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Internet History Podcast

The ORIGINAL tech history podcast. A history of the Internet Era from Netscape to the present day.<p style="color:grey; font-size:0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

Brian McCullough

Chris Dixon shares his journey from early programming experiences in the 1980s to becoming a prominent figure in venture capital and cryptocurrency. He discusses the founding of Site Advisor, the lessons learned from its acquisition by McAfee, and the challenges of starting Hunch. Dixon reflects on his experiences in angel investing, the creation of Founder Collective, and his role at Andreessen Horowitz, particularly in launching a crypto fund.Chapters:00:00 The Early Days of Programming02:46 Transitioning to Finance and Wall Street04:59 The Shift to Entrepreneurship09:03 Founding Site Advisor16:16 The Journey with Hunch20:50 Starting Founder Collective26:58 The Evolution of Angel Investing28:10 Joining Andreessen Horowitz30:37 Investing in Futuristic Ideas35:24 Key Investments: Oculus and Coinbase40:20 Establishing a Crypto Fund45:07 Current Landscape of Web 3 and Crypto49:41 Lessons from Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz51:22 New York vs. Silicon Valley: A Tech Hub Comparison Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

214. Chris Dixon of a16z

Olivier Pomel is the cofounder/CEO of Datadog. We trace his path from French open-source tinkerer to NYC founder, the dev-vs-ops friction that sparked Datadog, finding product-market fit through integrations, and the choice to stay independent en route to a 2019 IPO and S&P 500. Olivier shares scaling war stories, culture and GTM lessons, and what observability means in an AI era. If you build software—or companies—this one’s packed with playbooks, from hiring to pricing to platform bets that work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

213. Datadog Founder Olivier Pomel

Part 2 of the Amazing career of Susan Lyne. Working with Martha Stewart. Gilt Groupe. Becoming a VC. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

212. Susan Lyne Part 2

I’ve maybe never interviewed anyone in my entire time as a historian and podcaster who has had a career as broad and varied as Susan Lyne. Yes, I obviously wanted to talk to Susan about her role helping startup Gilt Group, and her current role as the managing partner of the VC firm BBG Ventures. But, holy how. Susan also launched and oversaw the golden era of Premiere Magazine. She was the CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia when Martha had to step away to, you know, go to prison. And she was the President of ABC Entertainment. She oversaw the development of shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Lost. So, like, yeah. We needed to do two episodes. So this is part one, with the great, Susan Lyne.Chapters:00:00 From Boston to Berkeley: A Transformative Journey08:00 The Rise of Alternative Media: Village Voice Era16:06 Hollywood Calling: The IPC Films Experience23:12 Launching Premier Magazine: Inside Hollywood36:14 Navigating the ABC Landscape: A New Era40:28 Developing Grey's Anatomy And LostTakeawaysSusan's upbringing in Boston shaped her perspective on expectations and identity.Her time at UC Berkeley was transformative, exposing her to diverse ideas.Freelancing in journalism helped her develop a passion for storytelling.Working at City Magazine under Francis Ford Coppola was a unique experience.The Village Voice was a golden era for alternative media in New York.Susan's transition to Hollywood was driven by her love for storytelling.Premier Magazine aimed to provide in-depth insights into the film industry.At ABC, she focused on creating shows that appealed to women.Susan learned the importance of having a supportive partner in leadership.Her experience at ABC taught her valuable lessons about resilience and change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

211. Susan Lyne Part 1

In the more than 200 episodes I’ve done for this podcast, never has the designation “legend” been more appropriate. Esther Dyson is a legend of modern technology, having been present for so many key moments from the early PC era through to the AI era. She’s advised, interviewed and mentored basically every major tech figure over the last several decades. Dyson shares her unique journey from growing up in a family of prominent scientists to becoming a leading figure in tech investing and journalism. She discusses her philosophy of embracing mistakes, the evolution of her career, and her insights into the tech landscape, including the dot-com bubble and the rise of AI. Dyson also reflects on her experiences in Eastern Europe, health tech initiatives, and her adventures in space, culminating in a captivating story about a cosmonaut suit.Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Connection03:42 Growing Up in a Unique Environment10:12 Transitioning to Tech and Investing18:03 Creating Impactful Conferences22:35 Navigating the Dot Com Bubble27:25 Reflections on Predictions and AI32:31 Governance and the Evolution of the Internet40:03 Investment Philosophy and Learning from Experience45:19 Eastern Europe: A Tech Narrative54:42 Investing in Space: A Personal JourneyTakeawaysAlways make new mistakes to learn and grow.Understanding economics can change the world more than politics.Journalism trains you to ask the right questions.Investing is about learning, not just earning.Creating impactful conferences requires engaging formats.The dot-com bubble taught valuable lessons about business models.Investing in Eastern Europe was a rewarding experience.Health tech initiatives should aim to empower communities.AI's future is uncertain, but its impact is undeniable.Personal experiences shape investment decisions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

210. Esther Dyson

Henry Blodget shares his journey from a history major to a prominent figure in finance and journalism, discussing the rise of the internet, the dot-com bubble, and the lessons learned from that era. He reflects on his career, including his famous $400 price target Amazon prediction, the evolution of media with the launch of Business Insider, and the current landscape of AI and investing.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Early Life02:42 Career Beginnings in Journalism05:44 Transition to Finance and Technology08:19 Analyzing Internet Companies11:33 The Internet Boom and IPOs14:39 Lessons from the Dot-Com Bubble17:40 The Rise of Influencers in Finance20:34 The Amazon Call and Its Impact23:21 Wall Street's Perspective on Tech Companies26:45 The AOL Time Warner Lesson29:47 Merrill Lynch and Global Internet Research32:38 Post-Bubble Reflections and Reinvention35:31 The Birth of Business Insider38:39 The Evolution of Media and Journalism41:37 Building a Talented Newsroom44:28 Parallels Between AI and the Dot-Com Era47:46 Advice for Individual Investors50:33 New York City as a Startup Ecosystem53:44 Current Projects and Future Aspirations Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

