Gaming’ at Amazon

By Amir Efrati and Eric Newcomer · Sep 3, 2014 6:22pm PDT · 1 comment
Last week, 31-year-old Emmett Shear joined an exclusive club of tech startup founder/CEOs who agreed to sell their company for about $1 billion or more. While his startup, the online video-game broadcaster Twitch, is just three years old, it had spun out of a different live-video site he helped launch in 2007. Twitch quickly became the... Last week, 31-year-old Emmett Shear joined an exclusive club of tech startup founder/CEOs who ...
Ricky Van Veen of CollegeHumor. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro
Q&A

How Frat Jokes Led to YouTube—and then to Hollywood

By Tom Dotan · Aug 27, 2014 1:03pm PDT
The evolution of CollegeHumor from a site Ricky Van Veen started with his friends to host funny pictures and video clips into a digitally-minded studio that was acquired by IAC/InterActive Corp in 2006 has in many ways set the template for the entire online video movement. You can see traces of it in YouTube’s trajectory from a repository of... The evolution of CollegeHumor from a site Ricky Van Veen started with his friends to host funny...
Jake Schwartz and Brad Hargreaves of General Assembly. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Building Offline Education for an Online World

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 20, 2014 11:28am PDT
The tech industry is awash in software and services designed to improve how we learn everything from Ruby on Rails to the piano. But one upstart that’s trying to rethink education is pretty old school. General Assembly opened in New York in 2011, in part to offer cheap office space to startups. Today, it’s a school that offers... The tech industry is awash in software and services designed to improve how we learn everything...
Si Shen, CEO of PapayaMobile. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
How Chinese Mobile Companies Chase Global Growth
By Eric Newcomer · Aug 13, 2014 11:47am PDT
Si Shen, CEO of PapayaMobile. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

How Chinese Mobile Companies Chase Global Growth

By Eric Newcomer · Aug 13, 2014 11:47am PDT
Chinese Internet companies are spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to get people to download their mobile applications in countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Egypt. In these Android-dominated markets, companies like Qihoo 360, Baidu and Cheetah Mobile have figured out how to build a relationship with overseas customers... Chinese Internet companies are spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to...
Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Why the App World is Breaking Apart

By Eric Newcomer · Aug 6, 2014 10:54am PDT · 4 comments
Facebook has unleashed a horde of standalone applications, including Messenger, Paper and Slingshot. Dropbox rolled out a cloud photo-storage app, called Carousel. Evernote has had some success with a suite of apps that are individually crafted to help people create documents of different kinds. These moves have spurred intense analysis of... Facebook has unleashed a horde of standalone applications, including Messenger, Paper and...
Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

On a Mission to Change the Culture of Tech

By Jonathan Weber · Jul 31, 2014 12:04pm PDT · 4 comments
Harvey Mudd College, a small science and engineering school in Southern California, often lands at the very top of the rankings when it comes to the earnings of its graduates. The highly selective school has developed a unique curriculum that includes extensive liberal arts studies as well as a year-long “clinic” in which students work with a... Harvey Mudd College, a small science and engineering school in Southern California, often lands...
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

In Colorado, a Startup Culture Built on Lifestyle

By Jonathan Weber · Jul 24, 2014 1:38pm PDT
Colorado has long punched above its weight in the tech business, led by telecom and aerospace companies that benefited from the state’s central location and wide-open spaces. In recent years, the city of Boulder in particular has been a hotbed of startup activity; Colorado ranked eighth nationally among all states in VC investment last quarter,... Colorado has long punched above its weight in the tech business, led by telecom and aerospace...
General Electric CIO Jamie Miller. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Marching General Electric into the Cloud Era
By Jonathan Weber · Jul 16, 2014 12:34pm PDT
General Electric CIO Jamie Miller. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Marching General Electric into the Cloud Era

By Jonathan Weber · Jul 16, 2014 12:34pm PDT
As senior vice president and chief information officer at General Electric, Jamie Miller has the daunting task of managing the sprawling industrial conglomerate’s transition to next-generation enterprise computing. Part of the task involves moving the company’s internal computing infrastructure to the cloud. Part of it involves providing better... As senior vice president and chief information officer at General Electric, Jamie Miller has the...
Evolve Media CEO Brian Fitzgerald. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Going Big with Small Digital Publishers

By Tom Dotan · Jul 9, 2014 2:13pm PDT
Brian Fitzgerald has the unenviable task of telling media entrepreneurs their businesses will never be hits. And then he presents them with an offer: Join us. That’s the corporate strategy for his digital media conglomerate, Evolve Media. The company was founded as Gorilla Nation Media in 2000 and had its biggest hit in 2012 when it sold its... Brian Fitzgerald has the unenviable task of telling media entrepreneurs their businesses will...
Joe Lonsdale. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Playing the Long Game on Big Industries and Deep Tech

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 2, 2014 12:28pm PDT
At a time when consumer apps can generate instant buzz and skyrocket to millions of users rapidly, Joe Lonsdale likes businesses with much higher barriers to entry—and gestation periods. The 31-year-old, who co-founded the big data company Palantir in 2004, is on a mission to take on incumbents in areas like finance, government and... At a time when consumer apps can generate instant buzz and skyrocket to millions of users...
Sonos CEO John MacFarlane. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro. Photo by Associated Press.
Q&A

