Super-blogger Robert Scoble is leaving his full time job at FastCompany, he confirmed by phone tonight. He first joined the company nearly a year ago and has been running their FastCompany.tv site. He says he’ll continue to write a column for the magazine, but his video work with them is over.
Part of the reason behind his departure: His long time sponsor, Seagate, hasn’t renewed their $1 millionish/year contract, he says. As for what comes next, he says he’s nearly ready to unveil a new project.
Scoble continues to be on the cutting edge of new Internet technologies, sometimes taking things to an extreme. He was once briefly banned from Facebook for violating their terms of use, and we’ve (only half jokingly) called for an intervention over his excessive use of services like Twitter and Friendfeed.
Whatever he does next, it’ll be worth paying attention to.
very unique guy but i wish him the best in whatever he does.
Yup..Sad to see that but best of luck for his upcoming projects.
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
I hate this guy..But Michael, you love him..don’t you! I sense a feel of love in the air whenever there is a post about him on TC and written by you
i doubt you’ve ever even met him.
if scobe has an eye for talent and wants to help startup entrepreneurs im sure ill hear from him.
Scoble is Stranger/Danger creepy.
I left my business too—after my boss stopped paying my salary, took away my desk, and called security to walk me to my car.
Scoble: Get in line like everyone else. Or go sell apples on the corner. Just not my corner.
Thanks Mike and SVD. It’s been a time of intense change for me and personal discovery. I’ve visited 20 companies in the past few weeks and there’s lots of changes the whole economy and our industry is facing. I will continue on as an adviser to Fast Company and a columnist, so appreciate everything that Fast Company has done for me. Seagate also has been a great sponsor and client who, really, didn’t ask enough of me for their investment in what I was doing. They are a great company and deserve a lot of credit for supporting the startups who didn’t need to pay to get on my videos.
Anyway, I hope I’ll have something to announce at SXSW, working feverishly on that now.
Thanks for the call and the kind words!
All the best Robert – ‘never let a crisis go waste’ and you seem to be doing that
Wish you all the best in your new career.
Scobble – Dobble
You have done a great job of informing us about what is going on in tech and you do it in such a charming humor filled way. When one is not in Seattle/Silicon Valley with an ear close to the ground (I’m now on the east coast) you help me keep tabs on a lot of upstarts with great product/services potential that I might not hear about. Best of luck moving forward.
Robert,
Congratulations. Couldn’t be more excited for your new direction, wherever it may take you. Honestly this couldn’t be a better decision, in my opinion.
Loved your content at Fast Comany, but change can only bring the better.
All the best to you, Robert…looking forward to all the upcoming posts.
Robert we were fortunate enough to be one of the companies you visited in the past few weeks. Thank you for that.
But the main thing is this – Whatever you do we will be watching very closely you are a talented individual and your announcement is greatly anticipated! We want to know what you’re up to.
Watching intently at LeapFish.
Good luck Robert. Nobody deserves good luck more than you. Good-hearted people usually win in the end. Let me know if I can help with anything – not that you need any help
I’m sure your next project will be a success since most of them are.
I loved you in “Doubt.”
Congrats on your success so far. This may be the best thing that happens to you.
It’s forcing you to consider where you want to take things from here… and I suspect you’ve developed enough respect & attention that whatever you focus on next will be a breakout hit (at least in blog/press coverage). Good luck man.
I’d watch that.
Scoble: Has excellent films. It has a very innovative commercial appeal.
I think Robert is best when he’s not niched in terms of how his success is measured – and the video blogging space has proven to be a very hard one. I look forward to his next announcements, his getting re-engaged with blogging at Scobleizer.com, and his big plans, as they roll out.
And Mike, welcome back.
Directly speaks to Reid Hoffman’s recent comments on Charlie Rose, “Today, everyone is an entrepreneur.”
Josh: very true words. The next thing I do will help entrepreneurs. After Davos I was very depressed. Our country is in a deep hole. The people I met there had few, if any, answers, were freaked out, and were not seeing who will dig us out or how to help them grow: small businesses. I came home wondering what I could do about it, and I think I have some things we can do and I’m working on those now to see if I can get them fleshed out enough to talk about them at SXSW.
