TechCrunch50 recap: Dancing with tech stars Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel
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Day one of TechCrunch50, the San Francisco conference sponsored by the influential technology blog and Mahalo.com’s Jason Calacanis, had a lot of low points, including no Wi-Fi and plenty of bloopers. One of the high points was Hollywood actor turned Internet entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher livening things up.
One of the standout companies was Yammer, an offshoot of genealogy site Geni. Los Angeles-based Yammer is basically Twitter for business. Instead of ‘What are you doing?’, Yammer asks, ‘What are you working on?’
Corporations are increasingly looking for ways to harness social networking to increase productivity. Former PayPaler David Sacks came up with Yammer to make it easier for his employees to connect. Users can use the website to have threaded discussions, tag words or phrases. The idea is to get workers to adopt the basic service, which is free, but have the company pay to claim and oversee their employees’ Yammer network. The fee is $1 per employee per month. So far, employees at more than 1,700 companies have done so, Sacks said. Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, who was judging business software companies, said he liked Yammer so much he wanted to invest on the spot.
TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington landed a rare interview with Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor who now ...
... runs a hedge fund and a venture capital firm. Thiel reiterated his belief that, despite his concern that the economy keeps producing bubbles (and despite all the frothy activity out there), there is no technology bubble. Thiel also advocated for lower CEO salaries. The lower the salary, the more likely the company will succeed, he contends. How much does your CEO make? ‘We have found that if you only ask one question, ask that,’ Thiel said. He also lauded the new team at Facebook, including former Google executive Sheryl Sandberg, and proclaimed that founder Mark Zuckerberg would be CEO ‘forever.’
On Day 2, a crowd favorite was Tonchidot, a Tokyo-based mobile application developer. CEO Takahito Iguchi exhorted, ‘Join us,’ when he introduced the Sekai camera: software that allows users to point their iPhones at anything and get tags about what it is. He and Tonchidot Chief Technology Officer Masayuki Ahmaesu got a standing ovation.
Also popular was the Fitbit Tracker, a gadget that tracks your health minute-to-minute, including how many calories you burn and how long and well you sleep. The $99 small wireless device could change the lives and waistlines of ordinary Americans, Fitbit’s cofounder and CEO James Park said. He said Linux hackers could also use the help, and as evidence pointed to statistics from a Linux conference that revealed about half of developers wear large or extra-large T-shirts. Another talker was Open Trace, a Tokyo-based company that wants to make it easier for people to measure the carbon footprint of the products and services they consume.
The headliner and show stopper was Mark Cuban, the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ contestant, Dallas Mavericks owner, technology entrepreneur and Internet investor. He engaged in a wide-ranging interview with Calacanis.
Cuban is a straight talker. While judging one company, he said: ‘Maybe I’m missing something but that sounds like the biggest bunch of bull ... I’ve heard in my life.’ When Calacanis asked what he did after selling his first company for $6 million to CompuServe, Cuban replied that he retired and bought a lifetime pass from American Airlines with the goal of drinking with as many people in as many countries as possible. But he couldn’t stay out of the business game. ‘I’m a competitive junkie,’ Cuban said. ‘I’m not a skydiver adrenaline junkie, I’m a business adrenaline junkie.’
He started Broadcast.com, which he sold to Yahoo in 1999, then went on to play in other arenas such as the movie business. He is particularly proud of 2929 Entertainment, which shows new movies on cable and satellite, getting millions in free advertising before the movies hit theaters. The maneuver has not been popular with theater owners. ‘I’m just a bad guy, I guess,’ Cuban said. ‘But this could save independent film.’
His heroes are old-school: Bill Gates and Larry Ellison. He chastised today’s Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for not minding the bottom line. ‘I think entrepreneurs these days have been cheated because for them, it’s not about understanding how to make money,’ Cuban said.
Entrepreneurs need not just a will to win, but a will to prepare, Cuban said, recalling a ’60 Minutes’ interview with Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight.
He also offered an important tip: Don’t call him. He conducts business over e-mail. ‘People ask me for your phone number, and I don’t even have it because we don’t talk on the phone,’ Calacanis said.
The best thing that ever happened to him that changed the course of his career: Getting fired. ‘I was a terrible employee,’ Cuban said.
The applause line of the night: ‘When I die, I want to come back as me.’
-- Jessica Guynn
www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us