iinnovate

Chris Capossela, Senior VP of Microsoft

2009-06-19T01:40:00.001-07:00

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Chris Capossela is the Senior Vice President of the Microsoft Information Worker Product Management Group. Chris is responsible for the worldwide product and business management of the Microsoft Office System of products, which includes desktop applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, server products such as Exchange, and hosted services such as Office Live.

Chris has been with Microsoft for over 15 years in various of business positions, including two years as a speech writer for Bill Gates.

In this interview, Chris tells us about his experiences and lessons from Microsoft. Notably, he shares his insight on how Microsoft continues to be innovative, the success and future of Office products, and anecdotes from his work with Bill Gates.

Chris graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics.

Enjoy the interview!

- Min Liu

Max Ventilla and Rob Spiro, Founders of Aardvark

2009-05-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

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Max Ventilla and Rob Spiro are two of four founders of Aardvark, a new social search tool that gets real-time answers from social networks. Max and Rob, along with Nathan Stoll and Damon Horowitz , are carving out the social space with a product that’s a conversation facilitator.

In this interview, Max and Rob give an overview of social search, explain their approach in building an innovative product in a burgeoning space, and give insight into Aardvark’s user-centric and research-oriented approach to product and company development. They also packed the interview with some great advice for entrepreneurs and new graduates.

Max, Zoo Director, drives strategy and business development. Prior to Aardvark, Max focused on strategy for Adsense at Google and earlier was VP of Business Development for an enterprise data mining tool. Max holds a BS in Math and Physics and a MBA from Yale.

Rob, Assistant Curator to Birds, leads all quantitative and qualitative user research initiatives. Previously, Rob co-founded Mifly, a mobile software startup, and Reelblogs, a new media company. Rob holds a BA in History from Yale.

- Min Liu

Alex Wong, Director of Products at 23andMe

2009-03-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

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Alex Wong is the Director of Products at 23andMe, the popular leader in the personal genome space. As the company’s third employee, he has led product development and design for more than two years, taking the idea of a "personal genome service" from concept to reality.

In this interview, Alex explains how 23andMe is making changes in personalized healthcare and genetic research by putting consumers in the driver’s seat and spearheading consumer-driven research. He also explains how the Personal Genome Test, the "spit kit", works, and gives guidance on how to pursue and create an innovative product.

Alex brings nine years of technical and entrepreneurial experience from Network Appliance and his own direct-to-consumer digital media software startup. Alex graduated magna cum laude with a combined AB/SM in Computer Science from Harvard University, and has published research in operating systems design.

For more information about 23andMe and genetics, check out the 23andMe blog, The Spittoon!

- Min Liu

Paul Edmondson CEO & Ren Chin VP of Marketing of YieldBuild

2008-12-15T19:09:00.001-08:00

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YieldBuild is an online service that maximizes publisher ad revenue through layout, ad network and ad placement optimization. YieldBuild also provides consolidated reporting to help publishers identify, on the basis of statistical data, the best performing ad position layout, color and font style on their webpages.

Paul Edmondson, YieldBuild's co-founder and CEO, was part of the executive team at MongoMusic, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000. He help group management positions at MSN Entertainment over product management, quality management, and operations. Paul graduated from California PolyTechnic University

Ren Chin, VP of Marketing, most recently comes from Storm Ventures and an EIR. Prior to Storm, Ren was an investor at Partech International where he focused on software and internet investments. Ren holds an MBA degree from the Haas School of Business.

- Tristan & Will

Alyssa Rapp, Founder and CEO of Bottlenotes

2008-07-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

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Alyssa Rapp is the Founder and CEO of Bottlenotes, an online wine retail business that helps individuals discover and learn about wine. Alyssa started the company while at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she headed the school's 500-person wine club. In this interview, Alyssa gives key insights on starting and running a hybrid online retail business, talks about her personal and entrepreneurial story for Bottlenotes, and gives leads to the most amazing wine regions in the world. Her goal for Bottlenotes, she says, is to create the "Pandora of wine".

Alyssa earned a B.A. in Political Science and the History of Art from Yale University in 2000 and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2005. In between her first and second years in business school, she spearheaded the sales and marketing efforts at RO Imports, an importer of boutique New Zealand wines in New York.

Thanks to Julio, iinnovate emeritus, and Roger for contributing to this interview.

- Min Liu

We're #26!

2008-06-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Iinnovate is proud to be among "The Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs That All Managers Should Bookmark" according to HR World.

Thank you for listening!

Morgan Hertzan and Joseph Varet, co-founders of LX.TV

2008-06-07T23:30:00.001-07:00

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Morgan Hertzan and Joseph Varet are the founders of LX.TV, a New York-based start-up that produces videos for the Web about high-end entertainment and culture centered around New York and Los Angeles. The company was recently aquired by NBC Universal. LX.TV began distributing its local entertainment content exclusively online and has seen considerable growth since its New York real estate show OpenHouseNYC began airing on NBC's owned-and-operated New York station WNBC in January 2007. Since then, WNBC has also added the New York lifestyle show LX.TV 1st Look to its programming lineup.

Prior to founding LXTV Joseph was responsible for all aspects of business development and strategic planning for new television and broadband networks at MTV and Morgan served as Executive Producer for new television and broadband networks at MTV, where he oversaw all aspects of creative development and production for MHD, MTV World, MTV Puerto Rico, and MTV's permanent video billboard in Time Square. Morgan previously created, launched, and supervised production of mtvU, which reaches over 7 million students at 700 US colleges and universities.

Enjoy the podcast!

- Tristan

Sumir Chadha, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India

2008-05-18T21:25:00.001-07:00

Sumir Chadha has invested in Indian technology companies for over a decade.

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Sumir Chadha is a Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India. Formed in 2006, the new entity marks Sequoia’s bold entry into the Indian market and was formed through a merger between Sequoia Capital and WestBridge Capital Partners, the firm Sumir co-founded in 2000.

Sumir specializes in offshore services, consumer internet and financial services and has been at the forefront of innovation in India for the past 10 years. Sumir’s investments have included SKS Microfinance, Shaadi.com, Guruji and Times Internet. Sumir is also the co-founder and Chairman of the US-India Venture Capital Association and also a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs.

Join us in hearing his views on entrepreneurship in India and its impact on technology investment here in Silicon Valley.

- Anu and Nir

Scott Cook, Founder of Intuit

2008-04-28T23:55:00.001-07:00

Scott Cook is the Founder of Intuit, Inc. and a widely-respected tech veteran for over 25 years.

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Scott Cook began his career at Procter & Gamble as a product manager and later a consultant at Bain & Company. In 1983, he founded Intuit after hearing his wife complain about paying the household bills. Scott leveraged the power of emerging PC technology to help ease the burdens of personal finance and has since created a company worth over $9 billion.

While most software companies have difficulty getting just one product right, Intuit has managed to produce a string of successes through great product-market fit. Intuit is now a market dominator in several product categories. Intuit’s Quicken personal finance software holds 70% market share, while QuickBooks, the accounting software for small businesses has an 87% share. Meanwhile, TurboTax, the company’s tax preparation software holds over 80% share and recently set new sales records.