209. Henry Blodget, Founder Of Business Insider

Hugging Face Founder Clément Delangue discusses his journey to founding Hugging Face, emphasizing the importance of community, collaboration, and open-source technology in the AI landscape. He reflects on the evolution of AI technology, the significance of user feedback, and the need for a diverse range of AI models. TakeawaysClem's first computer experience involved internet trading with siblings.Minitel was a significant early digital communication tool in France.Clem transitioned from being a successful eBay seller to an intern at eBay.Unishared aimed to create a collaborative platform for students.Moot Stocks introduced Clem to computer vision and AI technologies.Mention was a social listening startup that brought Clem to New York.New York's tech scene offers a blend of European and American cultures.Hugging Face started as a chatbot project but pivoted to open-source AI.The name Hugging Face was inspired by the popularity of emojis.Clem emphasizes the importance of community feedback in product development.Chapters:00:00 The Early Days of Computing and Internet Trading03:02 Minitel: A French Innovation in Digital Communication05:05 From eBay Seller to Intern: A Journey Begins07:10 The Birth of Unishared: Collaborative Learning for Students10:23 Moot Stocks: Exploring Computer Vision and AI12:55 Mention: Social Listening and the Move to New York14:44 The New York Tech Scene: A Blend of Cultures16:45 Founding Hugging Face: The AI BFF Chatbot19:06 The Name Behind Hugging Face: A Playful Choice21:02 Pivoting to Open Source: The Birth of a New Vision23:58 Building a Community: The Power of Collaboration26:37 Navigating User Feedback: Balancing Vision and Signals28:51 Investor Relations: Framing a Pivot31:19 Positioning as Switzerland: Neutrality in AI34:06 The Business Model of Hugging Face: Freemium Success35:51 Evaluating AI Models: A New Approach40:33 The Need for Open Source AI Models42:27 Fostering Open Data Initiatives: A Call to Action45:18 The Future of Open AI: Efficiency and Specialization48:05 The AI Bubble: Reality vs. Perception49:30 The Growing Startup Ecosystem in Europe51:11 Why New York City is Ideal for AI Startups Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

208. Clément Delangue Of Hugging Face

John Borthwick shares his journey from a tech-savvy youth to a prominent figure in the New York tech scene. He discusses his early experiences with computers, the transformative impact of the World Wide Web, and the vibrant tech culture of the 90s. Borthwick reflects on his role in creating Total New York, the lessons learned from the AOL acquisition, and the challenges faced during the dot-com bubble burst. He also highlights the rise of social media platforms like Photolog and the evolution of BetaWorks as a hub for innovation, particularly in the AI space. Throughout the discussion, Borthwick emphasizes the importance of creativity, constraints, and the ever-changing landscape of technology.Chapters:00:00 The Early Days of Tech and Personal Journey02:11 Education and Its Impact on Career05:15 Experiencing the World Wide Web08:09 The New York Tech Scene in the 90s11:08 Creative Projects and the Internet16:01 Total New York: A Local Information Hub21:40 Lessons in Distribution and Audience Engagement24:57 The Evolution of Internet Distribution27:58 AOL: The Internet's First Giant35:54 The Dot-Com Bubble and Its Aftermath37:46 Photolog: A Precursor to Social Media44:56 Navigating Abundance and Constraints in AI49:37 BetaWorks: A Hub for Founders and Innovation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

207. John Borthwick Of Betaworks

Welcome BACK to the Internet History Podcast. After essentially a 5 year hiatus, the Internet History Podcast is back, fully back, a whole slate of episodes coming to you, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have our relaunch episode be with Jimmy Wales. What can I tell you? He’s the founder of Wikipedia. We get deep into the history of all that but also get into how he’s thinking about the web and Wikipedia in this age of AI.Chapters00:00 The Return of the Internet History Podcast00:58 Exploring Trust in the Digital Age04:09 Growing Up with Knowledge11:53 The Journey into Technology and Finance16:58 The First Encounters with the Internet18:38 The Spark of Entrepreneurship20:09 The Birth of Bomis and New Ideas27:13 The Transition from Newpedia to Wikipedia31:57 Navigating Challenges and Building Trust42:25 Moments of Realization and Trust in Wikipedia48:05 From Startup to Nonprofit: A New Direction51:17 Lessons in Nonprofit Fundraising53:02 Transparency and Community Engagement01:00:21 Wikipedia in the Age of AI01:07:29 The Future of the Open Web01:08:58 Defining Purpose in Knowledge Platforms01:12:05 Building Trust in Personal and Political LifeTakeawaysWikipedia's growth was fueled by community engagement and open editing.Trust is essential for the success of any platform.The transition from Newpedia to Wikipedia was a pivotal moment.Transparency in operations fosters community trust.AI's impact on knowledge sharing is significant but manageable.Defining a clear purpose helps in moderating content.Wikipedia's model demonstrates the power of decentralized knowledge.The importance of assuming good faith in online interactions.Nonprofit status allows for a focus on mission over profit.Building trust in personal and political life is crucial for society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

206. Jimmy Wales, Founder Of Wikipedia

People know that a16z changed tech by turning VCs and founders into rock stars. You know the names. But there’s one name you might not know, that real heads, deep inside the industry have known very well over the years. The legend, Margit Vennmachers. You know all those a16z names because of Margit, because of how she helped Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and others build a16z into the most prominent VC firm in the world. This is a conversation with Margit about her entire career, her philosophy on coms and marketing and PR, and how a16z evolved. From the story behind Software Is Eating The World to how startups can build and burnish their own legend, from the woman who, behind the scenes, those in the know knew was making it happen.Chapters00:00 Intros02:13 From Farm Life to Tech Dreams03:56 Navigating Grief and Independence09:38 Cultural Shifts: From Germany to Silicon Valley12:25 The Early Days of Silicon Valley21:05 Launching Outcast Communications25:15 Building Credibility in the Startup World27:31 The Rise of Facebook and Industry Cycles29:43 Navigating Economic Cycles and Client Relationships30:53 The Decision to Sell Outkast32:43 Founding A16Z: The Backstory36:48 Marketing Strategies for A16Z42:00 The Evolution of Tech Leadership43:53 The Role of an Operating Partner46:39 Crisis Management in Tech51:42 The Concept of 'Software is Eating the World'55:41 Lessons from Two Decades with Mark and Ben56:49 The Future of Tech and AI58:06 Margit's Transition to Partner EmeritusTakeaways:Margit's upbringing on a small farm shaped her resilience.Grief can lead to early maturity and self-reliance.Her first tech job sparked a curiosity about the industry.Cultural differences in Silicon Valley were eye-opening.Founding Outcast Communications was driven by inspiration, not frustration.Crisis management is crucial in maintaining a company's reputation.PR for startups requires a focus on storytelling and relationships.The dot-com bubble taught valuable lessons about sustainability.A16Z's approach to venture capital emphasizes personality and visibility.The future of tech is intertwined with the responsible use of AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

