I caught up with Anna Jaeger, Director of the GreenTech Program at TechSoup Global, during The Green Enterprise UnConference at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, December 3, 2008. San Francisco-based TechSoup partners with many leading tech companies like Microsoft, Adobe and Cisco to put technology in the hands of nonprofits; and Anna is spearheading its efforts to educate organizations to reduce their environmental impact through effective use of technology. Our discussion includes:
Note: Another excellent source of best green business practices, just launchedthis month, is at the Environmental Defense Fund’s new online resource,The Innovation Exchange where you can find information about running a carbon neutral office.
In this second part of Heidi Roizen’s interview, she talks about her Silicon Valley career and her new venture; she has some good advice for entrepreneurs.
Working at Apple in the 90’s, the work/family balance
How she became a venture capitalist
The challenges of working from home
Pursuing your passion as a business
Dealing with doors slamming in your face
Keeping the ball moving forward
Why the Roizen family is going green
To listen to Heidi’s interview about Skinny Songs and her new bookclick here
I talked to celebrated tech leader and VC Ann Winblad at Hummer Winblad on December 5th. New jobless figures had just been released, and were reminiscent of the mid 1970’s. Yet, despite that gloom, the views over the Embarcadero to San Francisco Bay Bridge were breathtaking, and Ann, in true venture capitalist style, was refreshingly upbeat.
She talked about her early days:
Working in the strawberry fields of Minnesota at age 7… “I learned that patience and focus is a very good balance with overall efficiency; and that’s served me well as an entrepreneur.”
Drinking the Kool-Aid. To be a successful VC, “we have to look at the glass as half full….we have to slurp up that Kool-Aid for an instant, but we can’t get addicted.”
“SDForum is an open door to entrepreneurs and innovators…we’ve funded several companies from walk-in meetings…Susan Lucas (Conwell) is our CEO and a remarkable director.”
Is Green Tech going to save Silicon Valley? “The press likes to focus on Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer; they forget about Prancer and Dancer and Donner and Blitzen. They want one cartoon character of salvation.”
Ann has been friends with Bill Gates for over 20 years. What was the atmosphere like among software experts in the mid 80’s? “Everybody was working so hard…we’d get together for dinners and we all had a lot of fun. People would share their stories…their dreams. That’s how we got to know that some people had bigger dreams than others.”
In part two of Fresh Dialogues with Ann Winblad, we explore top market trends, cloud computing, virtualization and the attributes of successful VCs. Check back soon.
Former Sun Microsytems Executive, Mary Vincent chaired a panel of green venture capital and entrepreneur experts at the 2008 Women in Technology International (WITI) Conference in Silicon Valley. She talked to me afterwards about the key moment that inspired her to give up her corporate job as a Java expert and become a green entrepreneur. She cites the UN Climate Change Report 2006, and says “animal agriculture produces more greenhouse gases than transportation…it shocked me.” Seeing a way to leverage her skills to work on climate change, she recently founded Green Star Solution and Gratitude Gourmet; and is using many web 2.0 tools to build her business:
Firoozeh Dumas, bestselling author of “Funny in Farsi” is not only hilarious on the page, she’s a hoot in person. Yet she wants to do more than tickle our funny bones; this Thurber Prize for American Humor nominee wants to focus on the commonalities that unite us, no matter where we’re from. You could say she’s a world peace maker that uses humor as conduit. Our conversation explored:
Check back soon for Part Two of this Fresh Dialogues when Firoozeh talks about how Silicon Valley inspired her, outsmarting the bad boys at school and why noses are big in Iran.
Check out the new Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channelfor more exclusive interviews, including Elon Musk, Harry Hamlin and Jessica Jackley.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Martin Sheen who was visiting Silicon Valley as a guest of Dick Henning’s Foothill College Celebrity Forum Series. In this first part of our Fresh Dialogues interview, Martin talks about the roots of his social activism, his faith, his marriage and his movies.
To read selected quotes from the interview click here
Here is Part Twoof Fresh Dialogues with Martin Sheen when we explore his environmental activism, his “West Wing” perspective on President Barack Obama and what two exciting movie projects Martin will be working on through 2009.
Note: Martin donated all proceeds from his Celebrity Forum appearance to the Berkeley based nonprofit, The San Carlos Foundation What a guy!
