Explore every episode of the podcast Internet History Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 215. The Biography Of Demis Hassabis | 01 avr. 2026 | 00:48:54 | |
This episode explores the fascinating journey of Demis Hassabis and the development of AI through the lens of Sebastian Mallaby's book, The Infinity Machine. We delve into the minds of AI pioneers, their motivations, and the race to achieve superintelligence, offering insights into the future of technology and humanity. Buy the book here: https://amzn.to/4sHzfS1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 214. Chris Dixon of a16z | 22 déc. 2025 | 00:57:20 | |
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 Programming 02:46 Transitioning to Finance and Wall Street 04:59 The Shift to Entrepreneurship 09:03 Founding Site Advisor 16:16 The Journey with Hunch 20:50 Starting Founder Collective 26:58 The Evolution of Angel Investing 28:10 Joining Andreessen Horowitz 30:37 Investing in Futuristic Ideas 35:24 Key Investments: Oculus and Coinbase 40:20 Establishing a Crypto Fund 45:07 Current Landscape of Web 3 and Crypto 49:41 Lessons from Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz 51:22 New York vs. Silicon Valley: A Tech Hub Comparison Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 213. Datadog Founder Olivier Pomel | 15 déc. 2025 | 00:45:07 | |
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. | |||
| 212. Susan Lyne Part 2 | 08 déc. 2025 | 00:45:11 | |
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. | |||
| 211. Susan Lyne Part 1 | 01 déc. 2025 | 00:50:01 | |
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 Journey 08:00 The Rise of Alternative Media: Village Voice Era 16:06 Hollywood Calling: The IPC Films Experience 23:12 Launching Premier Magazine: Inside Hollywood 36:14 Navigating the ABC Landscape: A New Era 40:28 Developing Grey's Anatomy And Lost Takeaways
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 210. Esther Dyson | 23 nov. 2025 | 01:10:03 | |
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 Connection 03:42 Growing Up in a Unique Environment 10:12 Transitioning to Tech and Investing 18:03 Creating Impactful Conferences 22:35 Navigating the Dot Com Bubble 27:25 Reflections on Predictions and AI 32:31 Governance and the Evolution of the Internet 40:03 Investment Philosophy and Learning from Experience 45:19 Eastern Europe: A Tech Narrative 54:42 Investing in Space: A Personal Journey Takeaways Always 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. | |||
| 209. Henry Blodget, Founder Of Business Insider | 17 nov. 2025 | 01:05:34 | |
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. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Early Life 02:42 Career Beginnings in Journalism 05:44 Transition to Finance and Technology 08:19 Analyzing Internet Companies 11:33 The Internet Boom and IPOs 14:39 Lessons from the Dot-Com Bubble 17:40 The Rise of Influencers in Finance 20:34 The Amazon Call and Its Impact 23:21 Wall Street's Perspective on Tech Companies 26:45 The AOL Time Warner Lesson 29:47 Merrill Lynch and Global Internet Research 32:38 Post-Bubble Reflections and Reinvention 35:31 The Birth of Business Insider 38:39 The Evolution of Media and Journalism 41:37 Building a Talented Newsroom 44:28 Parallels Between AI and the Dot-Com Era 47:46 Advice for Individual Investors 50:33 New York City as a Startup Ecosystem 53:44 Current Projects and Future Aspirations Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 208. Clément Delangue Of Hugging Face | 09 nov. 2025 | 00:53:59 | |
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. Takeaways
Chapters: 00:00 The Early Days of Computing and Internet Trading 03:02 Minitel: A French Innovation in Digital Communication 05:05 From eBay Seller to Intern: A Journey Begins 07:10 The Birth of Unishared: Collaborative Learning for Students 10:23 Moot Stocks: Exploring Computer Vision and AI 12:55 Mention: Social Listening and the Move to New York 14:44 The New York Tech Scene: A Blend of Cultures 16:45 Founding Hugging Face: The AI BFF Chatbot 19:06 The Name Behind Hugging Face: A Playful Choice 21:02 Pivoting to Open Source: The Birth of a New Vision 23:58 Building a Community: The Power of Collaboration 26:37 Navigating User Feedback: Balancing Vision and Signals 28:51 Investor Relations: Framing a Pivot 31:19 Positioning as Switzerland: Neutrality in AI 34:06 The Business Model of Hugging Face: Freemium Success 35:51 Evaluating AI Models: A New Approach 40:33 The Need for Open Source AI Models 42:27 Fostering Open Data Initiatives: A Call to Action 45:18 The Future of Open AI: Efficiency and Specialization 48:05 The AI Bubble: Reality vs. Perception 49:30 The Growing Startup Ecosystem in Europe 51:11 Why New York City is Ideal for AI Startups Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 207. John Borthwick Of Betaworks | 03 nov. 2025 | 00:56:53 | |