205. Margit Wennmachers Of a16z

For my entire career in tech and startups, Fred Wilson has been like the god-level VC in the New York City ecosystem. Fred got his start investing before the dotcom bubble, rode the bubble investing in the earliest internet companies to great success, and then turned Union Square Ventures into the premier venture capital firm on the east coast. Hear the story of Fred’s investments in Geocities, Etsy, Coinbase, MongoDB among others. When I first started this podcast almost 12 years ago, Fred was one of the top 5 people I wanted to talk to.Chapters00:00 The Four Technological Revolutions11:08 Fred Wilson's Journey into Venture Capital21:34 The Rise of New York's Tech Scene34:53 Founding Union Square Ventures48:00 The Evolution of Web 2.057:16 Current Technological Intersections and Future OutlookTakeawaysThere are four major technological revolutions happening simultaneously: AI, synthetic biology, energy transition, and crypto.Fred Wilson transitioned from naval engineering to venture capital due to a passion for technology and finance.The New York tech scene began to emerge in the early 90s with digital media and online services.Flatiron Partners was founded to focus on internet investments during the dot-com boom.Investing in companies like GeoCities and Etsy showcased the potential of the internet.The dot-com crash taught valuable lessons about sustainable business models.Union Square Ventures was founded during a challenging economic period, emphasizing the importance of the application layer of the internet.The rise of social media and user engagement became central to investment strategies in the 2000s.Fred's blog became a platform for sharing ideas and attracting founders to his firm.Current technological advancements are driven by the convergence of AI, biology, energy, and crypto. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

204. Fred Wilson, Of Union Square Ventures

Serial entrepreneur Shirish Nadkarni came to the U.S. as a teenager with $25 in his pocket. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he worked at Microsoft where he engineered the $400 million acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.com, the world’s leading web portal.Striking out on his own in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, he founded TeamOn Systems, an early pioneer of mobile email that was later acquired by BlackBerry before becoming BlackBerry Internet Email servicing over 50 million users at its peak.His great new book is: From Startup to Exit: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Scaling Your Tech Business Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

203. Shirish Nadkarni On Microsoft, Hotmail, MSN and Blackberry Internet Email

Joshua Schachter, founder of del.icio.us, is someone I’ve wanted to talk to from the very first day of this podcast. As we’ll discuss, del.icio.us was such a standard bearer of the web 2.0 era. Of user generated content. Of sharing long before Facebook or Twitter or any of that. If my email chain is to be believed, this episode has been four years in the making, and I’m glad Josh and I found the time to do this episode and bring the podcast back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

202. The del.icio.us Story With Joshua Schachter

Angelika Fuellemann is a designer who worked early on with BookSense.com, then got hired by Audible early on, so this is the early story of Audible. It’s funny… audio, streaming music, podcasts, audiobooks, it seems so obvious now, but it really is funny to look back and think about how off the wall this seamed before the smartphone. You mean books on tape will be a thing?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

201. The History of Audible With Angelika Fuellemann

Josh Marshall is one of the key people who brought blogging into the realm of serious, award winning and respectable journalism. The story of his blog/publication, Talking Points Memo, or TPM is the story of blogging becoming legit and serious, but also the story of modern media over the last 20 years of digital disruption. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

200. Professional Blogging Pioneer Josh Marshall

Is technology really rotting our brains, destroying our society... or is that what everyone has always worried about with every technological advance, going back to tv, or telephones, or even writing letters? The new book, Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings about Technology, from the Telegraph to Twitter tries to look at this question from a historical perspective. Is it really different this time? But more importantly... to what degree has technological change impacted how we think of things, and vice-versa.My thanks to the authors, Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

199. Is Tech Making Us- Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid?

Well, as we say in this episode, he’ll always be known as the inventor of the hashtag, but Chris Messina has been central to so many things in tech over the last 20 years or so. Helped Mozilla launch Firefox. Founded BarCamp where so much Web 2.0 goodness happened and was launched. Cofounded the first co-working space in San Francisco. Helped Google try to grok social with Google+. Oh, and that hashtag business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

198. Inventor of the Hashtag, Chris Messina

I’ve said before I wish I could cover technology history beyond just North America, more… Well, Charles Miller has started a great podcast in Britain called Tech Business History. Charles used to report on the tech business as a BBC documentary producer. In the first series of his podcast, he’s exploring the dot com boom in the UK with some of the people he met when he was filming for the BBC back in 1999. It’s a fantastic show that I’ve fallen in love with, so what I want to do is play you an episode from his show that was amazing. It’s exactly the sort of interview I wish I had gotten for this show: In the episode we’re going to hear, he talks to Darryl Mattocks, the founder of a very early dot com called The Internet Bookshop. Yes, they were selling books on the internet before Jeff Bezos did. But I’ll let Charles introduce his guest – in this episode of TBH – Tech Business History. And if you like it, do catch up with the other episodes on iTunes or from your podcast providerThe Tech Business History Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

197. The Internet Bookshop Story With the Tech Business History Podcast

Everyone knows Karen Wickre, because she’s one of those classic connectors. Once we finally got in touch, I wasn’t surprised to learn we knew about half a dozen of the same people though we had never remotely crossed paths. But Karen knows everyone because she’s popped up Zelig-like in a bunch of interesting places over the course of tech history over the last 30 years or so. Early tech journalism. Planet Out. Early Google employee. Early blogger. Early tweeter. Editorial Director at Twitter. Karen has a great book out that you should read, explaining how to do what she does so successfully, called Take The Work Out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide To Making Connections That Count. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

196. Google, Twitter and More With Karen Wickre

Kevin Scott is the current Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft. We talk about his entire career, how being an academic seemed to be his path before he transformed the ads system at Google. Then he revolutionized the entire advertising industry at AdMob; is credited by some people by saving LinkedIn from technical rot; and now, today, oversees Microsoft's efforts in AI, VR/AR all the future things. Fantastic conversation.Kevin's podcast is: Behind the Tech Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

195. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott

Today we continue my efforts to preserve the history of the ISP industry. Today it feels like the Internet is simply all around us all the time, but there are amazing entrepreneurial stories about how that crucial infrastructure was laid. Today we talk to Sonic founder Dane Jasper, who can not only give us the history of the industry, but the present day as well, as Sonic is still a thriving and important independent ISP. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

194. The History of the ISP Industry With Sonic's Dane Jasper

20 years ago, the acclaimed documentarian Doug Block released a landmark film, Home Page. Doug’s documentary accidentally chronicled the birth of blogging, featuring several people we’ve talked to on this very show, including Justin Hall. But the documentary also captured a moment in time, the web going mainstream, the beginnings of the dotcom bubble, the early days of Wired, Hotwired and Suck and also so many of the things I ask people about on here regularly. How people learned to live online, to begin to port all of modern life over to the digital. Well, Home Page is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a re-release, and starting this week, you can watch it yourself everywhere films are gettable, including iTunes. Today we speak to Doug Block about this amazing movie that I think is one of the best historical records of the era we have been interrogating for nearly 5 years on this podcast. Go watch Home Page yourself, and check out The D-word, Doug’s community for documentarians, at D-word.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

193. The Home Page Film With Doug Block

Dan Maccarone is a digital design veteran, websites, products, strategy. He's got some amazing stories about the dotcom bubble, about the aftermath, and the rise of Web 2.0. He shares some unique design lessons but also, the story of the birth of Hulu, which I don't think has really been covered anywhere before. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