Half of our workforce is employed by small businesses and after getting around to 20 of the coolest startups in Seattle/Vancouver/SF area the past three weeks I see some significant things that are very exciting and will be working on helping other entrepreneurs take advantage of the same trends.
Of course Techcrunch readers already know the trends, such as how it’s far less expensive to startup a business thanks to what Amazon did for all of us (12SecondsTV, for instance, showed me how they built a system to handle intense flow for very little money — that company is started with people who have day jobs and are building it at night and on weekends with very little capital).
Anyway, long way of saying that Reid is right and I’m looking for ways to help more people become entrepreneurs.
I would love to see someone put together a “Cliffs Notes for Financial Backing” – I’m a computer guy and really want to see if I can obtain VC backing, but have NO clue how to go about it. Sounds like a guy like you could help Robert!
Allen
http://madtownlounge.com
Good luck with your next venture Robert. Definitely looking forward to it so please hurry.
@josh, seeing you EVERYWHERE online. kinda like after the OJ Simpson thing, I started noticing white Bronco’s everywhere.
Robert,
Good luck with the new venture!
Bradley
@OutsideMyBrain
I’m sad to see that happen, but Robert’s a successful guy and will be successful at whatever he does. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next, and hope for the best.
And yes, I agree – Mike, welcome back. You too do great work.
Hey Robert, best wishes on your new adventures and new projects. You are always on the cutting edge of new tech. Keep up the good work.
Mark Nolan
Oh great, *more* time for him to be on FriendFeed.
Wait… is that possible?
Geoff: no, more time for me to stalk you in Techcrunch’s comments!
Hehe, touche’
Again, I’d watch that.
Insider news says that is the why Seagate dropped him.
Seagate execs couldn’t digest their million dollars going on FriendFeed marketing.
Very funny, but Seagate didn’t pay me a million dollars and we did hundreds of videos in the past year (FastCompany.tv had several employees in past year, including my producer, Rocky Barbanica, who did an awesome job and Shel Israel, who helped me develop Workfast.tv, which I’m very proud of). Heck, I did 20 videos of something like 17 different companies in the past week on fastcompany.tv!
All the best for what is in store next. I enjoyed his articles on FastCompany very much.
Wishing you well in your next steps. Whatever you do I’m sure it will attract a big audience.
Here’s hoping your next digital media play might bring you to down to L.A. frequently.
All the best to you.
I would like to read Robert Scoble’s 2009 book asap, maybe this development means more time for him to think about it…
all the best
Jörg Wittkewitz
Good luck Robert!
Hope your next adventure brings you back out to Asia soon.
I wish Robert the best of luck in his new endeavor. Just because he is involved with it I am sure it will be great and leading edge.
Can’t wait to hear his announcements at SXSW.
All the best.
Robert, good seeing you tonight! Your blogger friends kept our word and didn’t break the news over the past several days …
I know you’ll find something worthy of your talents very soon.
JD: I have the best friends in the world. It was a great dinner tonight, nice seeing you again!
Robert,
I’ve enjoyed watching you discover new companies, products and people. Thanks for the great info.
Good luck.
TJ
Keep in touch with us non-profit/social entrepreneurship/creative/educational startups too. We make a difference in the world and provide jobs and meaning…if not financial ROI.
Great advice. One of the uplifting things at Davos were all the NGO’s and non-profits that were there. Would love to talk with you. I’ll be at SXSW, will you be there?
Robert, we’ve got a green start-up that we are launching… Green Shield International – What is the best way to stay in touch for this next project you’re putting together.
Bradley
@OutsideMyBrain
OutsideMyBrain: my email is scobleizer@gmail.com and my phone is +1-425-205-1921 (I do answer it, even at midnight, as Mike found out).