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 Journey 02:11 Education and Its Impact on Career 05:15 Experiencing the World Wide Web 08:09 The New York Tech Scene in the 90s 11:08 Creative Projects and the Internet 16:01 Total New York: A Local Information Hub 21:40 Lessons in Distribution and Audience Engagement 24:57 The Evolution of Internet Distribution 27:58 AOL: The Internet's First Giant 35:54 The Dot-Com Bubble and Its Aftermath 37:46 Photolog: A Precursor to Social Media 44:56 Navigating Abundance and Constraints in AI 49:37 BetaWorks: A Hub for Founders and Innovation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 206. Jimmy Wales, Founder Of Wikipedia | 28 oct. 2025 | 01:14:32 | |
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. Chapters 00:00 The Return of the Internet History Podcast 00:58 Exploring Trust in the Digital Age 04:09 Growing Up with Knowledge 11:53 The Journey into Technology and Finance 16:58 The First Encounters with the Internet 18:38 The Spark of Entrepreneurship 20:09 The Birth of Bomis and New Ideas 27:13 The Transition from Newpedia to Wikipedia 31:57 Navigating Challenges and Building Trust 42:25 Moments of Realization and Trust in Wikipedia 48:05 From Startup to Nonprofit: A New Direction 51:17 Lessons in Nonprofit Fundraising 53:02 Transparency and Community Engagement 01:00:21 Wikipedia in the Age of AI 01:07:29 The Future of the Open Web 01:08:58 Defining Purpose in Knowledge Platforms 01:12:05 Building Trust in Personal and Political Life Takeaways Wikipedia'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. | |||
| 205. Margit Wennmachers Of a16z | 27 oct. 2025 | 01:04:38 | |
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. Chapters 00:00 Intros 02:13 From Farm Life to Tech Dreams 03:56 Navigating Grief and Independence 09:38 Cultural Shifts: From Germany to Silicon Valley 12:25 The Early Days of Silicon Valley 21:05 Launching Outcast Communications 25:15 Building Credibility in the Startup World 27:31 The Rise of Facebook and Industry Cycles 29:43 Navigating Economic Cycles and Client Relationships 30:53 The Decision to Sell Outkast 32:43 Founding A16Z: The Backstory 36:48 Marketing Strategies for A16Z 42:00 The Evolution of Tech Leadership 43:53 The Role of an Operating Partner 46:39 Crisis Management in Tech 51:42 The Concept of 'Software is Eating the World' 55:41 Lessons from Two Decades with Mark and Ben 56:49 The Future of Tech and AI 58:06 Margit's Transition to Partner Emeritus Takeaways: 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. | |||
| 204. Fred Wilson, Of Union Square Ventures | 26 oct. 2025 | 01:03:03 | |
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. Chapters 00:00 The Four Technological Revolutions 11:08 Fred Wilson's Journey into Venture Capital 21:34 The Rise of New York's Tech Scene 34:53 Founding Union Square Ventures 48:00 The Evolution of Web 2.0 57:16 Current Technological Intersections and Future Outlook Takeaways There 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. | |||
| 203. Shirish Nadkarni On Microsoft, Hotmail, MSN and Blackberry Internet Email | 19 oct. 2021 | 00:34:18 | |
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. | |||
| 202. The del.icio.us Story With Joshua Schachter | 23 oct. 2020 | 01:00:57 | |
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. | |||
| 201. The History of Audible With Angelika Fuellemann | 11 août 2019 | 00:25:47 | |
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. | |||
| 200. Professional Blogging Pioneer Josh Marshall | 14 juil. 2019 | 01:17:55 | |
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. | |||
| 199. Is Tech Making Us- Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid? | 01 juil. 2019 | 00:40:11 | |
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. | |||
| 198. Inventor of the Hashtag, Chris Messina | 16 juin 2019 | 01:15:47 | |
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. | |||
| 197. The Internet Bookshop Story With the Tech Business History Podcast | 02 juin 2019 | 00:50:08 | |
