Michael Arrington
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Michael Arrington
J. Michael Arringtonis the American founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere. Magazines such as Wired and Forbes have named Arrington one of the most powerful people on the Internet. In 2008, he was selected by TIME Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth13 March 1970
CountryUnited States of America
Everything's mobile these days. Let's go mo-bile! But really, that's just an IQ test. When you see bold new startups with nothing but a desktop strategy, you know they just don't get it, and you move on.
For the most part, I've sat on the sidelines over the years during the endless debates about how we need to do more to encourage more women to start companies.
Journalists are supposed to put the people first, even before themselves. Around the world and throughout history, journalists have died to get the truth out.
I have Twitter auto-post to my Facebook page, and I occasionally post things directly to Facebook as well. I've always noticed that the direct-to-Facebook approach generates far more likes, but I've never actually gone back and run the averages.
Our independence from AOL was so important to me that I negotiated an extremely odd provision in our purchase agreement that allowed me to disclose confidential information about AOL. It was their job never to give me that information. It was not my job to protect it in any way.
I am a partner at CrunchFund, a venture capital firm with investments in many startups around the world. I am also a limited partner in many other venture funds which have their own startup investments.
I interviewed most of the presidential candidates about their positions on technology issues in the 2008 election. After those interviews I endorsed one candidate from each party - Barack Obama and John McCain. Neither of them were leading the primaries at the time, but they seemed like the best candidates, solely from a tech policy perspective.
A business model that hasn't been tried before is always interesting, even if it's likely to fail.
Most of the money I make now comes from investments from CrunchFund. And the vast majority of that is what's called carried interest.
The problem isn't that Silicon Valley is keeping women down or not doing enough to encourage female entrepreneurs. The opposite is true. No, the problem is that not enough women want to become entrepreneurs.
I live a fairly simple life, and that didnt change much after I sold TechCrunch in 2010. I didnt buy a new house or even a new car. The one thing I did splurge on was a boat. Nothing too fancy or large.
Journalists hold themselves apart, and above, the common person. They have rules designed to ensure their objectivity and impartiality.
I dont claim to be a journalist. I hold myself to higher standards of transparency and disclosure.
Some people ask why we don't just wait until we have the whole story before posting. The fact is that we sometimes can't get to the end story without going through this process... When a story is up and posted, it's amazing how many people come out of the woodwork to give us additional information... And readers love it.