Scott has been a director of Intuit since its founding and is currently Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board. He also serves on the boards of directors of eBay and Procter & Gamble.

Enjoy the podcast!

-Nir

Matt Sanchez, CEO of VideoEgg

2008-04-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

Matt Sanchez is CEO of one of Silicon Valley’s hottest new media start-ups, VideoEgg.

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In 2005, Matt Sanchez and his Yale buddies, David Lerman and Kevin Slack, founded VideoEgg. The company’s original goal was to create a new way to upload video to the web. However, the trio soon went in a new direction when the founders saw the potential to leverage their technology in the advertising world.

Today, VideoEgg gives brands a new way to reach audiences hooked on viewing online video. The company was the first to develop video overlay ads and has seen interest in the medium skyrocket as more users view content on YouTube and other video sharing sites. VideoEgg has also expanded its product offerings by serving video ads on social networks like Facebook.

VideoEgg’s clients include more than 200 brands including Ford, NBC, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s. Collectively, these advertisers pay VideoEgg to broadcast over 500 million video messages per month. Sanchez has led the company through $35 million of VC fundraising and in this podcast discusses the venture process as well as the company’s future goals.

Enjoy the podcast!

- Nir

Kevin Hartz, Investor and Serial Entrepreneur

2008-03-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Kevin Hartz is a successful San Francisco-based investor and the CEO of Eventbrite.

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Kevin Hartz began his career as a product manager at Silicon Graphics and later co-founded the ConnectGroup, a start-up providing high-speed Internet access to the hotel industry. After Kevin sold ConnectGroup in 1998, he became a well-regarded technology investor and advisor. Kevin joined Outlook Ventures, whose seed investments included Overture and DotBank; both companies have since been acquired by Yahoo!.

Kevin’s own investments have included some of the valley’s best known success stories including PayPal, Trulia, Friendster and Flixter. He also co-founded two additional tech companies, Xoom, an international money transfer company and Eventbrite, an online event registration company which he currently runs as CEO.

Enjoy the podcast!

- Nir

John L. Hennessy, President of Stanford University

2008-03-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

John L. Hennessy is the 10th President of Stanford University and a pioneer of computer architecture.

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John Hennessy started at Stanford as an associate professor in Electrical Engineering in 1977 and assumed Presidency in 2000. A technologist at the core, President Hennessy pioneered a computer assembly language called MIPS in 1981 and started a company, MIPS Computer Systems, in 1984. As Stanford’s 10th president, he oversees the University from various perspectives and sits at the intersection of academics, technology, and the corporate world.

In this interview, he talks about his role as the President, the early years of running a startup, current issues Stanford University faces, and the future of information technology. He also gives advice to prospective students and budding entrepreneurs.

He is currently on the boards at Google, Cisco Systems, and Atheros Communications, and has written two foundational books on computer architecture and assembly language.

- Min Liu

Scott Dunlap, CEO of NearbyNow

2008-02-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

Scott Dunlap is a Silicon Valley vetran and founder of the real-world product search service, NearbyNow.

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NearbyNow is an innovative Los Altos, Calif. based start-up whose mission is to, "enable anyone, anywhere to find the nearest place to buy anything." Founded in 2005, NearbyNow makes the products in 194 shopping malls searchable via any web browser or cell phone. In this episode, Scott shares the strategies he used to grow NearbyNow to over 1 million visitors per month.

Here’s how the service works: Let’s say a mother-to-be is searching for maternity clothes. She enters her query into her local mall’s website where NearbyNow returns a listing of stores which match her search term. The top listing informs her of a sweater on sale at one of her favorite retailers. To ensure the store has the sweater in her size and desired color, she enters her request and in 10 minutes she receives a confirmation email or text message. With a click, the sweater is placed on hold until she is ready to make the purchase.

Shopping malls see NearbyNow as a way to stem the tide of online sales which they say reduces visits to their brick and mortar retailers. Scott shares several entrepreneurial insights he gathered from his experience as a product manager at numerous successful start-ups including E.piphany and Loudcloud.

Enjoy the podcast!

-Nir

Hasso Plattner, Founder of SAP AG

2008-02-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

Hasso Plattner is the founder of SAP AG, the German enterprise software giant.

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I had an opportunity to catch up with Hasso Plattner at Stanford’s d.school which he helped to start (its official name is the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford) and we talked about the experience of starting SAP and maintaining the company innovative edge as it grew to tens of thousands of employees worldwide.

Hasso has some interesting stories on employee engagement (soccer matches!) and on leaving IBM to start SAP. He also talks about what he’d do if he were starting another company today, thoughts on software as a service, and advice to those that have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

Remember to join the iinnovate fan page on Facebook, and if you are interested in startup jobs and internships please e-mail Julio (Julio [at] iinnovatecast [dot] com).

Thanks for listening!

- Julio

David Hornik, Partner at August Capital

2008-01-27T13:43:00.001-08:00

David Hornik is a venture capitalist, professor, blogger and the founder of The Lobby Conference.

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David Hornik's blog was the first to be written by a venture capitalist and has been well-read and discussed since its inception. Recently, his long standing interest in media led him to found the ultra-secretive Lobby Conference, which he discusses in this podcast.

David also discusses two of his other passions: music and law. As a student at Stanford, he studied and taught the impact of technology on music, earning a degree in Computer Music. At Harvard Law School, David focused upon the convergence of technology and the law. Prior to becoming a VC, David was an intellectual property and corporate attorney where he represented high-tech startups in all aspects of their formation, financing and operations. Today, Hornick teaches the topics of law class at the Stanford GSB.

David has been a successful venture investor at August Capital since 2000. He currently sits on the board of directors of DoneRight, Nomis Solutions, PayCycle, Six Apart, Splunk Technology and VideoEgg. He directed previous investments in Evite (acquired by Ticketmaster) and was a board observer with Tickle Inc. (acquired by Monster) and Actional (aquired by Progress Software).

- Owen and Nir

Barry McCarthy, Chief Financial Officer of Netflix

2008-01-13T09:51:00.001-08:00

Barry McCarthy joined Netflix as CFO when few were believed the company could rival the industry leader, Blockbuster. Today, Netflix is the biggest player in the video rental market and just finished its first billion-dollar sales year.

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Our guest in this podcast is Barry McCarthy, Chief Financial Officer of Netflix. For the past eight years, Barry has been responsible for all of Netflix’s legal and financial affairs. During his tenure at Netflix, Barry has helped the company grow from a few million dollars in sales to Netflix’s first billion dollar year in 2007. He played an integral role in the company’s initial public offering in 2002 and has helped the company become the most highly valued player in the video rental market.

Barry discusses with Nir the future of content delivery over the Internet and what technologies he sees as opportunities and threats. He also discusses how Netflix stayed nimble and aggressive in the face of powerful competitors. Barry also frankly talks about how he decided to bet on the Netflix business model even when few thought it would work.

Enjoy the podcast and let us know what you think!

-Nir

John Morgridge, Former President, CEO and Chairman of Cisco Systems

2007-12-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

John Morgridge is a Silicon Valley legend who led Cisco Systems through its rise from start-up to networking technology giant.