192. Hulu's Founding and Digital Design With Dan Maccarone

Part two of the WSJ's online adventures intersect with several other stories we've covered on here over the years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

191. Bringing The WSJ Online With Rich Jaroslovsky Part 2

We’ve had a couple of people come on here to discuss how the New York Times got online, but the spiritual yin to their yang is the Wall Street Journal and we haven’t done enough to explore their path to embracing the internet. It’s worth doing that because they embraced a different model from basically day one. Almost alone among the web media pioneers, the Journal went the subscription route. So, we’re going to talk to Rich Jaroslovksy, who headed the team that brought the Journal online, to see why they went that route, to learn about the path to the web and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

190. Bringing The WSJ Online With Rich Jaroslovsky

It’s bothered me for a while that over the 5 years or so of this podcast, we haven’t focused very much on some corners of the history. For example… the legal side? Copyright law? Intellectual property law? How much have we talked about disruption and piracy and filesharing and all that stuff? So, I spoke to Richard Chapo, who has been doing Internet Law since the web went mainstream. We talk about the Napster era, we talk about how much of an influence the adult industry had on digital law, we talk about the state of digital law today, and actually, a whole bunch of contemtorary law stuff like GDPR. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

189. A Legal History of the Web Era With Richard Chapo

Part three of our epic conversation with Stephan Paternot. Here's what happens when you've been through the wringer. When you've been to the top of the rollercoaster and also down to the bottom. Here's how you take stock of your life, how you reinvent yourself, re-find you entrepreneurial spirit... I feel like there are so many lessons in these three episodes. Lessons for entrepreneurs today. Lesson for... I dunno. People in the crypto space? My thanks to Stephan Paternot for an insanely great conversation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

188. TheGlobe.com Story With Stephan Paternot Part III

Ok, part 2 of the Stephan Paternot mega-episode right now. This is where we get into the meat of it, the good stuff, the whole crazy roller coaster ride of being the hottest startup of the dotcom era. And I was going to make this the last episode, but as I was editing this, I realized that after we get done with this story, Stephan talks a lot about what happens after... what happens after you've been on a crazy ride like this. How you have to reinvent yourself, and your life, and your career. He said so many interesting things about that, that for the first time ever, we're going to do a part 3, coming in two weeks, to talk about the reinvention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

187. TheGlobe.com Story with Stephan Paternot Part II

I said in the book, I think TheGlobe.com was the quintessential dot-com company. We spoke to one of the cofounders previously, Todd Krizelman. Todd was great, but he was time constrained and he didn’t quite get as personal about the story as I would have hoped. Well, I finally got to talk to the other founder of TheGlobe, Stephan Paternot. And Stephan was… AMAZING. He shared the whole story, the whole wild ride, from a historical angle, from a business angle, from an entrepreneurial angle and also, from a very personal angle. THIS the dot-com era story I’ve been looking for for years. It’s also the story of probably the most important pioneer of social media before there was even a term for such a thing. And by the way… that TV Show that just came out on NAT GEO, Valley of the Boom? THIS IS THAT STORY. Stephan just re-released his book, A Very Public Offering: The Story of theglobe.com and the First Internet Revolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

186. TheGlobe.com Story with Stephan Paternot

David Schwartz is the Chief Technology Officer at Ripple, the company behind the cryptocurrency XRP. What is it like to start, build and build out a crypto startup? Is it different than the web and internet startups that we’ve covered on this show for years? What is Ripple? How is it unique in the crypto ecosystem? What is it trying to do for the world? All of this… and yes, why is crypto so tribal… and yes… where is the crypto space even at in this moment in time (December 9th, 2018, btw, for posterity). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

185. Ripple's David Schwartz

Ken Norton is a partner at GV, Alphabets venture capital arm, but before that, he was a product manager at Google, where he led the development of products like Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Mobile Maps. But he was also early at JotSpot which became Google sites, was a product manager at Yahoo, was an early employee at CNET and was CTO of Snap, a company probably none of you have ever heard of but I’ve been dying to talk about for years. No. Not snapchat. The original Snap. The dotcom era snap. So, this is another great episode with a guy who has played roles in a ton of our favorites companies and topics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

184. GV's Ken Norton

Matt Britton not only sold the first ads to and for Facebook, way back in 2004, he gives us a really insightful and, frankly, unbiased look at what Facebook was like as a company in its very earliest days. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

183. Selling the First Facebook Ads, With Matt Britton

Emergency Podcast Announcement  Link to Amazon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emergency Podcast Announcement

I figure most of you should know who Matt Cutts is, but if you don't, let's just leave it at this: he's about to give you the best, most behind-the-scenes oral history of early Google we've gotten so far on this podcast. He was the head of Google's web spam team for nearly 15 years. He's also the current head of the USDS, so if you what to know what YOU can do for your country—if you're in technology and you want to make the government work better—listen to this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

182. Google's Matt Cutts @mattcutts

SUMMARY:The history of Craig Newmark, craigslist and other odds and ends that didn’t make the book! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

181. (Ch. 7.5) The Story of craigslist

Simple enough: Part 2 with John McCrea. More on SGI, more on doing battle with Microsoft in the 90s. And... interesting stuff on VR and the future... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

180. Part 2 With John McCrea

John McCrea is a Zelig-like personality who pops up in so many of the narratives we've already covered: Apple. Netscape. Doing battle with Microsoft. This is part one, mostly about Silicon Graphics, a company I had been thinking about doing an episode on for a while now, to really rejuvenate that company’s reputation, historically. For reasons that will be obvious when you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

179. On Silicon Graphics with John McCrea (Pt. 1)

On Google's 20th Birthday (September 4th) a re-cutting and re-airing of my comprehensive history of Google, from it's inception through its IPO. Happy Birthday, Google! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

178. On Google's 20th Birthday - The History of Google

Nando.net was not only a very early experiment in bringing journalism to the web, it was also one of those local ISP's that flowered in the era of the early 1990s. Fraser Von Asch was not only one of the key players at The News & Observer (thus, "NandO") who brought the project to life, he is another person who has straddled the media industry between the print and digital eras and can give us some amazing insights into the transitions therein... or lack thereof. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

177. NandO.net with Fraser Van Asch

This story has gone down in Silicon Valley lore as the ultimate cautionary tale. Digg was the earliest high flying startup in early social media. But then, other startups like Facebook and Twitter started to steal the limelight. So Digg tried to keep up by launching the infamous Digg version 4. And… it’s a disaster. Users hate it. So much so, that many people feel that the reason Reddit is Reddit today is because the Digg community fled their en-masse. Digg Version 4 has become a much cited horror story for when a redesign can be so disruptive it can kill a company. So, what’s the real story behind this urban legend? Today, we talk to Will Larson, who today is at Stripe, was a young engineer working on the launch of Digg version 4.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