Hey Robert. You broke a lot of ground. As a result of what I saw at Davos, I’m hoping to get to London for the G 20 meetings and bring live news of that event with Qik, Seesmic, Twitter etc.
Any advice?
I would definately TIVO that, if not watch it outright.
Robert – all the best in your new undertaking. I look forward to seeing what you do next.
GoodLuck Robert, hope to see your new project very soon.
TechFilipino
Robert,
Good luck with your next “adventure!”
Looking forward to your tweet abt your announcement at SXSW. Happy trails…
@CheriSigmon
@LongestWiener
Robert,
Some of us kid a lot..yeah that FF prank last summer(MS buying Mahalo.com). But one of the trends I am seeing which was highlighted at Davos is web 2.0 is becoming Mobile 3.0.
As my start up gets closer to product launch I hope to see in some capacity covering Mobile 3.0.
Peace
Wonder what he’s got up his sleeve next. Something to do with Twitter or Friendfeed, would be my guess.
Wow, you left FastCompany. Way to go Rob! The startup bug just hit you again I guess, and it’s now or never. Let me take a wild guess. You like FriendFeed and some part of Twitter. You like organized real-time conversations (don’t we all). Can I put Google+Twitter+FriendFeed+”Likes” together? All the best in your new venture. “Scoblieze” ‘em.
Superblogger? Fatso retard.
I second that.
No doubt. Could anyone see this dork on TV? I don’t think so. He does not even have the oral communications skills for radio. With the Web, anyone can get exposure.
No! I´m from Brazil and Scobleizer TV podcast is one of the most famous here, I am very saddened by this news.
And now Robert?
Is the end of Scobleizer TV????????
=/
Brenner: we are just at the start of how we can use video to get the word out about new ideas. I carry three low-cost video cameras everywhere now. So, I bet you’ll see video from me on the web somewhere soon.
Robert,
We will be waiting for you here in Dallas to tell our story.
All the best!
Subhankar Ray
Robert, please tell me that you won’t become the next Michael Moore [puke] —
Do all the videos you want, but please change your appearance a little bit: start wearing dark thick-rimmed eyeglasses à la Scorsese, a beret, anything… Good luck!
well, I’m kinda new to ScobleizerTV and now it seems it will be going away! I hope to see something similar coming along soon.
Good luck！
Keep up the hustle, Scoble. You are so genuine it hurts!
Hi,
Good Luck Robert.
I hope you’ll continue to be the maven and bring our attention early to the small acorns, interesting and unique curios’!
It’s also been good to have Mike back, this place just isn’t the same without him.
kind regards,
Shakir Razak
“Rock on” or as the New Hampshire license plate says “Live Free or Die”
What’s with all the eulogies?
Congrats in your new way Robert, wish U the best !
All the best for your future, Robert. Uhm: i think that Techrunch is one of the best tool to find a job on IT!
I think that you have to write on your Scobleizer often than Twitter or Frienfeed.
A ‘millionish’ yikes- Seagate has done more with a lot less in the ad/sponsorship world. Writing had to be on the wall in these economic times that the Seagate party train coming to an end. Scoble went to Davis (and returned I might add) as an outsider. Of course these guys are freaked out. Once again we have a knucklehead that doesn’t realize how bad things are going to get. Pontificate all you want about startups and non-profits, but all that is meaningless until money starts flowing in the system again. Nobody is going to care about being ‘green’ or donating when they can’t put food on the table. Good luck to Scoble, he is seriously going to need it. Good luck to us all we are ALL going to need it.
Seagate’s sponsorship wasn’t a million, I don’t know where Mike got that number, but their sponsorship did feed a bunch of mouths and let us go around the world meeting great startups and such. I actually agree with you about the rest of your comment. I don’t think you’ve been following what I’ve been saying to my friends on twitter/friendfeed. This is not a fun economy for many people. I have two brothers-in-law who are laid off. This is going to be a really tough one to dig out of. Hope you can join me in helping. It’s easy to write comments, it’s hard to do something about it.