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John Morgridge was the 34th employee at Cisco Systems when he joined as President and CEO in 1988. Morgridge joined the company despite its notoriously toxic culture and revenue of only $5 million annually. By the time Morgridge concluded his tenure as CEO in 1995, he had grown sales to over $1 billion and 2,250 employees worldwide.

Morgridge transitioned to Chairman of the Board when John Chambers became CEO. During his term as Chairman, Cisco continued its meteoric rise to become the world leader in networking technology and grew to more than $25 billion in revenues and some 50,000 employees in 77 countries as of 2006. For a brief period in early 2000, at the height of the Internet bubble, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of $500 billion.

Morgridge discusses his experiences and lessons learned at Cisco with Min Liu and Nir Eyal during this episode. He shares how he was able to pick the tiny start-up that would became Cisco and discusses the difficulty of having to ask the original founders of the company to step aside. He also discusses the personal sacrifices that he believes an executive must make to succeed.

Enjoy the interview and let us know what you think!

- Min Liu and Nir Eyal

Greg McAdoo, Partner at Sequoia Capital

2007-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Greg McAdoo focuses on consumer internet, cleantech and systems investments as a partner at Sequoia Capital.

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In this interview, Greg speaks with Nir about what it takes to get noticed by a top-tier venture capital firm. Greg himself worked extensively with VCs before actually becoming one after 17 years of engineering and executive level management experience. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2000, Greg served as President and CEO of Sentient Networks which was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1999.

Greg shares how entrepreneurs can increase their chances of closing a funding round with the right VC firm. He also discusses his involvement in Sequoia’s cleantech practice and shares his top picks for the next growth sectors.

Greg has led several high-profile investments while at Sequoia including Allegro, which was acquired by Cisco Systems, Isilon Systems, which had its IPO in December, Loopt, PowerFile and RockYou.

Thanks for listening!

- Nir

Martin Eberhard, Co-founder and President of Technology at Tesla Motors

2007-11-17T01:56:00.000-08:00

Martin Eberhard is the Co-founder and President of Technology at Tesla Motors. Before Tesla, he was the Co-founder of Network Computing Devices and the CEO of NuvoMedia.

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"What keeps me up at night is the complexity of the problem," Martin reflects upon engineering the Tesla Roadster.

After founding various successful startups in the computer and internet space, Martin took a departure and co-founded Tesla Motors with Marc Tarpenning. With a passion for cars going back to his childhood, his goal is to create a sleek, high-performance all-electric vehicle.

The highly anticipated Tesla Roadster will go from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds, drive 245mph on one charge, and will be powered by the equivalent of laptop batteries. Owners in the first shipment include Matt Damon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and of course, Martin himself.

We catch up with Martin at the Tesla Motors headquarters in San Carlos, CA. In this interview, check out what Martin has to say about creating a startup car company, his reflections on risk taking, and the engineering and market challenges in the electric car milieu.

Check out the Roadster!

A Roadster prototype at the San Carlos headquarters.

Thanks to Roger Gill for contributing to this podcast.
Correction in the video: the Roadster drives 245 miles per charge. Top speed is 125mph.

- Min Liu and Nir Eyal

Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems

2007-10-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

Vinod Khosla is the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, formerly a partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, and partner at Khosla Ventures.

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In this interview Matt and Julio caught up with legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and “venture assistant” Vinod Khosla. Vinod was a co-founder of Sun Microsystems along with Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Bill Joy.

After leaving Sun, Vinod made the shift to Sand Hill Road as a venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers until forming his own firm, Khosla Ventures, in 2004.

Today, Vinod is well-known for his investments in clean technology. Join us in this interview as Vinod shares early stories from Sun, his views on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and his outlook on clean tech investing.

Check out the video of the full interview below:

Thanks for listening!

- Julio and Matt.

Chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon

2007-10-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

Thomas Keller is widely regarded as one of America's finest chefs, and his restaurants French Laundry and Per Se have been named the best restaurants in America.

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Interviewing Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville was a rare treat for two food fanatics like ourselves, and the great surprise that Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee whipped up for us in the kitchen post-interview was the icing on the cake.

Food allusions aside, we hope you enjoy this superb interview with Thomas. In our conversation we talked about his entrepreneurial success, how he picks new members for his team, expanding his personal brand, and, of course, food.

Check out this video of Thomas talking about the secret of success behind French Laundry as well as how to select a great team:

And as a special bonus here's a video of Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee in the kitchen talking about his involvement with French Laundry. Click to hear what Corey's answer to "if you were any food, what would you be?"

- Owen and Julio

Matthew and Jessica Flannery, Founders of Kiva.org

2007-09-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

Matthew and Jessica Flannery are founders of Kiva.org, what the New York Times calls "D.I.Y. foreign aid"

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Great things are afoot at Kiva, featured today on Oprah alongside Bill Clinton.

Kiva is a person-to-person microcredit lending platform which allows any individual in the world to be a banker to the poor: it does this by connecting the working poor with microloans from anyone in the world.

Kiva straddles innovative intersections, and does it well. By combining philanthropic motivations with the marketplace, Kiva is entrepreneurial, rigorous, capitalistic, and charitable all at once.

iinnovate caught up with Matt and Jessica Flannery for an insightful chat on how it all started, the experience of starting an endeavor as a husband-wife team, as well as Kiva's challenges, successes, and future directions.

- Nir Eyal and Min Li Chan

Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Products and User Experience at Google

2007-08-31T09:50:00.001-07:00

Marissa Mayer is a key figure at Google and has much influence in the design, development, and usability of Google products we use every day, such as search and Gmail.

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When we asked what she thinks about each morning, Marissa said, "I think about the people here [at Google] and how great they are... The people here inspire me to such a level."

Marissa plays a pivotal role in the development and launch of key Google products and serves as a key advisor to many of Google's new talents. As the 20th hire (and the first female hire), she has and continues to set deep footprints in products such as Gmail and Google Desktop. Her demonstrated passion for consumer products and her engagement with the people she works with have made her one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley. She has been written about in multiple publications, including Newsweek, Fortune, and Fast Company.

In this interview, Marissa talks about Google's vision for search, ads, and apps, and personal experiences and lessons. Also find out how she identifies a great product during her "office hours", which Google application spawned AdSense (a core multi-billion dollar business), and which San Francisco bakery she co-owns.

Many thanks to the Googlers who contributed to this interview.

- Min Liu and Julio

Timothy Ferriss, Author of The 4-Hour Work Week

2007-07-20T00:54:00.001-07:00

Tim Ferriss is the author of "The Four Hour Work Week"

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Timothy Ferriss recommends you check email only once per week, don't read the newspaper and don’t save for retirement. These are only a few of the taboo recommendations found in Tim’s book, “The 4-Hour Work Week.”

It would be easy to dismiss Tim’s advice as lunacy if it weren’t for his impressive list of achievements. Tim used his time-saving technique to learn six languages, become a National Chinese kickboxing champion, and a Guinness World Record holder in tango, all at 29. Tim now adds author of the #1 business book in America according to the Wall Street Journal to his long list of accomplishments.