176. The Epic Fail of Digg V.4 With Will Larson

Today, we're going to continue our occasional project of getting oral histories and personal anecdotes about how, exactly, the Internet and the web came to various places around the world. On this episode we're going to look at how the Internet came to—and is still in the process of coming to—Pakistan. Imran Haider is a listener to the show, works in the tech industry, and analyzes the south asian tech scene at his blog, arkito.co. Today, he tells us how the digital revolution came to Pakistan, how it's still in the process of rolling out, what that has meant for Pakistani society and what the startup and tech scene IS in Pakistan. My thanks to Imran Haider for being a longtime listener to this show, and for being willing to contribute to the project, and please, check him out at arkito.co... it's Ben Thompson level analysis of the tech scene in the sub continent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

175. How the Internet Came to Pakistan With Imran Haider

Lisa Napoli got a job straight out of college at CNN in its earliest days, which is a crazy startup story in it’s own right. But then she worked for a time at Delphi, which was an early online service and competitor to AOL and Prodigy that I don’t think we’ve covered much here before. And then she helped bring the NYTimes online with CyberTimes, which, as she said, is forgotten to history even by the New York Times. Then on to MSNBC, a crazy hybrid tech and media startup that I don’t think we’ve discussed much either. There’s just so many great stories here. Please enjoy this conversation with Lisa Napoli. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

174. Bringing the NYTimes and MSNBC Online With Lisa Napoli

Rosanne Siino has been on my list to talk to from day one of this podcast. As you know, I started by reaching out to Netscape folks and Rosanne was the head of communications for that very first dotcom company. She saw it all, she can give us her take on both the engineering side and the management side, since she was uniquely able to observe both. Rosanne and I were recently on a documentary series currently airing on A&E in the US, The Untold Story of the 90s. So, I reached out, and we recoded this fantastic extended interview about all things Netscape and about the very birth of the Internet Era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

173. Netscape's Rosanne Siino

HUGE Podcast Announcement! Details on how to pre-order the podcast book! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HUGE Podcast Announcement

Today we're going to go back to take a look at early journalism on the web. Karl Mattson helped launched one of the first political news websites, ElectionLine. He helped cover the 1996 election when covering an election on the web was a completely new thing. He then moved to AOL, helped run their news channels and has some amazing historical details about he era, especially the Clinton intern scandal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

172. How Politics Came to the Web With Karl Mattson

Claude Shannon was a mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as "the father of information theory." In the pantheon of cool people who made the modern information era possible, he’s right up there. Today, we’re going to talk about Shannon’s life with Jimmy Sony and Rob Goodman, authors of a great biography of the man called A Mind At Play, How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age. Especially you software engineers out there, if you don’t know who Claude Shannon was, get educated. You owe your livelihood to this man.Buy the book! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

171. Claude Shannon, Father of Information Theory

Summary:Robert Reid, the founder of Rhapsody, can be considered the Godfather (founding father?) of the streaming music reality we now live in. But guess what? That's only half of this episode! Because it turns out, Robert is the author of a book that was probably one of the biggest reasons I started doing this podcast. The book was Architects of the Web, 1000 Days that Built the Future of Business. It was one of the first books to come out about the history of the web era. It was published in 1997, I think. I read it in college. I re-read it maybe 6-7 seven years ago and it helped inspire me to start this podcast. Those first interviews I launched the podcast with? The Netscape guys? Jon Mittelhauser? Alex Totic? I read about them in this book and I straight up cold-emailed them. So you're going to get a fascinating fly-on-the-wall account of early Netscape, early Yahoo, all sorts of companies we've talked about.Robert continues to be an accomplished author.Buy his books:After OnYear ZeroAnd listen to his exceptional podcast, also called After On. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

170. The Godfather of Streaming Music, Robert Reid

Jason Kottke, of kottke.org fame, was one of the early bloggers, one of the first bloggers to go pro, and one of the few solo bloggers still going. If you know Kottke.org, then you love it. How could you not? If you’ve never heard of it, you can thank me later. This episode examines what it means to be a publisher on the web for 20 years as well as the discipline required to find cool stuff on the web every single day (almost). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

169. Kottke.org's Jason Kottke, @jkottke

People have been yelling at me for years that I’ve not covered more technical aspects of the web’s history, especially things like Java. Specifically Java. The argument can be made that Java helped the web evolve into what it’s become. So, that’s why I was thrilled to sit down with Todd Sundsted, who is a developer who has been working with Java for more than 20 years. Todd walks us through the history of Java and why it is so important to the web’s general evolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

168. The History of Java With Todd Sundsted

Today, a man who needs no introduction: New York Times Technology Columnist Farhad Manjoo. This episode was recorded about two months or so ago, so we talk about the book leave Farhad is on that he only recently made public, but of course, we get into his whole career and his unique vantage point and views on the world of tech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

167. NYTimes Tech Columnist, Farhad Manjoo @fmanjoo

No joke, this is one of my favorite episodes we've ever done. Eugene Wei was an early employee at Hulu, so we get some details on that company for the first time, and he also worked at Flipboard and Oculus, so we get some important context especially on the future of VR and the like. But the most fascinating stories you'll hear will be about Amazon, where Eugene was the first analyst in the strategic planning department. As you'll hear, Eugene had a unique perspective on Amazon's early strategy and business structure, almost a historically unique perspective... he could see month to month, how Amazon was built, what Amazon was trying to do, and why. This is such an amazing perspective on such an important company. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

166. Amazon, Hulu and Oculus with Eugene Wei

Claire Evans is the author of the new book: Broad Band The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet. This is the best tech history book I’ve read in a while and you know I read them all. Of special note, considering our 90s-heavy focus on this podcast, the book includes the stories of Word.com, which was a competitor to Feed.com (which we’ve previously covered) and Women.com which was a competitor to Ivillage (which, again, we’ve spoke at length about). But you also get an amazing portair of tech in the 1970s, hypertext as a movement outside of the web, and stories about amazing women like Grace Hopper and Jake Feinler.Buy it today! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

165. Claire L. Evans, Author of Broad Band- The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet

Podcast listener Thomas Ganter gives us a first person, anecdotal account of how the web came to Germany in the 1990s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

164. How the Web Came to Germany, With Thomas Ganter

Gregg Spiridellis has been making things go viral on the web since before the term VIRAL was even a thing. His company, JibJab has been producing web videos since the dialup dotcom era, producing hits you might remember such as Elf Yourself, Nasty Santa and This Land Is Your Land. JibJab has survived the dotcom bust, the coming of broadband, the coming of YouTube, the coming of social media and the mobile internet. What you’ll hear today is absolutely a masterclass in pivoting, in adapting a business model to thrive in every new technology environment and embracing every new platform and paradigm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

