The TechCrunch20 Panel of Experts is now nearly complete. Today we add Esther Dyson, Guy Kawasaki and Yossi Vardi to the impressive list of individuals who will judge the startups launching at the conference and determine who will ultimately win the $50,000 top prize.
The final companies for TechCrunch20 have been selected, and more announcements are coming soon. Register for the event, which is being held in San Francisco on September 17-18, here.
Esther Dyson and her company EDventure specialize in analyzing the impact of emerging technologies and markets on economies and societies. She is the author of Release 2.0, a book which discussed how the Internet has affected our lives. Esther has been a board member or early investor in numerous startups, including Flickr, PowerSet, ZEDO, Medscape, and Medstory. In addition to her active roles in a number of not-for-profit and advisory organizations, Esther enjoys private aviation and commercial space startups and hosts an annual Flight School conference in Aspen.
Guy Kawasaki is CEO of early-stage venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and an active blogger. Guy was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, CEO of ACIUS and founder of Fog City Software. Guy has written eight books, including The Art of the Start. He sits on the board of BitPass, FilmLoop and SimplyHired. His most recent venture is launching Truemors, a site dedicated to democraticizing information by encouraging everday people to post news.
Yossi Vardi is one if Israel’s hi-tech veterans, having helped build some 40 hi-tech companies in Internet, software, telecommunications, electro-optics, energy, environment and other areas. Several companies Dr. Vardi co-founded became successful public companies, among them Alon, Advanced Technologies, and Granite Hacarmel. Internet companies backed by Dr. Vardi include Mirabilis Ltd, ICQ (acquired by AOL), Gteko (acquired by Microsoft), Scopus and Answers.com. He is a member of the World Economic Forum, on the board of Amdocs, and the advisory board of 3i. He has served as an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program.
See all
Post
Only heard Esther on a panel at AlwaysOn — where her and Jarvis fought for how many times they could either talk about themselves or their products and forgot there were other panelists and what the discussion was really about. I am hoping for better at tc20!
Looking forward to meeting Yossi.
Allen, I was on a panel with Esther at a CRV conference earlier this year and had the opposite experience. I found her to not say very much, but her words were carefully chosen and insightful.
Thanks for the feedback Mike.
The TC20 sounds great. Wish I could be there.
Same olw self-promotion retreads we’ve heard too many times before… well maybe not Yossi Vardi but he’s too old school and yesterdays news.
Can anyone tell me why TC readers dislike Guy Kawasaki?
Is money, frame, success, startup company, celebrity status, apple career, speech he makes, etc…
What makes you hate him?
I see thing nothing wrong him.
Guy Kawasaki. Uh.
For a short time I liked reading his blog..then I discovered his ego in countless posts. Never went back. He is knowledgeable though.
Yossi sounds like a fascinating guy, and it would be great to hear him speak.
They’re all my idols!
Very good combination of panelists. I wish the success of TechCrunch20.
Rajesh Shakya
http://www.rajeshshakya.com
Helping technopreneurs to excel and lead their life!
dude - that’s soo weak that you’re spraying hate on Guy. Sad part is, your english is not good enough to hide your jealousy.
Ok, so Truemors is not a big hit, is there anyone that hasn’t failed? How about “The Art of the Start”, did he fail at that one?
Get real and stop pretending to know what TC readers like, there are about 600k readers, how many did you talk to?
I think Steve Jobs would say Scully, Guy, woz, and apple gangs betray me. They quit 1984 apple. They couldn’t compete microsoft.
yossi vardi is a lucky guy with no sense of business, made so many failures in his decisions that makes him look a bit of a loser with luck than a winner with a mind.
I don’t get Esther Dyson. She is incredibly self promotional and doesn’t seem to have an original thought in her head. I’ve seen her speak and interacted directly with her and to be very honest she comes off as a vapid kiss ass to the tech gurus of the moment. She follows along after every new thing that comes along without asking tough questions. In order to have validity in the alpha geek space, she needs to show some discernment and not be a cheerleader for everything the O’Reilly folks tell her about.
The apple has fallen far from the tree on this one. Mike, I’m really surprised that you would help to amplify someone like this. There are many very smart women in technology that could be much better role models.
@13 — for a moment there I thought you were talking about Scoble…
You can’t expect all the big players when you are hosting a conference in the name of a tech blog.
Re: post #15 - Sure you can. The Silicon Valley TechCrunch 20 conference will indeed attract the big players, as most TechCrunch conferences do. Note the new experts recently added to the TechCrunch 20 (40) expert panel- http://techcrunch20.com/panel-of-experts/
Best wishes,
Alison Minaglia
Principal
Technology PR - NY office
aminaglia@technologypr.com