July 1st, 2009
Silicon Valley VCs proposed a plan to save newspapers in 1996
At the recent SDForum 2009 Visionary Awards, Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley’s top VCs, gave an inspiring and very humble speech.
How To Succeed In Silicon Valley By Bumbling And Failing…
Afterwards, I went over to congratulate him on his award and also say how much I enjoyed his speech. Rebecca Buckman, one of Forbe’s top journalists, was also there.
He then started to tell us a very interesting story, about how Silicon Valley VCs could have saved the newspaper industry–back in 1996.
This would be very impressive because this would be before Yahoo, Google — and way before the Internet was the Internet as we know it today. In those days AOL ruled the online world.
Vinod Khosla tells Rebecca and I about a meeting with the top executives of the ten largest newspaper companies, essentially locking them inside a hotel for an entire day.
He says that he and his colleagues had come up with a way newspqpers could avoid the harmful effects of the Internet on their business model. But the newspaper executives squabbled over control and the deal went nowhere.
Foremski’s Take: Did Mr Khosla and his colleagues have a solution? We would need more information about the proposed business model. But I’d be very surprised if Mr Khosla’s business plan for newspapers would have worked — whatever it was.
The reason I am confident in saying that is that the online world was a totally different place in 1996. We now have dozens of new online revenue streams that didn’t exist then, and also we have a tremendous amount of broadband rather than slow dial-up. However, I am curious to find out more about the rescue plan.
Here is the conversation with Vinod Khosla via my Flip camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79GbNip38HE
http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2009/06/vinod_khosla_to.php
July 1st, 2009
Visionary 2009: Jim Clark on the importance of Stanford university to Silicon Valley
Jim Clark, co-founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape was one of four winners of the SDForum 2009 Visionary Awards. He spoke about his earlier life and how he was trying to get out of Texas, then trying to get out of the navy.
He also spoke about the importance of Stanford university and its encouragement of entrepreneurs. Other universities look down upon business people.
June 30th, 2009
Visionary 2009: Kay Koplovitz - more women entrepreneurs
Kay Koplovitz calls for more women entrepreneurs during her acceptance speech at the SDForum visionary awards.
June 30th, 2009
Visionary 2009: Judy Estrin says innovation is in trouble
Judy Estrin, one of Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs, she continues to sound warnings that innovation is in danger because of fundamental structural problems.
She spoke at the SDForum Visionary Awards 2009. She was one of four recepients of the annual awards.
p>”What I’ve been struck by, and concerned by, is that although everybody seems to understand that we have significant structural problems, few are willing to acknowledge their role in the solution. Each group tends to point to someone else that needs to change. The VCs need to take more risk, Wall Street needs to be less short-term focused, government is too involved, government is not involved enough… This is natural because change is hard. But isn’t innovation and change what this valley is all about?”
Read the rest of this entry »
June 29th, 2009
To blog or to Tweet? That is the question . . . here is an answer
I’ve noticed that many people have abandoned their blogs in favor of real-time blogging on Twitter or on Friendfeed. Their argument is that they can’t do both. And it’s understandable because it all takes time, lots of it.
But it might be worth revisiting that strategy and doing more blogging. Here’s a cautionary tale . . . Read the rest of this entry »
June 28th, 2009
Bumbling around and failing every which way . . . lessons for success
Vinod Khosla is one of Silicon Valley’s most successful VCs. I was at the recent SDForum Visionary Awards where Mr Khosla was one of four winners of the 2009 awards.
His acceptance speech was short and very good. Excellent advice for entrepreneurs.
Also, he talks about failure, which I have long advocated is Silicon Valley’s strength.
A couple of years ago I met with a delegation of Russian diplomats, VCs, and government officials. They were visiting Silicon Valley and wanted to meet with me as part of their tour. They were looking for ways to create several silicon valley-like regions in Russia.
During our meeting, I told them I would tell them the secret of Silicon Valley. I paused. They all leaned in a little closer…
June 27th, 2009
Disruptive technologies disrupt - goodbye newspaper companies
Last week my Saturday Post was about how Internet based technologies have been used to create applications and services that devalue existing business models. It’s a hugely disruptive process. [The Internet devalues everything it touches . . .]
This trend is occurring because it can occur — because if you have the ability to significantly improve a service at a dramatically lower cost, then there will be startups that will attempt to disrupt the business models of existing companies.
One of the best examples of how the Internet can devalue business models is Craigslist and its effect on the classified ads business.
June 26th, 2009
FridayWatch: The disruptive Bronze Age . . .
We forget that disruption is a common feature of our society throughout history. Even though our disruptive cycles appear much more frequently than ever before, it seems we can deal with them.
Here is what it might have been liked transitioning from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age: Read the rest of this entry »
June 25th, 2009
AMD: Creating the building blocks for cloud computing
I met with Margaret Lewis, she is director of commercial solutions and software at Advanced Micro Devices. She spends a lot of time talking with data center managers about their needs and the transition to cloud computing.
Here are some notes from our conversation:
Read the rest of this entry »
June 24th, 2009
Journalism ... and other inappropriate relationships
If you end up being bitten by journalism it is similar to being smitten. It’s like falling in love with someone — but in this case, you know it’s the wrong person.
- You know that there is no way the relationship can work out (because currently there is no future in paying journalism) but you can’t resist going back, trying to make the relationship work.
- You curse and threaten to break up but then late at night you keep thinking about that person, and romanticising the great times, forgetting about the bad times. You end up calling (posting stories) late at night (I often file after midnight).
- Your friends tell you to let go, to see someone else, that the relationship was bad for you, it was dragging you down, you were losing sleep and losing money. You need to move on. But where? Who? (Who will understand you the same way that journalism does?)
Read the rest of this entry »
Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media. He also writes at SiliconValleyWatcher.com. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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