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 provider The Tech Business History Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 196. Google, Twitter and More With Karen Wickre | 18 mai 2019 | 01:30:10 | |
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. | |||
| 195. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott | 04 mai 2019 | 01:25:03 | |
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. | |||
| 194. The History of the ISP Industry With Sonic's Dane Jasper | 20 avr. 2019 | 01:26:20 | |
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. | |||
| 193. The Home Page Film With Doug Block | 06 avr. 2019 | 01:00:18 | |
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. | |||
| 192. Hulu's Founding and Digital Design With Dan Maccarone | 23 mars 2019 | 01:01:18 | |
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. | |||
| 191. Bringing The WSJ Online With Rich Jaroslovsky Part 2 | 10 mars 2019 | 00:45:22 | |
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. | |||
| 190. Bringing The WSJ Online With Rich Jaroslovsky | 25 févr. 2019 | 00:45:31 | |
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. | |||
| 189. A Legal History of the Web Era With Richard Chapo | 10 févr. 2019 | 00:54:38 | |
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. | |||
| 188. TheGlobe.com Story With Stephan Paternot Part III | 26 janv. 2019 | 00:37:35 | |
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. | |||
| 187. TheGlobe.com Story with Stephan Paternot Part II | 06 janv. 2019 | 01:04:43 | |
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. | |||
| 186. TheGlobe.com Story with Stephan Paternot | 24 déc. 2018 | 00:50:19 | |
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. | |||
| 185. Ripple's David Schwartz | 10 déc. 2018 | 00:39:42 | |
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. | |||
| 184. GV's Ken Norton | 25 nov. 2018 | 01:19:36 | |
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. | |||
| 183. Selling the First Facebook Ads, With Matt Britton | 11 nov. 2018 | 00:28:35 | |
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. | |||
| Emergency Podcast Announcement | 02 nov. 2018 | 00:01:44 | |
Emergency Podcast Announcement Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 182. Google's Matt Cutts @mattcutts | 28 oct. 2018 | 01:01:50 | |
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. | |||
| 181. (Ch. 7.5) The Story of craigslist | 13 oct. 2018 | 00:22:22 | |
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. | |||
| 180. Part 2 With John McCrea | 30 sept. 2018 | 01:31:18 | |
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. | |||
| 179. On Silicon Graphics with John McCrea (Pt. 1) | 17 sept. 2018 | 01:11:20 | |
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. | |||
| 178. On Google's 20th Birthday - The History of Google | 01 sept. 2018 | 01:35:02 | |
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. | |||
| 177. NandO.net with Fraser Van Asch | 19 août 2018 | 00:37:15 | |
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. | |||
| 176. The Epic Fail of Digg V.4 With Will Larson | 06 août 2018 | 00:49:55 | |
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. | |||
| 175. How the Internet Came to Pakistan With Imran Haider | 22 juil. 2018 | 00:41:23 | |
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. | |||
| 174. Bringing the NYTimes and MSNBC Online With Lisa Napoli | 08 juil. 2018 | 01:05:59 | |
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. | |||
| 173. Netscape's Rosanne Siino | 24 juin 2018 | 01:01:44 | |
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. | |||
| HUGE Podcast Announcement | 16 juin 2018 | 00:03:07 | |
HUGE Podcast Announcement! Details on how to pre-order the podcast book! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 172. How Politics Came to the Web With Karl Mattson | 10 juin 2018 | 00:53:34 | |
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. | |||
| 171. Claude Shannon, Father of Information Theory | 27 mai 2018 | 00:59:57 | |
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 170. The Godfather of Streaming Music, Robert Reid | 13 mai 2018 | 01:29:15 | |
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: And listen to his exceptional podcast, also called After On. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 169. Kottke.org's Jason Kottke, @jkottke | 29 avr. 2018 | 01:03:48 | |
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. | |||
| 168. The History of Java With Todd Sundsted | 15 avr. 2018 | 00:42:21 | |
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. | |||