Tim candidly discusses the contents of his book, his life philosophy and how he propelled his book to #1 using blog marketing. Tim's ability to use technology to do more with less time and money is impressive and fresh.

- Nir

Tom Arnold of Terrapass

2007-06-17T01:33:00.000-07:00

Tom Arnold is the Chief Environmental Officer of Terrapass, an environmental company that provides carbon offsetting solutions for individuals.

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"Terrapass is the $50 bumper sticker," says Tom. In a period when climate change could not be more critical, Terrapass provides a way for individuals to offset their car, flight, or home carbon emissions -- and to show it on a decal and bumper sticker.

In this interview, Tom provides some interesting insight into the company, the carbon credit business, and the climate change milieu.

This past March, Terrapass became the official gift to the Academy Awards' performers and presenters, all 100,000 lbs of CO2 reductions for every Hollywood star. In addition to some Hollywood glitter, this is a sign that doing environmental good -- and showing it -- is the new chic.

Many thanks to Himanshu Agarwal and Ashish Chordia for coordinating the interview and Min Li Chan and Galen Panger for the contributions.

Stay tuned for more interesting interviews, including a whirlwind tour of Napa, California (featuring Thomas Keller of French Laundry), John Morgridge, and Vinod Khosla.

- Min Liu

Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch

2007-06-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Arrington started TechCrunch in 2005 to profile the latest and greatest in internet technology and startup companies.

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Nir and Owen talked to Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch, when he visited the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Today his blog is the place on the web where you’re you’ll likely get the early news on major company shakeups, product announcements, and emerging ideas.

Since 2005 the TechCrunch network of content sites has expanded dramatically. Arrington’s empire covers 9 different sites, including a podcast called TalkCrunch, a product review site titled CrunchGear as well as several foreign sites.

Arrington was selected as one of the 50 most important people on the web by PC magazine. TechCrunch recently held it’s annual party “TechCrunch 7”, but the TechCrunch 20 is still open for fans. The conference, which is discussed during the podcast will take place during September 17-18 in San Francisco.

Chip Heath, Author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

2007-05-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

Chip Heath is the co-author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and a Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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In this podcast, Matt and Nir caught up with Chip Heath, who along with his brother Dan, wrote Made to Stick -- a book that has been a getting a lot of good press lately.

The book draws on psychology research to examine why ideas become memorable. It has become a virtual "how-to" guide for anyone looking to introduce new concepts and products.

Sticky ideas are the result of 6 key attributes: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories (SUCCES). For more on this, listent to the podcast and check out the book!

Here is a full video of the interview. Special thanks to Ben Henretig for the great job on shooting and editing the video!

As usual, please send any and all feedback to us or post it as a comment on this site. Thanks for tuning in!

Max Levchin, Founder of Slide and Co-Founder of Paypal

2007-05-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

Max Levchin was co-founder and CTO of Paypal and is currently founder and CEO of Slide and Chairman of Yelp.

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We caught up with Max Levchin at the Red Herring Spring conference in Monterey, California.

In this interview Max shares some stories from the early days at PayPal, and provides his views on entrepreneurship.

Check out the video of the full interview below. Special thanks to Jeremy for all the work on the videos from the conference!

Thanks for listening!

- Matt

Dispatch from Monterey: Red Herring Spring Conference

2007-05-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

Red Herring recently hosted iinnovate at its annual Spring conference in Monterey where the Red Herring 100 are announced. Matt and Julio were on hand to conduct interviews with a few notable winners.

Special thanks to the Red Herring crew for inviting us to the conference and for iinnovate team members Jeremy and Dawn for holding down the fort behind the scenes and in post-production. Here's a picture of Matt and I with Dawn at the iinnovate "studio."

All interviews should be available from Red Herring soon, but in the meantime you can check them out here.

In a preview of this week's episode, here is a short interview with Max Levchin, co-founder of Paypal and currently founder and CEO of Slide and Chairman of Yelp:

Two companies doing interesting things in the mobile space are Jangl and Jaxtr. We feature interviews with both of them below:

If you want to see additional interviews, we also have a video from our interview with Revision3, Share Methods, and more on the way shortly.

Send in your feedback, and as always thanks for watching!

- JULIO.

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard

2007-05-16T12:09:00.001-07:00

Carly Fiorina is the former CEO of HP and former executive at AT&T and Lucent Technologies. No stranger to controversy, Carly discusses some of the key decisions and learnings in her career and personal life, trends in technology and innovation, and her plans for the future.

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iinnovate catches up with the resilient Carly Fiorina at her alma mater, Stanford University, as she shares her thoughts on what matters to her and why in the technology sector, her high-profile time at HP, and her autobiography, Tough Choices.

Carly studied medieval history and philosophy at Stanford, spent almost 20 years in AT&T and Lucent Technologies, and assumed CEO and Chairman of the Board for Hewlett-Packard from 1999-2005. She was named one of the most powerful people in business by Fortune and Forbes.

After a meteoric and controversial career, Carly reflects on what was done right, what technology promises, the importance of innovation, people, and a customer-driven focus, as well as making mistakes and correcting course in this day and age.

Special thanks to our videographer Sarah Bennett, and to Robert Scoble and John Furrier for their input.

- Min Li Chan and Min Liu

Sam Altman - Founder of Loopt

2007-05-08T23:18:00.001-07:00

Sam Altman is the 22-year old co-founder of Loopt, a location-based social networking mobile application that allows users to see where their friends are. Sam gives us a peek into the fascinating and incubative world of a Silicon Valley startup that's gaining a lot of momentum.

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"Oh yea, it's enlightening" said Sam when reflecting on the process of creating Loopt. Loopt arose from a need to find where your friends are over the cellphone. The most common question asked in a conversation is, "Where are you?" Loopt addresses this and seeks to develop a cool mobile and online service that helps you connect with your friends.

In this interview, we talked to Sam in the Loopt Palo Alto office about how he and the Loopt co-founders developed the service, what's ticking in the mobile industry, how to not get a case of vitamin deficiency, and why working for a startup might be one of the most exciting propositions out there. He was recently named one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology by Businessweek.

Check out this video of Sam giving us a brief demo of Loopt (you can tag and comment right on the video, so play around and write some comments!)

And in this next video, Sam talks about what he wish he knew before getting started as well as gives some book recommendations (a question we threw in there by popular request from those of you writing in!)

- Min and JULIO.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in K-12 Education

2007-05-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

In this episode we feature a panel discussion moderated by Ted Mitchell (CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund), and including John Morgridge (former CEO and Chairman of Cisco), Lee Shulman (President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching), Ruth Love (former superintendent of Oakland and Chicago), and Mark Atkinson (founder and CEO of Teachscape).

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We are experimenting with a different format this time around bybringing you a cross-disciplinary panel discussion on the topics of entrepreneurship and innovation in K-12 education which we organized.

Also, check out the video for this episode as it has a 2-minute clip from the BUILD showcase recently held in Menlo College. BUILD runs a business plan competition for high school students which I was honored to be invited to judge. If you want to know what’s hot, there’s no better way to hear it from the kids!

Some news: we just launched the iinnovate online community – a social network where you can connect with us and other listeners. Check it out and upload your profile.