I think you’re absolutely right with the idea of boosting small businesses to counter the economic problems. The problem is that a lot of small businesses – especially in the service sector – depend on work from large companies and public sector organizations. In an economy where large business cuts back to it’s core cost structure small businesses are the first to suffer.
so what we really need is more small businesses that cater directly to the customer, circumventing the large organizations as a conduit.
It was great meeting you at the meetup in Mountain View and I look forward to exchange more ideas in the near future.
“so what we really need is more small businesses that cater directly to the customer”
Sure… this has been a liberal myth for many, many years, a “solution” to a “problem” that is way, way out there…. [you have money, so it does not affect you.]
Reality check: small businesses employ only a *very small* number of people, frequently part-time, with very limited of no benefits at all.
Besides, another reality check, small businesses have been dying for years, killed by onerous regulations and more, more taxes from everywhere -local, county, state and federal.
This situation *WILL* get much worse with the Obama administration. There is no such a thing as a “tax cut,” there will be more and more taxes for everyone. Just wait and see….
@Martin
I agree that the situation is difficult for small businesses (I run a couple of them myself) and will likely get worse. However, this is exactly where there is a chance to get things back in line again, by making it easier for small businesses to start, grow and become sustainable. So if someone like Scoble that is frequently in touch with political and economical bigwigs wants to do something about it, then you can bet that I am all for it. I certainly don’t say supporting smb’s is an easy way out but I do think that it is a potential solution that should at least be considered next to all the big co bailout plans.
Good luck in the next step in your career. I’m looking forward to hearing more from you. Your observations and comments are always valuable to me.
Cheers!
Good luck Robert, whatever you plan to do, i’ll follow.
Best of luck Robert! Your comments and thoughts about information overload / noise (specifically with twitter) were one of the reasons why we started twitscoop…
No need to wait until SXSW, I’ll announce it here and now: Scoble will head a new group at Microsoft, currently called (internally) SBI. The Small Business Initiative already has seven outsiders who recently joined Microsoft.
Anona: we can kill that rumor right now! I won’t be going back to Microsoft.
Readers slipping into diabetic comas after reading this self-congradulatory nonesense.
Urban: Get outside. Shovel some snow. Trim the hedges. Just stop posting, and let Scoble get down to the Unemployment Office and get in line behind the rest of us.
Thanks.
Robert Scoble, I’ll always think of you as the hardest working person in the industry. You were always on and it was pretty incredible. It was great working with you, Rocky and Maryam…as it was watching what you were doing at FastCompany. I wish you the best, and look forward to your next endeavor.
All the best in the future, keep twitting.
Hey, best wishes to you. Looking forward to your next steps. Professional FriendFeeder?
Mr. Scoble, I remember when we were walking around with David Sifry in London (dodging crazy cabbies) and you took us into a moment of confidence – as did David re. what would become Offbeat Guides.
Wish we were on another photowalk right now
Whatever it is you’re off and onto next we can be certain you’ll be pulling hard and deep on those oars doing something contagious. Well wishes and love to the fam.
I never cared for his videos.
Thanks for that, very insightful
maybe he can twitter full time now. it’ll mean cutting back, but I know he can do it if he really tries
All the best in your next venture Robert
All the best for your future growth!Always be happy!
Well maybe at last I can finally catch up with your prodigiously huge collection of videos for Fast, they looked interesting.
You’re on the right track supporting small business as the way out.
Good luck at your next project.
Robert
I wish you nothing but success in any project you wish to pursue, the last thing you need to do is explain yourself to anyone. You’re a an inspiration and proof that someone can succeed it they focus on doing what they’re passionate about!
Who cares???
We wish you all the best Robert. This great country was built on entrepreneurs. Thanks for your vision in helping more entrepreneurs realize their dream. We’re excited to see your future cutting edge reporting.
Robert, you must be the most positive person in tech, and that’s what entrepreneurs need, a cheerleader. That’s what the USA needs. Look forward to your next steps, hope to run into you at SXSW!
Robert, you should start a tech PR company, I’m 100% sure it would be the best use of your skill set and network.