Online Music Business Only Just Getting Started

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 25, 2014 9:15am PDT
John MacFarlane is a man in the middle of the music industry. As the CEO of Sonos, which has been making home speakers for about a decade, he has watched as the music business has wrestled with change—from the fights over digital rights management and piracy to the current debates over business models, compensation for labels and artists, and... John MacFarlane is a man in the middle of the music industry. As the CEO of Sonos, which has been...
Jason Schultz. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Building on the Tesla Approach to Patents
By Eric Newcomer · Jun 18, 2014 12:32pm PDT
Jason Schultz. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Building on the Tesla Approach to Patents

By Eric Newcomer · Jun 18, 2014 12:32pm PDT
In a blog post titled “All Our Patents Are Belong To You,” Tesla Motors last week declared that it would not mount patent lawsuits against anyone who uses their technology “in good faith.” While the company stated that it was doing so “in the spirit of the open source movement,” it offered few specifics. Jason Schultz, a law professor and... In a blog post titled “All Our Patents Are Belong To You,” Tesla Motors last week declared that...
Group M Entertainment CEO Peter Tortorici. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

How Regulation Defines the Evolution of Television

By Tom Dotan · Jun 11, 2014 12:03pm PDT
Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable might be ringing alarm bells in Washington and Silicon Valley, but it comes as no surprise to Peter Tortorici. From his perspective, it’s all part of a long-running wave of convergence and consolidation in the television industry that he’s been watching since he was president of CBS in the... Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable might be ringing alarm bells in Washington...
Craig Hatkoff. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Heaven and Hell and the Ethics of Disruption

By Katie Benner · Jun 4, 2014 11:10am PDT
Craig Hatkoff isn’t a famous guy. But the Tribeca Film Festival, which he co-founded with his wife Jane Rosenthal and friend Robert DeNiro, is pretty well known. So too is his friend Clayton Christensen, the Harvard professor with whom he founded the Disruptor Foundation in 2009. Mr. Hatkoff, 60, had been a banker at Chemical Bank (now JPMorgan... Craig Hatkoff isn’t a famous guy. But the Tribeca Film Festival, which he co-founded with his...
Ozon Holdings CEO Maelle Gavet. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

For Russian Startups, Opportunity Trumps Political Risk

By Eric Newcomer · May 28, 2014 9:04am PDT
When it came to convincing investors to bet on the Russian e-commerce leader Ozon Holdings, CEO Maelle Gavet faced two daunting impediments: Investors were wary about putting their money into Vladimir Putin’s Russia and circumspect about the e-commerce business altogether. Wrong place, wrong business. The challenges of doing business in... When it came to convincing investors to bet on the Russian e-commerce leader Ozon Holdings, CEO...
Jenny Lee. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro
An Internet Business with Chinese Characteristics
By Eric Newcomer · May 21, 2014 2:51pm PDT
Jenny Lee. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro
Q&A

An Internet Business with Chinese Characteristics

By Eric Newcomer · May 21, 2014 2:51pm PDT
American companies have long complained about Chinese copycats, but Chinese firms have created some powerful new business models that their American counterparts might want to mimic themselves. A service called YY has enabled rural Chinese karaoke singers to make a living singing online. Qihoo 360 has shown how a security product can be a... American companies have long complained about Chinese copycats, but Chinese firms have created...
Karin Hibma. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

The Art of Creating Great Names

By Tom Dotan · May 14, 2014 12:24pm PDT
A good company name is like a good song: It somehow sounds familiar even if you’ve never heard it before. Creating such names is no simple trick though. If it were, Karin Hibma and her late husband Michael Cronan wouldn’t be the legends that they are in Silicon Valley. The couple is responsible for some of the most iconic names and slogans in... A good company name is like a good song: It somehow sounds familiar even if you’ve never heard it...
Josh Mendelsohn. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

A Political Agenda for the Startup World

By Jonathan Weber · May 7, 2014 11:19am PDT
A veritable alphabet soup of tech industry lobbying groups plies the halls of Congress these days, advocating on issues including patent reform, immigration and Internet access. But most of them do the bidding of a handful of big companies like Google and Microsoft. Engine, a San Francisco-based advocacy group, aims to be a voice for a very... A veritable alphabet soup of tech industry lobbying groups plies the halls of Congress these...
Q&A

Carlota Perez: Self-Centered Tech Industry Needs to Wake Up

By Amir Efrati · Apr 30, 2014 11:14am PDT
Carlota Perez, a London School of Economics professor who focuses on technology and economic development, has many admirers in the tech industry. But she disagrees with the popular Silicon Valley belief that we’re at the beginning of a new golden age of prosperity driven by technological innovation, though she understands why that belief... Carlota Perez, a London School of Economics professor who focuses on technology and economic...
Dan Kaminsky. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Dan Kaminsky on Death, Software and Regulating the Internet
By Katie Benner · Apr 23, 2014 11:21am PDT
Dan Kaminsky. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.
Q&A

Dan Kaminsky on Death, Software and Regulating the Internet

By Katie Benner · Apr 23, 2014 11:21am PDT
Recent revelations about the Heartbleed bug were deja vu for security researcher Dan Kaminsky, who has spent 15 years finding flaws for companies like Cisco, Avaya and Microsoft. Back in 2008 he discovered a massive vulnerability in the DNS protocol, the mechanism that matches URLs with the right IP addresses and underpins the Internet. He... Recent revelations about the Heartbleed bug were deja vu for security researcher Dan Kaminsky,...