163. The History of Online Video with JibJab's Gregg Spiridellis

David Pakman is a well respected venture capitalist at Venrock, but also a lifelong musician and music fan. Earlier in his career he played a significant role in bringing music to the web. David tells us about cofounding Apple’s Music Group, his role in facilitating the first digital sales of music online at dotcom-era companies N2K and MyPlay, and competing directly against iTunes when he was at eMusic. As a bonus, he gives us some background on the more recent founding story of Dollar Shave Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

162. Venrock's David Pakman on Apple's Music Group, N2K, eMusic and Dollar Shave Club

It gets my goat that these days, the history of ecommerce begins and ends with Amazon. There were so many companies and big ideas that got us where we are today, and one of the most important companies was Open Market. Jeff Bussgang is here to tell us the (today) often overlooked story of the earliest days of trying to sell stuff on the web. Today, Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

161. Jeff Bussgang on Open Market and early eCommerce

An exploration of what it was like to come of age in the early web era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

160. Growing Up With The Web With Desiree Garcia @thedezzie

Plato was an online and interactive learning computer system developed in the 1960s at the University of Illinois. But in the early 1970s, Plato got truly networked, and the users took over. Plato had already pioneered such things as touch screen computing, but the kids introduced and pioneered concepts like forums, message boards, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, multiplayer games and even emoticons/emojis were pioneered on the Plato system.Buy The Friendly Orange Glow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

159. The Forgotten Story of PLATO, with Brian Dear

Bob Stein was the founder of Voyager, publisher of the first consumer CDROM titles, and, far and away the leader of the CDROM industry in the late 1980s and early 90s. Bob was also one of the founders of the Criterion Collection, as well as the publisher of the first electronic books.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

158. Bob Stein of Voyager and The Criterion Collection

You might know him as Rob Malda, or you might know him as CmdrTaco, but he was the founder of the great geek social website Slashdot. Slashdot recently turned 20 years old, Rob commemorated this in a great Medium post, and so I reached out to him to tell us the story of one of the first great social media websites. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

157. Rob Malda (@cmdrtaco) on SlashDot and Social Media

Dave Winer has been called the godfather of a lot of things. The godfather of blogging. The Godfather of Podcasting. One of the key people involved in the development of RSS. But as you’ll hear in this great and wide-ranging chat, Dave Winer is just a software developer who has never stopped tinkering, never lost his interest in coming up with new tools and new technologies. Dave was kind enough to sit down and go over his whole career, from the very earliest days of the PC era, to the present day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

156. Dave Winer on The Open Web, Blogging, Podcasting and More

SUMMARY:Nicole Laporte has a cover story in Fast Company magazine this month about Giphy, potentially the next big story in online advertising and marketing, as well as… search? Read her profile of Giphy here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

155. Giphy with Nicole LaPorte

Om Malik is, of course, a legend. One of the first journalists on the “tech beat” in the 1990s, one of the first bloggers to “turn pro,” one of the driving forces behind the Web 2.0 time period, and one of the most trusted analysts of the technology industry in general, today he is a venture capitalist at True Ventures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

154. Om Malik on Blogging and Web 2.0

What is generally considered the worst merger of all time, and certainly the crescendo event of the dotcom bubble era, today we take a look at the AOL/Time Warner merger, again with the excellent guys at the podcast Acquired. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

153. The AOL/Time Warner Merger - Crossover with the Acquired Podcast

David Shen was employee #17 at Yahoo, where he eventually had a hand in, not only the birth of advertising as the primary business model for the web but, eventually, the development of digital ads into their more modern, interactive form. As you'll hear, David recounts the early days of Yahoo, surviving the dotcom bust and taking advertising beyond the simple banner ad.And he recounts all of this in his recently published new book: Takeover! The Inside Story of the Yahoo! Ad Revolution Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

152. David Shen on Early Yahoo and the Maturation of Online Advertising

Karel Baloun was the first senior software engineer hired at Facebook in 2005. This was after the Accel round of funding, when Facebook truly began to staff up and grow up. Baloun was only at Facebook for a year, from 2005 to 2006, but he provides some amazing insights about the company. What was Facebook’s culture like in 2005? What were the key innovations that ultimately let Facebook succeed where others failed? Would Zuckerberg make a good President of the United States? What became of Pokey, the mascot Facebook once considered launching?You can buy Karel’s 2007 book here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

151. Facebook's First Senior Software Engineer, Karel Baloun

Just as last week’s episode posted, another great piece about SoundCloud was posted on Buzzfeed by the great Ryan Mac. So, in a rare attempt by me to be topical, today’s episode is with Ryan Mac, discussing his article, which fills in some of the details about what Christina and I were speculating on last week.Ryan’s article can be found  here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

150. More SoundCloud Chat with Buzzfeed's Ryan Mac

Our friend Christina Warren is back for another analysis episode. Christina recently posted a tweetstorm about SoundCloud, and its prospects for the future. So she kindly agreed to come on the show, look at the history of SoundCloud as a company, and try to help me figure out why SoundCloud finds itself on the brink of oblivion. You all know Christina from her years at Mashable and most recently, Gizmodo. As you’ll hear toward the end, she’s at Microsoft now, and you can always hear her on the Rocket podcast.The Verge article we refer to can be found  here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

149. Christina Warren on SoundCloud

Don Melton is popularly known as the father of the Safari web browser or WebKit. He’s basically a web browser legend. Not only does Don tell us a lot of great stuff about Safari, WebKit, Apple and more, but he was also an early Netscape employee, so we get some more great details about that company, especially in its later stages. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

148. Don Melton on Apple, Safari, WebKit and Netscape

The first text message (or, to be accurate, SMS message) was sent on December 3, 1992. It was sent by Neil Papworth, and it said, “Merry Christmas.” This is the story of that first text, recorded for the first time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

147. The First Text Message With Neil Papworth

As promised, Mike Slade is back to tell stories from the period 1998 through 2004, when he was Special Assistant to Steve Jobs. Background details on the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone and more!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

146. Mike Slade on Steve Jobs' Return To Apple

Finally! A detailed history of the development of the iPhone inside Apple. But not only that, an extensive history of all the technologies that came together to make the iPhone possible. Lithium ion battery technology, touchscreen technology, Gorilla Glass, GPS, digital photography, maps… everything. The author, Brian Merchant, was kind enough to send an advanced copy and, as you’ll hear when I talk to him, I couldn’t have been more excited to read! This is the book I’ve been waiting for for about ten years.Buy your own copy  here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

145. Brian Merchant, Author of The One Device

A lot of people give credit to Justin Hall for being, if not the first, then spiritually, at least, the “first” blogger. Since early 1994, first as Justin’s Homepage and at various points, as Justin’s Links from the Underground and Links.net, Justin Hall has been writing online and sharing online—especially, sharing himself online—longer than almost anyone else on the planet. Hear his story today, and watch his documentary at: http://overshare.links.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

