When we were taking Netscape public, our trip through Europe ended in London. It was our last show, and we were in a big hurry to get the plane. We were at the Savoy Hotel, and the ballroom was full of all these British investment bankers. We gave our normal pitch. Peter Currie, our CFO, and I were doing it.
We got through and took all their questions, and I said, all right, one last question, ’cause we were in a hurry. And this fella, he says, you know, how do you know if Microsoft isn’t just going to bundle a browser into their product, something to that effect. And I said– really just to end the conversation– I said, well, gentlemen, there’s only two ways I know of to make money– bundling, and unbundling. And I said, we’ve got an airplane to catch, and we left.
And Peter Currie was walking out the door, he said, those people are looking at you, Barksdale, like you’re crazy. He said, what did you just say?
February 2021
The day I met Kevin Kelly
The day I met Kevin Kelly
On November 2019, I had the chance to attend the a16z Summit Summit. The agenda included a session with Kevin Kelly and Marc Andreessen on why we should optimistic about the future.
And it was during one of the Summit breaks that I bumped into Kevin Kelley. Armed with courage, I timidly introduced myself. And I thank him for Wired, for letting me dream about a better future since 1997, the year I started studying physics and get to know about the magazine. I thank him for giving me and my best friends hope. Hope in that we were not wrong, that science and technology would build a better future, that a “hippie toy” OS called Linux that made us all happy, and allowed us to experiment, was something more. That Apple was doomed and then it was not. That Google was something special. That Sun and Silicon Graphics were building hardware from another planet and then they vanished into space.
Thank you Mr Kelly. Thank you for everything.