www.dinnerdialogues.tv Crashing, burning, and rising from the ashes is no easy task. The difference between a phoenix-like success or an albatross-like failure isn’t always black and white. Listen in on technology insiders and experts talk about the high and lows of venture capitalism in the world of tech. What does it take to come out on top.
Dinner Dialogues is a new webseries that features dinners with interesting people you wish you knew, discussing the topics you care about most. Each episode focuses on a single topic with guests from diverse backgrounds. #GreatFoodBigIdeas
Episode 1 Guests:
BEN HUH – CEO, Cheezburger Inc.
Cheezburger, the company behind popular sites such as I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, Memebase, and The Daily What, is one of the largest online humor publishers in the world where millions of people come every month to get their 5-minutes of happiness.
ANDY LIU, Co-Founder and CEO, BuddyTV
CEP of the largest independently held TV site on the Internet. Prior to BuddyTV, Andy served as President and CEO of NetConversions from 1999-2004 before its sale to aQuantive “AQNT.” After the acquisition, Andy served as VP and GM of its Site Optimization unit from 2004-2005. He is also a founder of a non-profit that is focused on technology in developing countries and is very passionate about entrepreneurship.
DAN SHAPIRO, CEO Sparkbuy & Ontela
Entrepreneur currently working for Google Advisor. He was CEO of Ontela, a company that merged with Photobucket, and Sparkbuy, Inc., which was acquired by Google in 2011. Before starting his own businesses, Shapiro worked for Microsoft, Wildseed, and RealNetworks.
T. A. MCCANN, Founder/CEO Gist, VP of Product Strategy, Research in Motion,
T. A. is focused on BBM (Blackberry Messenger), Blackberry social applications (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter…) as well as the native Contacts apps. TA was founder and CEO of Gist, the personal contact management service that was acquired in February 2011 by Research in Motion.
OREN ETZIONI, Entrepreneurship Professor, University of Washington
Etzioni is the founder and director of the University of Washington’s Turing Center, as well as four businesses. He is a Venture Partner at the Madrona Venture Group. Etzioni has served as a consultant or advisor to Google, Microsoft, Northern Telecom, SAIC, Infospace, Excite, Askjeeves, Zillow, Vivisimo, and others.