Responds to threat of legal action
Arrington responds to an alleged threat of legal action by Calacanis over the proceeds of the TechCrunch Disrupt sale to AOL. He says that the event – when it was known as TechCrunch 50 – had productive years in 2007 and 2008 when it was first competing with the paid events like Demo but that it became apparent Calacanis wasn’t putting in as much as TechCrunch despite the 50-50 profit split. He also wasn’t approving some expenses, forcing TechCrunch to either sue him or take the hit – it chose the second option. Reportedly Calacanis became abusive on a phone call and made a TechCrunch employee cry. Arrington:
And his most shining moment – he got so drunk the night before the last day of the 2008 conference that he couldn’t show up to be on stage until hours after the event started.
Arrington says he still considers Calacanis a friend but that all efforts to work with him – including offering 10% of TechCrunch and a board seat – have failed.
Talks about European and Nordic startups
0 CommentsCalacanis says European and Nordic startups are currently held back by legislation and lack support from their governments, and that they need to become more hardworking and take more risks:
Warns startups about Facebook
Calacanis issues a warning for Y Combinator companies:
If you tell Facebook about your startup before you reach critical mass, if you become involved with Facebook in any way, you are an idiot. They will steal your company’s ideas, and try to get you to take a small price for your company, and take a job at Facebook, which by they way, is going to be a job that sucks.
Old Spice guy response
0 CommentsThe Old Spice guy responds to Calacanis’s question, How can I get over my aces being cracked at World Series of Poker?
Pokerstars – Calacanis vs Negreanu
0 0 reuben reuben2014-12-18 23:57:042014-12-18 23:57:04Pokerstars – Calacanis vs Negreanu
Carpool interview
Llewellyn, formerly of Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, and Fully Charged, interviews Calacanis while giving him a lift to work. Calacanis about why he lives in San Francisco:
I fell in love with the city, and fell in love with the women. That’s about the only reason anyone would leave New York, the greatest city in the world – for a woman.
Jihad against pay-to-demonstrate
0 CommentsCalacanis talks with Mary Kathleen Flynn of The Deal about how Open Angel solves the problem of paying to demonstrate:
Pretty simply we’re destroying the other events…those people I’m on a jihad against, I’m destroying them
He says charging $5,000 to demonstrate is a scam and that people who charge are preying on the desperateness of entrepreneurs.
Offers Tesla Model S
0 CommentsCalacanis talks about his offer to give one of the first Model S’s to someone who can get his handle, @Auto, to the top user spot on Twitter, in a stunt to raise publicity about Mahalo:
I am a huge fan of electric cars, I am a huge opponent of our Middle East policy…Tesla are the only company with an electric car on the road in production
Launches ThisWeekIn
Calacanis and Pollak create the streaming video network, closing a $300,000 angel funding round from Calacanis, Sky Dayton, founder of Earthlink and Boingo, and Matt Coffin, founder of LowerMyBills.com, and tapping former Mahalo.com CTO Mark Jeffrey to run the network as co-founder and CEO. Calacanis:
The production of high-quality, live-streaming, video content has finally arrived. In the same way blogs grew from passion projects in 2005 to thriving businesses in 2009, streaming shows are poised to breakout
Starts angel investing
0 CommentsCalacanis says in an email announcing the Open Angel Forum – designed to connect startups with investors like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban – that he has also started angel investing himself:
My first two investments are www.gdgt.com and www.challengepost.com. I’ll be announcing two more angel investments in December. My goal is to do 5-10 a year.
Starts Open Angel Forum
0 CommentsCalacanis creates the event as an intermediary to allow startups to pitch angel investors directly. He says the ‘pay-to-pitch’ model where some startups are having to pay as $6,000 or more for access to angel investors rules out startups that may be promising but are bootstrapped via founders’ bank accounts or credit cards as they simply can’t afford the access. Email from Calacanis:
I’m inviting the angel investors I’ve developed personal relationships with over the years (many of whom have invested in Weblogs, Inc. or Mahalo.com). Think folks like Sky Dayton, Matt Coffin, Elon Musk, Kevin Rose, Ryan Scott, Mark Cuban, Fred Wilson and Ted Leonsis. I’ve also started angel investing as you probably know. My first two investments are www.gdgt.com and www.challengepost.com. I’ll be announcing two more angel investments in December. My goal is to do 5-10 a year.
How to kill Google
0 CommentsCalacanis shares his tips on how to kill Google by partnering Bing with news organizations like the New York Times:
Calacanis, Kawasaki at Startup2Startup
0 CommentsCalacanis and Kawasaki debate whether or not Apple is evil and is becoming Big Brother among platforms and startups:
SES San Jose interview
0 CommentsCalacanis talks with John Mulligan of SEO-PR about how iPhone users have dissonance between the fact that their device does what it does perfectly, but is limited in its functions, and has hurdles in the way of experimental apps and migration to other mobile networks:
The iPhone is the greatest consumer device ever made. I think we can all agree on that. It is the Holy Grail of computing right now. It’s got a beautiful form factor, it’s fast now that they’ve got the new processor in it, and it’s just wonderful to use with the multi-touch and whatnot — however, I think that it is locked down like a cell phone or a mobile phone, but it’s acting like a computer. That’s creating some dissonance for me, and, I know, some other users.
Teaches social media on Mixergy
0 CommentsCalacanis talks for the new media channel about how to maximize social media:
Obviously social marketing, social media optimization, has become a very big term
Ask Palpatine
0 CommentsThe Sith emperor interviews Calacanis about Mahalo.com. Calacanis:
This battle station is not fully operational yet, so excuse the sneakers and whatnot in the background
Taking on Google
0 CommentsCalacanis talks about innovation and taking on Google with Mahalo:
You make a revolutionary product by looking three steps ahead
Neil Patel interview
0 CommentsCalacanis and Patel talk about issues like spam, the search engine optimization (SEO) philosophy as a whole and its problematic frictions between publishers and users in the battle for visibility and search relevance, and his search company, Mahalo.com:
[Mahalo.com] is sort of a search engine but of course there’s no engine, the engine is people…and it’s not all of a content company so you can’t call it Wikipedia…what it’s best described as is somewhere between Wikipedia and Google or Yahoo
The internet’s environmental crisis
0 CommentsCalacanis talks at Gnomedex about how the pollution of the internet by spammers is creating an environmental crisis:
The internet was synonymous with good things, and intelligence, and freedom, and now it’s synonymous with spamming, and phishing, and I think we’ve let this happen a little bit, and we’ve been complacent
Shiny Media interview
Jason Calacanis talks about Mahalo.com, his online rivals including Nick Denton of Gawker Media, and a new announcement about the human powered search engine:
