It’s 5 p.m. and we’re in the homestretch! The experts and the Twitterers seem to be less impressed with the companies this afternoon than the ones this morning. That or we’re all just getting tired after 40-something demos.
So lucky for us that some of the most influential and interesting judges were left for the final panel. I caught up with one of my favorites, Dick Costolo, who most people know as the new COO of Twitter, others know as the former co-founder of Feedburner and far fewers know as a former improv comedian.
Costolo and I talked about why he gave up a plush post-acquisition Chicago life to move to Silicon Valley and run the day-to-day Twitter operations, when it’s a good idea to hire your friends and when it isn’t, Twitter’s magic acquisition number, and why startup M&A is like teenage crushes.
Also, Twitter CEO Evan Williams has been outspoken about not enjoying his time at Google after the Blogger acquisition. Others have cited that as a reason Twitter may not sell to Google in the future. I asked Costolo whether he had the same experience.
Video is on the jump.
The social products group at Google was shut down. I wasn’t very impressed with the job that Costolo did…his team didn’t understand the fundamentals behind managing a brand campaign. They could learn something from Yahoo!.
Very interesting answer to the ‘whats the number’ question. I know Twitter is still in its relatively early stages, and Costolo has only been there now for about a week but he is clearly anticipating Twitter as the next superpower of the Internet. There must surely be a number, he’d no doubt love it if someone were to make a ridiculous bid and he could turn his investment into some serious money.
Great PR photo of Mr. Costolo. Really.
COMMITTED TO BUILDING A COMPANY: Its not always about the money. Ultimately, once the you have the money you are just left having to find a new worthy challenge – so perhaps the founders of Twitter are seriously not looking at offers.
Nice – seems like an open and honest guy. Thanks for sharing.
I thought this was a tremendous video. Sarah was engaging and Dick provided great insight.