Finally, this is the final week to contribute to our survey, so please take a minute and provide us with some valuable feedback.

Thanks for listening!

- JULIO.

Matt and I are in Monterey, CA at the annual Red Herring 100 conference, so you can look forward to hearing some great interviews from that event next week, and in the meantime Min Li and Min will be interviewing former HP CEO Carly Fiorina back in Silicon Valley.

Tim Westergren, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Pandora

2007-04-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Tim Westergren is the founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Pandora, a music recommendation service built on the Music Genome Project and a poster child for resilience in the volatile world of Silicon Valley startups.

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Tim shares insightful anecdotes and thoughts from Pandora's colorful and instructive past seven years: innovations around music discovery and a "drop-dead simple" user interface, Pandora's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"-esque struggle for survival, its explosion of viral audience growth, and most recently, the Copyright Royalty Tribunal's contentious decision to hike up the royalties for Internet radio.

Pandora is fighting back against the ruling, as it staves off criticism of the Project's scalability. Tim addresses all these, as well as the slow death of music retail businesses, and the impact of music recommendation services such as Pandora on the livelihood independent musicians.

Special thanks to Sarah Bennett, our videographer extraordinaire, Min Liu, who masterfully navigated through evening rush hour traffic, and iinnovate listener Ethan B who helped with our audio quality--check out the interview in video alongside an inside look at Pandora's headquarters.

- Min Li Chan and Owen Tripp

Update (May 3, 2007): In the fight against the Copyright Tribunal's decision to hike up royalties for Internet radio, Pandora is starting down the bumpy road of international expansion this year. While Tim talks about scalability issues around the Music Genome Project and international expansion in our podcast, Techcrunch today reveals that Pandora has begun preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S., due to international licensing constraints. Mike Arrington of Techcrunch notes:

"Pandora operates under Section 114 of the DMCA, which gives them a clear process for paying rights holders in the U.S. There is no international equivalent of the DMCA, and so to operate legally in other countries, Pandora must sign deals with rights holders directly. That means separate deals with labels and publishers for each song, an extremely difficult and time consuming task."

We're keeping our fingers crossed for resilient Pandora, as they navigate through new murky waters. -MLC

Michael Raynor, Author of The Innovator’s Solution and The Strategy Paradox

2007-04-19T02:08:00.000-07:00

Michael Raynor is a best-selling author and the Distinguished Fellow with Deloitte Research; in this interview he talks about innovation strategy and frameworks.

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Michael’s first book (written with Clayton Christensen) The Innovator’s Solution was a Wall Street Journal and NY Times best-seller and won multiple awards.

Michael’s current book The Strategy Paradox is covered in this interview. Additionally, Michael talks about Microsoft innovation, Google’s growth, and consulting firms.

Special thanks to Melanie for doing this interview for us in New York. We hope to see more of her in the future covering innovation thinking out East. Check out this video of the interview:

Also, please take 3 minutes to provide us with input for future guests by filling out this survey!

If you want to learn more about Michael's latest book check out their site.

Tune in next week as we feature Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, an exciting music startup here in the Valley. Thanks for listening!

Tom Kaplan, Senior Managing Partner of the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group

2007-04-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

Tom Kaplan helped build and now runs Wolfgang Puck’s Fine Dining Group, consisting of some of the world's finest and most innovative restaurants, including Chinois, Postrio, CUT and the flagship Spago.

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Wolfgang Puck is known as the first celebrity chef and Tom Kaplan has been his right-hand man for over 25 years, managing the overall business. The flagship LA restaurant Spago (host to the most famous of Oscar parties) has been the subject of Hollywood legend and food critics delight for decades. Spago’s success allowed Puck and Kaplan to expand into one of the most successful fine dining groups in the world.

We caught up with Tom Kaplan in Las Vegas to talk about innovation in the restaurant industry and received a heaping serving of knowledge. Don’t miss out Tom’s advice for how to get a reservation at a restaurant where you thought one was impossible.

For some additional content on how the group manages the Puck brand, see the video below:

And for the story of how Tom joined Puck, check out this video.

We need your help in providing us with feedback on the podcast! Please take 5 minutes to answer a few questions about what you want to see next on the very brief iinnovate listener survey.

- JULIO.

#1 iTunes Entrepreneurship Podcast :)

2007-04-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

From the Dept. of Shameless Self Promotion:

Hey, look ma'! We are now the #1 entrepreneurship podcast on iTunes! Needless to say we're really psyched (and flattered). On behalf of the entire iinnovate team, a special thanks to our guests and, especially, to our listeners!

Look forward to more episodes coming up and please keep those comments and suggestions coming.

- Matt

Mark Jung, former COO of MySpace & Fox Interactive

2007-04-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Mark Jung talks about running MySpace in his role as COO of Fox Interactive and the future of user-generated content.

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Mark Jung has spent the last 17 years as a successful internet CEO and entrepreneur. Most recently, at Fox Mark was responsible for the day-to-day operations of all of its properties including MySpace, IGN Entertainment, FoxSports.com, Scout Media, and AmericanIdol.com.

Prior to Fox, Mark was the co-founder and CEO of IGN Entertainment, a leading Internet media and services company for videogaming and other forms of digital entertainment (sold to NewsCorp for $650 million).

In this interview Mark discusses user-generated content, career advice, and skin care products (his sister is CEO of Avon!)

- Nir.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist

2007-03-26T19:28:00.001-07:00

Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist, the much-admired poster child for possibilities within a culture of trust and fairness on the Internet. Craigslist connects people with things that they need, as well as people with people.

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iinnovate's Owen Tripp sits with Craigslist's Craig Newmark to chat about Craigslist's humble beginnings as a "hobby" that eventually turned into a company--and how it continues to stay true to its original mission as a community service. Craig is named as one of 26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs by Inc.com, crediting him for "putting the free in free markets."

In an interview with Wired Magazine, Craig notes that Craigslist's corporate mantra, if any, is to "give people a break." In a recent discussion, ScribeMedia.org points out that, "Craigslist still has the power to confound old line-media moguls and possibly change the face of 'glo-calism'--local reach spread globally."

Craig affirms these notions in his conversation with iinnovate about Craigslist, the Craigslist Foundation, as well as incremental steps and funny anecdotes along the way, while observing that "people are overwhelmingly good and trustworthy. People are okay, and that's true wherever you're from."

Check out our short video footage of interviewing Craig at Craigslist's headquarters in the Inner Sunset neighborhood in San Francisco:

- OT, MLC & MW

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

2007-03-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, talks about Google’s industry and competitors, about leading innovation, and career advice.

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We caught up with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google last week and had an interesting conversation about Google’s business and Eric’s views on innovation, entrepreneurship, and careers.

Eric joined Google as Chairman and CEO in 2001 and runs the company in a unique triumvirate along with co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The three of them were recently ranked the #1 most important person on the web by PC World.

Prior to joining Google, Eric was the CEO of Novell and CTO of Sun Microsystems.

Check out this video of Andy Grove asking Eric Schmidt a question:

The videos of the interview are up! Check out this video of the interview:

For the rest of the interview click here.