144. The "First" Blogger, Justin Hall

For several months now, I've been complaining on Twitter and a bunch of other places that, for as ubiquitous as Netflix streaming has become—I think it's one of the most important technology products of the last decade at least— there's actually been comparatively little journalism or scholarship about how the product came about. That's why I was delighted to get acquainted with Neil Hunt, who is the Chief Product Officer at Netflix. Since he's been at Netflix since 1999, not only is he the perfect person to tell us how Netflix streaming came about (the technical hurdles, the strategic decisions, etc.) but he can also give us the whole history of Netflix, from basically the very beginning. Link to transcript. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

143. Neil Hunt on the History of Netflix and Netflix Streaming

Andy Rachleff was a co-founder of Benchmark, one of the most respected venture capital firms to this very day, and one of the biggest venture players during the dotcom era. On today’s episode, Andy gives us more background on eBay’s founding and what venture investing was like during the dotcom era. But Andy is also that very rarest of breeds, someone who became an entrepreneur AFTER an illustrious career as a venture capitalist. So Andy also tells us all about Wealthfront, one of the most interesting players in the modern personal investment space. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

142. Andy Rachleff @arachleff co-founder of Benchmark and Wealthfront

Summary Check out The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast here!Books recommended on this episode:Storming the Magic KingdomWalt DisneyUnconventional SuccessSay EverythingThe Wikipedia RevolutionThe InnovatorsThe Expanse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

141. Nathan Latka @NathanLatka of the Top Entrepreneurs Podcast

The famous Google Chef, Charlie Ayers, remembers joining Google when it was about 50 employees, the company’s early growth, culture, and the unique role he played in shaping that culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

140. The Google Chef, Charlie Ayers

If you know the Napster story at all, then you know about the Shawn(Sean)s. Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. But in my opinion, and in the opinion of a lot of other people, a name that you should be just as familiar with is Jordan Ritter. Napster was an incredible phenomenon, reaching tens of millions of users at its height, and though Jordan Ritter didn't invent Napster, he very much was responsible for scaling it and turning it into the phenomenon it became. In today's episode, Jordan recounts the entire Napster story, from its gestation in the w00w00 hacker collective (which, by the way, people talk a lot about the PayPal mafia, but an argument can be made for a w00w00 mafia) all the way through Napster's legal descent into oblivion. You might know Jordan as the cofounder of Cloudmark and Servio, and at the end of the episode, he talks about the big problems he's working to solve today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

139. The Napster Story with Jordan Ritter

There was one important trait that Google shared with the dotcoms: it wasn’t making very much money. It’s somewhat forgotten, given what would come later, but Google existed for several years without much of a business plan. The vision Larry and Sergey had sold the Venture Capitalists on involved a three-pronged strategy. First, Google would license its search technology to the major portals. Second, the company would sell its search technology as a product to enterprises. And third, there were some vague promises about selling ads against searches on its own website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

138. (Ch. 9.2) The History of Google Part 2

When Larry and Sergey first met, they didn’t like each other much...BIBLIOGRAPHY:In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives The Google Story How Google Works The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture Googled: The End of the World As We Know It The Google Guys: Inside the Brilliant Minds of Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/05/29/search-and-deploy  http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/08/268521/index.htm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

137. (Ch. 9.1) The History of Google Part 1

During the dot-com era in the late 90s, there were four different venture-backed startups (six, depending on how you count) that focused on the pet retail space. Most famous, or notorious, I guess was Pets.com, of the sock puppet fame, but today, we’re going to get some context and perspective on this moment in time from another player from this era. Joshua Newman was the founder of Petstore.com, which actually got started first, but eventually ended up getting acquired by Pets.com. I wanted to talk to Joshua because I think the Petstore.com is a really interesting lens to look at e-commerce companies in the dot-com era, the strategies they pursued and the unbelievable environment they existed in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

136. Petstore.com's Joshua Newman on the Pets Space During the Dotcom Era

Before Snapchat Stories, before YouTube, in the dial-up era of the 90s, there were a select few who were experimenting with streaming video and interactive media on the web. The most prominent and notorious of these pioneers was Pseudo.com. Dennis Adamo was one of the co-founders of Pseudo.com.You can learn more about Dennis' VR startup here: Spaceoutvr.comThe articles about Josh Harris and Pseudo that I mention are here and here.And the documentary on Harris called We Live in Public is on iTunes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

135. The Pseudo.com Story With Dennis Adamo

Today's episode is a special event, a crossover episode with the Acquired Podcast, which you can find in your podcast directory by searching for the word Acquired, or by going to Acquired.fm. Acquired is hosted by Ben Gilbert, the Co-Founder of Pioneer Square Labs and David Rosenthal a Principal at Madrona Venture Group out in Seattle. To mash up our two models, we're going to talk about Yahoo's acquisition of Overture, and how that related to Google's ultimate success with Adwords. We talked about a lot of this with Gary Flake in episode 133, so, for a bit of context, here is that entire story. Please enjoy, and please, do check out the Acquired podcast at Acquired.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

134. Yahoo's Acquisition of Overture (Crossover Ep. w/the Acquired Podcast)

Gary Flake has been involved with search technology ever since he got turned on to this particular field in college. In this wide-ranging discussion, Gary lays out for us, basically, the history of search technology before Google, the impact of Google, and then, since he lived it, the notion of competing with Google. The reason why Gary can talk so in depth about all of this is that he was Yahoo's Chief Science Officer in the early 2000s, when Yahoo, via the infamous project Panama, and other initiatives, attempted to keep Google from taking over the entire search market. And because, prior to that, Gary was at Goto/Overture, he gives us basically the entire story of the birth of paid search as an industry. The story of Google is about two miracles. The first miracle is the Google algorithm that essentially solved search. And the second miracle is paid search... AdWords, AdSense, all of that... which is essentially the greatest advertising machine ever invented. But, not a lot of people remember: paid search was actually invented, not by Google, but by Goto/Overture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

133. Gary Flake on Overture, Yahoo and the History of Search

You all know MG Siegler. From TechCrunch’s most famous blogger to GV’s most affable venture capitalist, he has a lot to say about Apple, the business of blogging and where Silicon Valley is at in the modern era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

132. MG Siegler @mgsiegler on TechCrunch and GV

Elizabeth Osder is one of those digital media veterans who’s career has spanned the entire web era, from bringing the New York Times online (though, she got her native New Jersey online first by launching NJ.com a few years beforehand) all the way through her continued work with any number of digital media companies through her consultancy the Osder Group. In between, she has some amazing stories about working at Yahoo, launching the earliest of multimedia websites for folks like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the fallout from the dotcom bubble. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

