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It debuted last night, not sure how many times Showtime will show it. It's a documentary about a failed Silicon Valley company called General Magic that changed the world. According to my resume I worked there from Jan 94 to Dec 96, I can't honestly remember the exact dates but that sounds right.
Really interesting to go back and watch. I don't see myself in it which makes sense they focused on the engineers and execs, I was the Facilities and shipping and receiving guy there.
I've mentioned the company before a pretty amazing example of having the right people at the wrong time and failing spectacularly but leading to so much success. Magic had Tony Fadell(Ipod, Iphone, Nest) when he was right out of college in his early 20's. Magic had an engineer that nobody really paid much attention to, who in his spare time created Ebay(Pierre Omidyar). Magic had a guy who created the Android software(Andy Rubin). We had the guy who created the Slingbox(Blake Krikorian) we had the guys who invented WebTV and sold it to Microsoft. We had a woman who became the CTO of the United States under Obama(Megan Smith). 2 of the original Macintosh software guys(Andy Herzfeld and Bill Atkinson). The guy who founded Linked In worked there, a whole bunch more. One of the more profound lines in the movie is when the former CEO points out how many people in the world have either an iPhone or an Android phone and then points out the key guys behind those sat about 15 feet apart at General Magic at one point.
Still the coolest place I ever worked. It's interesting to hear Tony Fadell is now this hugely successful guy and he's talking about how he started to have all these doubts at Magic like is anybody paying attention to what's going on we're missing our chance here. I vividly remember having the same conversation with friends and family, there are so many smart people here but they're focused on doing things they think are cool not things that are marketable and we keep missing deadlines.
I remember when I got hired on from temp to perm there a few weeks before the IPO, I thought I was going to be rich off stock. The stock popped 90% on the IPO but of course I was nowhere near vested so I couldn't sell for a year and by then it tanked. There are so many millionaires and a few billionaires from that company.
Really fun for me to watch.
Really interesting to go back and watch. I don't see myself in it which makes sense they focused on the engineers and execs, I was the Facilities and shipping and receiving guy there.
I've mentioned the company before a pretty amazing example of having the right people at the wrong time and failing spectacularly but leading to so much success. Magic had Tony Fadell(Ipod, Iphone, Nest) when he was right out of college in his early 20's. Magic had an engineer that nobody really paid much attention to, who in his spare time created Ebay(Pierre Omidyar). Magic had a guy who created the Android software(Andy Rubin). We had the guy who created the Slingbox(Blake Krikorian) we had the guys who invented WebTV and sold it to Microsoft. We had a woman who became the CTO of the United States under Obama(Megan Smith). 2 of the original Macintosh software guys(Andy Herzfeld and Bill Atkinson). The guy who founded Linked In worked there, a whole bunch more. One of the more profound lines in the movie is when the former CEO points out how many people in the world have either an iPhone or an Android phone and then points out the key guys behind those sat about 15 feet apart at General Magic at one point.
Still the coolest place I ever worked. It's interesting to hear Tony Fadell is now this hugely successful guy and he's talking about how he started to have all these doubts at Magic like is anybody paying attention to what's going on we're missing our chance here. I vividly remember having the same conversation with friends and family, there are so many smart people here but they're focused on doing things they think are cool not things that are marketable and we keep missing deadlines.
I remember when I got hired on from temp to perm there a few weeks before the IPO, I thought I was going to be rich off stock. The stock popped 90% on the IPO but of course I was nowhere near vested so I couldn't sell for a year and by then it tanked. There are so many millionaires and a few billionaires from that company.
Really fun for me to watch.