We received a lot of valuable input and questions for this interview. Special thanks to John Battelle, John Furrier, Om Malik, Philipp Lenssen, Tim O'Reilly, Steve Rubel, and Robert Scoble.

Tune in next week for an interview with Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List!

- the iinnovate team

Andy Grove, former CEO and Chairman of Intel

2007-03-13T02:02:00.000-07:00

Andy Grove is an iconic figure in technology and management worldwide. A Silicon Valley legend, he joined as one of the first employees at Intel and led the company to where it is today.

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Andy Grove has lived the American dream, escaping his native Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution and arriving penniless in America. Andy became the 4th employee at Intel and eventually its CEO in 1987, a position he occupied until 1997, remaining in the Chairman post until 2004. Andy’s leadership earned him honors including Time Magazine’s Man of the Year (1997).

In this interview Andy talks about key strategic decisions at Intel, about Microsoft’s ability to change, his managerial style, and career advice.

For a video of Andy’s opinion on Microsoft check out the video below:

For more videos from this interview click here.

Special thanks to Robert Burgelman and Philip Meza for their input, Dawn Cardon for capturing the video footage, and for Jeremy Schoos for editing it.

- JULIO.

Chris Larsen, Prosper.com

2007-03-06T19:23:00.001-08:00

Chris Larsen is the co-founder and CEO of Prosper.com, an online person-to-person lending marketplace that has excited quite a few in the world of finance, business, and technology, notably the New York Times, SF Chronicle, and Businessweek.

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Chris Larsen is the co-founder and CEO of Prosper.com, an online person-to-person lending marketplace that brings together traditionally inspired dynamics of lending between friends, family, and individuals, with the benefits and rigors of modern-day credit systems.

Prior to Prosper, Chris co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN, which closed over $27 billion in consumer loans, and was consistently ranked as one of the nation's most trusted consumer brands. E-LOAN took radically pro-consumer actions such as being the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and played a critical role in the passage of the consumer financial privacy protection laws. Chris led E-LOAN through a successful IPO in 1999, and oversaw the company's acquisition by Puerto Rican bank Popular, Inc. in 2005.

In this podcast, Chris chats with Julio and Min Li about Prosper's innovative vision, its unique challenges as an eBay platform for money (check out Prosper's cool tools for academics and researchers for performing case studies on its model), and the fine balance between the countervailing forces of transparency and privacy in the world of Web 2.0.

Chris holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.

- Min Li

Randy Komisar, Partner KPCB

2007-02-26T23:44:00.001-08:00

Randy Komisar is currently a partner at Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Previously, he started and ran some of Silicon Valley's most successful companies including TiVO, Lucas Arts and Claris Corp.

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Randy Komisar is a partner at famous VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Ealier, he was a co-founder of Claris Corporation, served as CEO for LucasArts Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, and acted as a "virtual CEO" for many companies, including WebTV and TiVO. Earlier, Randy served as CFO of GO Corporation and Senior Counsel for Apple Computer, following a private practice in Technology Law.

Randy holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is a Consulting Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and author of the best-selling book The Monk and the Riddle.

Check out this video of Randy talking about how to approach and work with venture capitalists:

To view the other videos from the interview click here.

- Matt.

Dr. Ed Catmull, Co-founder and President of Pixar Animation

2007-02-20T01:36:00.001-08:00

Dr. Ed Catmull, co-founder and President of Pixar talks about managing creative talent and on maintaining an innovative edge.

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Ed Catmull is the co-founder and President of Pixar Animation Studio. He has made several patented advances in animation technology and is the driver behind many of Pixar’s 15 amazing Academy Awards. Among other technologies, Catmull is credited with being the father of “texture mapping” – the process by which a flat (two dimensional) image is mapped onto a moving 3D image.

Dr. Catmull (he claims only his mother calls him that) is also the master behind many of animation's recent heroes. Woody, Nemo, and Mr. Incredible are just a few of the lovable characters that Catmull’s technology and direction have enabled.

Pixar was incorporated in 1985, went public in 1996, and merged with the Walt Disney Company in 2006. During that time Catmull has served in various roles spanning from code developer to chief technical officer to president of the studio.

The iinnovate team would like to offer a special thanks to the Stanford Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Conference for making our conversation with Ed Catmull possible.

We’d also like to thank our expert video guy Jeremy for his hard work on this footage and the other clips you see up on our website. He turns our shoddy footage into beauty and we’re very appreciative!

- OWEN

Debra Dunn - On Hewlett Packard's Sustainability Initiative

2007-02-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Debra Dunn, former head of Hewlett Packard’s sustainability initiative talks about responsible corporations and on the challenges of entrepreneurship

MP3 File

Debra continues to be active on sustainability and is involved with the Skoll Foundation. To learn more about HP’s Global Citizenship efforts click here.

And to read more about sustainability from a variety of perspectives check out Sustainablog, Mother Jones, or the Greenpeace weblog.

- JULIO.

Geoffrey Moore - VC, Consultant, and Bestselling Author of Crossing the Chasm

2007-01-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

Geoffrey Moore is a VC with Mohr Davidow Ventures, consultant and, most famously, the bestselling author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado and Dealing with Darwin.

MP3 File

del.icio.us Digg it Furl Newsvine reddit Yahoo MyWeb

Check out these video highlights of the interview with Geoffrey:

And click here for another great video of Geoffrey

Alex Tai, Vice President of Virgin Galactic

2006-12-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

Alex Tai is the VP of Operations for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's effort to commercialize space travel

MP3 File | Transcript

Virgin Galactic is Richard Branson's effort to bring space travel to the masses (well, at least those masses that can fork over $200k for a ticket). I spoke with Alex Tai in London at the Virgin Galactic headquarters. Alex, an experienced pilot and personal friend of Branson's, is responsible for figuring out how to put space tourists in zero gravity in a safe flight.

Virgin is working with Burt Rutan (click here to hear Burt talk about space flight), winner of the Ansari X-prize to build Spaceship Two to make multiple flights into space per day. Check out this amazing animation of what it will be like to be on the space flight:

If you want to hear Richard Branson narrating a 10-minute promotional video of Virgin Galactic, including some original footage of Rutan's winning X-prize design, click here.

In this interview, Alex talks about the challenges and promises of space tourism and how this fits in to Virgin´s long-term vision of long-haul travel. Also, he talks about the long-term vision for space travel (1.5 hour roundtrip between London and Sydney anyone?) and responds to Heidi Roizen's question about how Galactic fits into Virgin's portfolio. The Gadling travel blog has a useful post on the topic.

Click here to see a video of Alex talking about the long term vision for Virgin Galactic and space travel. And check out the video below to see Alex's response to Heidi Roizen's question about where Galactic fits in Virgin's overall plans:

On our next episode Matt interviews Geoffrey Moore, VC and author of "Crossing the Chasm" and "Dealing With Darwin", so make sure to subscribe and tune in!

- JULIO.

Heidi Roizen of Mobius Venture Capital

2006-12-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

Heidi Roizen is one of Silicon Valley's best known and respected venture capitalists.

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Prior to joining Mobius Venture Capital Heidi was a successful entrepreneur as the co-founder and CEO of T/Maker Company, a software developer and publisher. Her focus is on consumer products and services, especially consumer-facing technologies and she has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in the microcomputer industry.

