Jim Long: "Are You Experienced?"
This Week's Guest:
JIM LONG
CEO, Didja, Inc.
Jim Long is CEO of Didja, Inc., a streaming TV platform & consumer apps company, and is currently on the boards of Rev Genomics (Genetic engineering of high value crops), CrowdSpots (Big Data Crowd Sourcing), and Pops Worldwide (Vietnam based Youtube MCN). Just prior to Didja, Jim was a Partner with Gabriel Ventures. Jim has many years of experience and success in building businesses in the high technology industry, as well as in developing new technologies and patents for the Internet and PC environments. He has been a co-founder or CEO in such companies as Veritas (IPO: VRTS), Ruckus Wireless (IPO: RKUS), Starlight Networks (invented “Streaming” and sold to Picturetel), Linkware (sold to Ungermann-Bass), and RioPort (Digital Music pioneer merged with Ecast). Jim has been an angel investor, adviser, or part-time exec to others, such as: Chegg (IPO: CHGG), TiMetra (sold to Alcatel), Applied Microcircuits (IPO:AMCC) and Jibe Networks (sold to Citrix). Recently, he has been involved with Aurora Algae (Algae for Nutrition & GreenDiesel), Tinga (Financial Services Marketplace), and AeroSpike (Next Gen Flat Database). Previously, Jim worked for Adler Ventures, Hewlett Packard (invented world’s first presentation graphics program) and BCG, and received a BS:EECS from UC-Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard.
About This Episode:
“Life is long and the valley is small” describes the meandering path of Jim Long’s life in Silicon Valley, where he has crossed paths with names we all know, including Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Starting his early days as an engineer, he would later become a founder several times over and ultimately an investor who has seen most of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the tech startup scene.
Jim shares with us his thoughts on product development, the importance of an MBA, and the cultures of places like Intel and Hewlett-Packard in the 80’s. His experiences continue to coalesce into one of the most authentic and honest perspectives of what has been going on in Silicon Valley over the last 40 years.
Show Notes
BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin (Amazon): "Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out fun…then gets really hard, and not much fun at all. You might be in a Dip—a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing."
Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore (Amazon): "...the best book ever written on being a founder.”