131. Elizabeth Osder on the NYTimes.com, Yahoo and More

Joe Schober was the longest serving employee of America Online, working there as an engineer, and later chief architect, from 1992 until just a few years ago. So, there literally couldn't be anyone better to walk us through AOL's history and many iterations. In this episode, we go back to the days when America Online was an underdog online service with only a couple hundred thousand users, through AOL's dominance in the early web era, the AOL/Time Warner merger... all of it, including an insider look at the chatrooms and AIM. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

130. AOL, AIM, Chat Rooms, The Time Warner Merger... AOL's History with Joe Schober

Michael March was the founder of Internet Direct, the first commercial ISP in Arizona. Michael gives us a first-hand account of the independent ISP industry that grew up around the country in the 1990s. AOL might have been the training wheels for the internet, but the Mom-n-Pop ISPs probably gave more Americans their first Internet experience than any of the online services.Bonus: Michael was an incidental witness to the first major commercial spam event on the Internet, a story that he relays at the end of this episode.And you can see Internet Direct featured in a really delicious infomercial from the time here.And you can follow Michael on twitter @cowmix Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

129. Michael March on the Indie ISP Industry, and the Birth of Online Spam

Would it surprise you to learn that 1800Flowers was not only one of the first ecommerce pioneers but quite possibly, the first to be profitable in a meaningful way? You wouldn't be surprised if you knew the story of 1800Flowers and its founder, Jim McCann. Today we speak with Jim to hear that story, to learn about a company that was fearless in trying any new thing that came along... so long as it brought them closer to their customers. And, since Jim has been at this for quite a while, toward the end, he also tells us where he thinks commerce—in general—is going.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

128. Jim McCann of 1800Flowers

"So… Three things: A widescreen iPod with touch controls. A revolutionary mobile phone. And a breakthrough internet communications device. An iPod… a phone… and an internet communicator… An iPod, a phone… are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device! And we are calling it iPhone.”- Steve Jobs, January 9, 2007Those words have become so famous in the history of technology that I imagine a large percentage of listeners have them memorized. Ten years ago this Monday, January 9, Steve Jobs stood on stage and announced the iPhone to the world. It was the crowning achievement in the career of the greatest technologist of our time, the moment that the modern era of computing began.On the ten year anniversary of the birth of the iPhone, this is the story of that moment and the history of that device which can take a rightful place alongside the original Macintosh, the first IBM PC, the Apple I, the Altair 8800, the DEC PDP-8, the IBM System/360 and the ENIAC as one of most important machines to have brought computing into everyday life.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

127. The History of the iPhone, On Its 10th Anniversary

The background, root causes and rough outline of the dotcom bubble. How it happened, why it happened... and why it's unlikely to happen again anytime soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

126. (Ch. 8) How the Dotcom Bubble Happened

As most of you know, I’m busy writing a book that this podcast is partially source material for, and at the moment, I’m deep in the weeds on chapters about the Dotcom bubble—how it happened, why it happened, that sort of thing. By necessity, I’ve been going into a lot of economic background for the bubble, and in the course of doing so, the famous chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, keeps coming up. So, today’s episode is a bit of an analysis episode as I speak with Sebastian Mallaby, who is the author of THE definitive biography of Greenspan, a book called The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan. Listen along with me as I try to get a sense of the role the Fed chairman played in setting the table for the dotcom bubble.The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

125. Sebastian Mallaby on Alan Greenspan and the Dotcom Bubble

SummarySometimes you get to talk to your actual heroes. I've been reading Richard MacManus probably almost as long as he's been writing on the web. He is the founder of the popular ReadWriteWeb blog, and he was one of the forces behind the Web 2.0 movement that was so influential in my career as a web entrepreneur. Here's another story of the accidental professionalization of blogging, from one of the pioneers.Richard is a science fiction writer now! Buy his book Presence! It's about the future of VR!PS:  My TED Talk can be found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

124. Founder of ReadWriteWeb, Richard MacManus

 SummaryAt the dawn of e-commerce, if Amazon.com staked a claim in books, and sites like CDNow staked a claim in music, then Reel.com should be remembered as the important dot-com era player in movie retail. But more than just going toe to toe with Amazon, Reel.com actually pioneered online movie rental as well. Reel.com's founder, Stewart Skorman, actually came from the world of video rental stores, and sold his video chain to Blockbuster. So the first site to rent you movies via the postal service? Reel.com. And more importantly, the site that really pioneered movie matching technology, that art/science of recommending which movie you're really going to want to watch tonight? Reel.com.Stuart's exceptional memoir/entrepreneur's handbook is called Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur: Why I Can't Stop Starting Over Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

123. Founder of Reel.com, Stuart Skorman

If you’ll remember back to the chapter episode on the early search engines and Yahoo, I said that it’s hard to pin down exactly what the “first search engine” was. There were so many competing projects and technologies that launched in different ways at different times. One potential candidate is the World Wide Web Worm, which is criminally undercovered by the histories out there. The World Wide Web Worm was developed by Oliver McBryan, at the University of Colorado at Boulder in late 1993. It grew out of an early directory site for web content that McBryan also launched, a sort of Yahoo before Yahoo.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

122. The First Web Search Engine? With Oliver McBryan

SummaryMost of you know Chamath Palihapitiya as one of the most prominent and progressive venture capitalists working today. But before forming Social Capital, Chamath was an early employee at a startup we've already covered, WinAmp; was the head of AOL's Instant Messenger product; and of course, was an early employee at Facebook. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

121. Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath on Facebook, AIM and WinAmp

Most of you will know Jason Calacanis from his many high profile endeavors such as his podcasts (especially This Week in Startups) his Launch conference and Inside.com. But older listeners will remember Jason as one of the most colorful personalities of the dot-com era in New York, as the publisher of Silicon Alley Reporter. And Jason also played a key role in forming the modern media landscape as the founder of Weblogs Inc. We talk about all of that much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

120. Jason Calacanis @jason on Silicon Alley, The Dot-Com Bubble and Web 2.0

SUMMARYI missed it (I should really be keeping a calendar of these things) but Slate.com celebrated its 20th anniversary last month. If you’ll recall, we went into some detail about Slate’s founding in this  chapter episode, but today we have Slate’s current Editor in Chief, Julia Turner, and a former Editor and current Chairman of the Slate Group, Jacob Weisberg, on the pod to discuss the history of Slate and the contributions Slate made to the evolution of digital media on the web.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

119. The Story of Slate.com with Julia Turner @juliaturner and Jacob Weisberg @jacobwe

John Rossman helped transform Amazon.com’s business. After the dotcom bubble burst, Amazon delved into a new business line that allowed third parties to do business off of Amazon’s platform, and make use of Amazon’s many competencies. In this Episode, John describes his role developing the Amazon 3rd party marketplace and gives us his perspective on what makes Amazon successful. John’s book about Amazon is called The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Lessons Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company. If you want to understand Amazon on a deeper level, I highly encourage you to check it out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.