In this interview Heidi talks about the transition into venture capital from entrepreneurship, the notion of “mentor capital,” and the current state of venture. Heidi also shares valuable personal advice for female entrepreneurs and on managing personal relationships.

To hear Heidi speak about the fundraising process, check out this great interview with John Furrier from PodTech. Check out the video below for Heidi’s view on failures and on knowing when to let employees go. If you want to know more about Heidi’s view on signs that the board may need to replace a CEO, check this post by Brad Feld.

Our next episode will feature an interview with Virgin Galactic on space travel and tourism and what is being done to conquer the final frontier.

- JULIO.

Philip Rosedale, Founder of Linden Labs and Second Life

2006-11-27T02:13:00.000-08:00

Philip's company has created Second Life, a remarkable 3-D virtual world with over a million residents. To listen, click the play button below.

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Philip built his first computer in 4th grade, and started his first computer software company while still in high school. In '95 he developed FreeVue, a low-bitrate video conferencing system for Internet-connected PC's, which was eventually acquired by RealNetworks. He worked at RealNetworks for three years and eventually became the CTO. He decided to leave in 1999 and joined Accel Partners as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. There he founded Linden Labs, a company which had the audacious goal to build an immersive 3-D virtual world for people to live and play in. That world became Second Life.

It's a bit hard to understand what exactly Second Life is without actually seeing it. So we decided to create an elaborate detailed video walk-through of second life. Then we found somebody else already did that, so instead we're just embedding it (Gotta love the internet!)

So here's your Second Life primer. (Is it just me or does it seem to be narrated by a 7 year-old?)

Second Life has become quite the media darling recently. In addition to the Business Week article shown above and numerous other print mentions, interesting posts around the internet focus on topics as diverse as wealth, art, sweat-shop labor labor and, of course, sex (or lack thereof)

OK, now you can listen to the podcast. Let us know what you think in the comments!

- Matt

PS - You can also check out videos of Julio and I doing the podcast with complete, unedited answers. Here is one below with the unedited answer to the Andy Grove question, the rest are on YouTube here.

PPS - Quick thanks to our friend Kareem for all the help with the video! Check out his cool little blog reemer.

Alex Counts, Founder of the Grameen Foundation

2006-11-09T23:07:00.000-08:00

The Grameen Foundation is a microfinance network that impacts an estimated 11 million lives worldwide. Alex discusses innovation in microfinance and international development and his vision for the future.

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Alex Counts founded the Grameen Foundation in 1997 with $6,000 in seed capital and has grown the organization to a global network of 52 microfinance partners in 22 countries.

Counts trained under this year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank, who provided the seed funding for the Grameen Foundation to play the role of catalyst, channeling human, financial and technological resources in the United States to support the growth of the poverty-focused microfinance movement.

In this podcast Counts discusses the on-going innovation in microfinance, key leadership challenges, and Grameen’s expansion strategy. Counts answers questions from Julio and Min Li – iinnovate’s newest member – as well as questions from listeners such as Jessica Flannery from Kiva.

This podcast also marks iinnovate's first foray into video. Check out the clip below to hear Alex describing innovations in microfinance (special thanks to Irit Epelbaum for the videography)

Check out additional video content from this interview:

What is microfinance (clip)
Under what circumstances does microfinance work (clip)
Microfinance as a ‘platform’ (clip)
Impact of technology on microfinance (clip)
Grameen Foundation’s Expansion Strategy (clip)
Why is Africa underserved by microfinance (clip)

For more information check out this radio interview with Alex Counts on American University Radio.

JULIO.

Look ma, we're famous!

2006-10-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, looks like we're now top four in both Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital in iTunes. It's pretty crazy to see our name up their with the big players. Indeed, we've been as high as #2 in Entrepreneurship and #1 in Venture Capital! Thanks to all of our listeners for listening and passing on the podcast to friends.

- Matt

Elaine, Sandy and Seth, founders of Meebo

2006-10-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

Meebo is one of Silicon Valley's hottest startups. Experiencing explosive growth and backed by Sequoia Capital, Meebo allows users to log onto AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger and Google Talk in their web browser, eliminating the need to install any software.

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Meebo's core service allows users to log onto IM accounts within their browser, eliminating the need to install any software.

Check out these stats:

1 million logins per day
57 million instant messages per day
120 man-years spent on Meebo by people every day(!)

All this is beginning to cause some real buzz, and Meebo routinely gets getting coverage on the big blogs, including Techcrunch, GigaOM and O'Reilly.

Here we have an interview with the founding team of Meebo: Seth, Elaine, and Sandy. We caught up with them as they moved out of their old offices into bigger digs. The interview was a blast, as they are really nice people and a ton of fun. (To get better acquainted with them, check out the Meebo blog.)

- Matt

P.S. Shameless plug: Check out Matt's new personal blog wync ;)

Andy Fan, Founder of Mofile (Chinese Youtube)

2006-10-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

Andy Fan, CEO of Mofile (the 'Chinese YouTube'), talks about the Chinese internet user, video sharing sites, and entrepreneurship and venture capital in China.

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In this interview Matt interviews Andy Fan in Shanghai. Andy is the CEO of Mofile, the Chinese online storage site that is the equivalent of YouTube in China.

Andy shares his unique insights on the Chinese audience and his views on digital media. A can't-miss interview for anyone interested on an international perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Chinese video sites are leveraging pre-roll ads to monetize audience (check out Calvin Wuchin's post) and Andy provides his views on the business.

For more information on Mofile, check out TechCrunch's analysis of online storage companies.

- Julio

PS - Curious what MoFile looks like? Check out Andy's favorite MoFile video.

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Dean Joss & Prof. Saloner, Stanford Graduate School of Business

2006-09-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

Prof. Saloner is a Director for Stanford's Center for Entrepreneuship studies. He joins Dean Joss in discussing the role of an MBA for entrepreneurs, innovations in business school education and what matters most.

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In this episode we take a deeper look into the future of business education and talk to two people driving innovation in this area: Dean Bob Joss and Professor Garth Saloner, both of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The GSB has been making headlines, most recently after receiving the largest gift ever given to any business school (a $105million gift from Nike Founder and CEO Phil Knight). The GSB also recently announced an innovative new curriculum that will enable incoming students to personalize their MBA education.

In addition to discussing the recent news, Joss and Saloner also discuss what aspiring entrepreneurs can get out of an MBA, leadership challenges, and their answers to Stanford’s admissions essay. For an interesting perspective on the value of an MBA check out Brad Feld's Thoughts, and for more on the admissions essays, check out Clear Admit's take on it.

Some choice quotes:

Should aspiring entrepreneurs take the time to get an MBA? "If you If you come to business for yourself... you really have to learn from your own mistakes. If you go to business school you have the advantage of learning from other peoples mistakes."
Dean Joss’s view on the difference between running a bank and a school: "[Now] I spend almost 40% of my time trying to finance the enterprise."
Wishlist for new faculty: "I would love to see Steve Jobs be part of a tradition that we've had here for many years [business leaders leading classes]... We've talked about it."
And listen to what Joss and Saloner answer to Stanford's famous admissions question "What matters most to you and why?"

- Matt

For more on the Phil Knight gift to the GSB, check out Dave's post on Journey to My MBA.

For some great blogs by current Stanford GSB students, read Rohin Dhar's Silicon MBA and Hamish Fraser's Stanford GSB Diary.

For some pictures from our interview check out the Slide show below (click to read captions):

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Mike Ramsay, Co-founder of TiVO

2006-09-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

You can thank Mike for the fact that you haven't seen a TV commercial in six months. Mike left a cushy job at SGI to form TiVO, which revolutionized the way people watched TV by creating the first ever Digital Video Recorder.

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| Transcript
We spoke to Mike Ramsay who founded TiVo along with former Silicon Graphics veteran Jim Barton. TiVo pioneered the digital video recorder when it shipped its first unit in March of 1999 and went on to establish one of the most rapid adoption rates in the history of consumer electronics on its way to an IPO only 6 months later.

In this interview Mike shares with us unique insights into the history of TiVo and the essence of what it’s like to introduce and market a disruptive technology. He also talks about what he sees in the future for TiVo and adds some more color around issues such as TiVo search that John Battelle has written about and on partnership deals in the past and future as Thomas Hawk and Om Malik have commented on.

The revolutionary nature of TiVo won it an Emmy award and made the product into a verb. So join us as we learn what it takes to launch a product for which 98% of users say they couldn’t live without!

For more, check out this great engadget interview with Mike, and for some laughs check out this ad to learn about how TiVo was invented by aliens.

- JULIO.

Transcript

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Q'ns for Stanford's Dean Joss, Prof. Saloner

2006-09-03T01:39:00.000-07:00

As Julio is toiling away trying to edit down the interview with Mike "TiVO" Ramsay (due later this week), we are preparing for our next interview on Sept 7 with Stanford Graduate School of Business's Dean Joss and the GSB's Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Studies, Prof. Saloner.

As we are coming up with the list of questions, we thought we would check with our readers (if anyone indeed reads a podcast's accompanying blog :) to see whether there were any q'ns you would like asked.

Some of the topics we want to explore include Stanford's unique role in Silicon Valley culture, Stanford GSB's new curriculum, managing in a education institution and trends in management education. But we're open to considering anything, so feel free to weigh in.

If you have any thoughts, write it in the comment section or drop us an email.

- Matt

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David Kelley, founder of IDEO

2006-08-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

David's firm created Apple's first mouse, the first laptop computer, and the Palm V. IDEO has won more of the BusinessWeek/Industrial Designers Society of America Industrial Design Excellence Awards than any other firm.

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For our most recent interview, we are thrilled to feature David Kelley. David is the founder of the famous design consultancy IDEO, which has won more design awards over the past decade than any other firm.

David has been described as "the most sought-after design engineer this side of Thomas Edison” by the I.D. 40’s list of America’s leading design innovators, and as “the most creative person I’ve ever met–and one of the most caring” by colleague Bob Sutton in an interview with Guy Kawasaki.

David’s most recent endeavor has been the launch of Stanford’s d.school, a design institute seeking to advance multidisciplinary innovation, which as Diego Rodriguez describes, “will train leaders who are able to think and do. And we'll all be better off for it.”

In addition to talking about the Intergalactic Destruction Company, and the failure of Monster Shoes and the Enorme phone, David shares with us key insights about design and innovation:

On design thinking: “We are in the understanding people business”
On prototyping: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a million words”
On Silicon Valley “A failure is like a badge of honor… Look how bad this guy failed… I bet he’s really good now!”
In response to Mark Leslie’s question about how to institutionalize creativity: “I hate reality shows, but they get it right more or less” – find out how, by listening to the podcast!

For more on IDEO and David Kelley, check out this Business Week article

Keep sending in your comments and suggestions. Our next episode will be a recent interview with Mike Ramsay, founder of TiVo. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss it!

- JULIO.

Update: Complete transcript of David Kelley's interview at iinnovate.

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Mark Leslie, founding CEO of Veritas

2006-08-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Mark grew a $6 million investment into the fifth largest software company in the world.

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In this episode, we talk to Silicon Valley icon Mark Leslie, the founding CEO and Chairman of Veritas Software. (To listen, click play above!)

Mark took over Veritas in 1990 and brought the company from 12 employees and $95,000 in revenues to 5,500 employees and $1.75 billion in revenues. Veritas became the fifth largest software company in the world and eventually merged with Symantec in a deal valued at $13.5 billion. Mark is now the Managing Director at Leslie Ventures and is also an advisor at El Dorado Ventures.

In addition to being an accomplished leader and strategist, Mark is as an expert in sales management. He has pioneered the concept of the Sales Learning Curve which VC David Cowan described as "some of the best startup advice." Ross Mayfield says "every manager should get their arms around this."

Here are some quotes from the interview:

On people: "I don't believe that I have the ability to change character... it's as imutable as intelligence."
On hiring decisions: “at senior levels they either do their job or we get someone else to do their job... I don't believe in improvement programs"
On innovation: “the hallmark of great companies is their ability to transform themselves”
On Sun: “I don’t know if they still have time for transformation”
Responding to Andy Rachleff's question from our previous episode, "where can a venture capitalist add value?": Mark says, "it's only about the money."

Please keep those comments and emails coming and thanks for listening!

Update: transcript available!

- JULIO.

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Andy Rachleff, co-founder of Benchmark Capital

2006-07-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Having backed everything from eBay and AOL to Jamba Juice and 1-800-Flowers, Andy is one of the world's most successful venture capitalists.

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Hi and welcome to our first podcast! To listen, just click the play button above.

In our first episode we are fortunate to interview famous venture capitalist Andy Rachleff. Andy is the co-founder of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark Capital, the legendary Silicon Valley firm which backed such huge successes as AOL, Juniper Networks, 1-800-Flowers, JambaJuice, Webvan, Ofoto, Friendster and eBay. The formation of Benchmark is famously chronicled in the bestselling book EBoys.

Andy's insights will be of interest to any (aspiring) entrepreneur or venture capitalist. Some choice quotes:

On getting in the door: "We never meet with companies that aren't referred or where we don't know the entrepreneurs."
On which type of people to back: "You can always hire execution, you can never hire vision."
On teaching entrepreneurship: "I don't believe entrepreneurs are created, I believe that they are born."
On Venture Capital: "It doesn’t matter how many losers you have, all that matters is how big your winners are."
On _______: "The world's greatest venture capitalist." (You'll have to listen!)

Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment. Thanks for listening! (Next episode will feature Mark Leslie, founding CEO of Veritas.)

Update! Check out the transcript

- Matt

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iinnovate

2006-07-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

Before our first episode, we thought we'd give a little blurb on the idea behind the podcast.

iinnovate is about innovation and entrepreneurship. We're looking to bring you exclusive interviews with some of the world’s foremost innovators, and to have them share their unique experience, advice and outlook. We seek to feature leading entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and designers.

We're hoping you enjoy the shows and encourage any and all feedback. Stay tuned for episode 1, with renowned venture capitalist Andy Rachleff.

Julio and Matt

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