Ben Parr (2015)

Conflicted. It is giving people what they want in one sense, but it's also manipulating people in another. I explain in the book why "clickbait" works. Hopefully that knowledge will help people defend their attention against blatant attempts.

I'm thinking about dirt I can actually talk about!

You have to remember that, throughout most of Mashable's life, it was a remote working company. So not a lot of office drama until we got the NYC and SF offices!

Gotta be more specific when it comes to what dirt you want to hear. Mostly it was the same growing pains of any startup -- young teams learning how to manage.

I did get a few lawsuits threatened my way though!

Your question basically is -- should someone start a PR firm today? The answer is: sure! It's a growing industry and is only going to keep growing. But tech journalists are more jaded than ever, so you have to be ok with dealing with that on a daily basis.

I personally wouldn't start a PR firm, only because I don't want to do PR!

It happened fast! I had a great agent -- David Vigliano -- who repped Britney Spears, Shaq, Mike Tyson, and even Pope John Paul II! So the deal gone done in just a few days.

Best tip for capturing the public's attention? I'd start out with violating people's expectations. We are fine-tuned to pay attention to surprises and things that challenge our view of the world. So wear something different, be creative with your campaigns and go against the grain! There's science behind it!

1) Every investor is different. I look for founders that scale. I want founders who can grow with their companies and remain as the leaders/visionaries. Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Facebook, Workday, almost all the big success stories in Silicon Valley have founder CEOs. I also look for market potential -- the market you tackle means a lot.

2) VALUE ADD! Will this investor truly add value to my startup in some way? Is he or she an expert in a key area, or highly connected, or just a great soundboard? And, even more important, do I like this person? Would I get a drink with this person? Do I respect this person? Money is easy to come by if you have a great product -- great partners are not. THink of adding an investor like getting married.

3) I'll pick just one -- make sure you're starting a new business because you want to solve a problem that's bugging the shit out of you, NOT because you want to be an entrepreneur. I've fallen for that trap before, and it was a hard lesson. I remember Leah Busque, founder of Taskrabbit, starting her copmany simply because she thought her product simply had to exist, not because she was born an entrepreneur.

Hope that answered your question!

The right kind of mobile advertising platform.

Almost every enterprise industry. Specifically ones that deal with networking and security. Large enterprises pay top dollar for even incremental improvements in these areas, but the tech press goes to sleep the moment you mention "enterprise".

Most fun: Shigeru Miyamoto comes to mind. Mostly because I was a giddy kid getting to sit down with the creator of Mario, Zelda, Link, Pikmin... the man's a legend! And he's just such a nice guy! And I got to do the interview on the floor of E3!

Adrian Grenier was awesome too, because I 1) did a joint interview with him and Dr. Thomas De Zengotita and 2) did the interview in the NASDAQ. I even have video I'm gonna post later this week!

Most interesting: Jon Armstrong, former chairman of Magic Castle, comes to mind. He did amazing magic tricks with cards while we ate lunch in the Magic Castle! David Copperfield was great as well -- he really thinks about every aspect of the performance, and I feel like I could keep learning from him nonstop.

Investing isn't just about picking great entrepreneurs -- it's about how you manage those investments and your portfolio.

Another lesson: great co-investors don't always correlate to a great startup. I mean... look at Clinkle. (Not an investor in Clinkle btw.)

Depends on the publication how much they care about clicks vs content. But clicks are still the main driver of advertising revenue. That's the lifeblood of a media company, so naturally they're gonna worry about anything that affects the bottom line.

I think you've seem some great websites find a good balance in recent years, though. I like what Vox Media does. Buzzfeed has added a lot more investigative journalism recently. But we have a long way to go.

I think Jet will do great -- the Quidsi founder is super intelligent and talented. He built Quidsi/Diapers.com into a behemoth that Amazon couldn't ignore.

And yes, I'm bullish on bitcoin. More specifically, blockchain technologies and lowering the cost and barriers of transactions in general.

I think you'll see more investigative journalism from the new media companies like Vox. But yes, NYTs, WSJs and others still produce a lot of the investigative journalism you're talking about. Luckily people like Amazon's Bezos and First Look Media's Omidyar stepping up to the plate to make sure these institutions thrive.

I think it's gonna be a rocky 3-5 years as everybody figures out, but I am not worried about the future of journalism.

PRINCETON TIGERS!!!

You're right -- second book, first published one. I will NEVER publish the fiction sci-fi novel I wrote though. It's terribly written. But I have plans for a new fiction book based off the same world that I do want to write. And will write.

At first, white and gold. Then blue and black. And now I can't un-see blue and black.

I'll cut anyone who says it's white and gold. We all know what color the dress is now!!!

Funny you should mention Andrew Keen -- he actually interviewed me at CES! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFB_nAsJ-RQ

I think tech journalists are critical of the tech industry, but not critical enough of its greater influence because they are part of that influence. I certainly felt the benefits of being part of one of the most powerful industries around when I was at Mashable. I think that technology is fundamentally a force for good, but that journalists are there to keep us in check. I hope we'll see more pieces discussing that broader impact this year.

I think you'll see traditional newsrooms try (and fail more often than not) to copy what Vox and Buzzfeed have done -- a combination of hard-hitting journalism with light fare and memes. But the company to watch right now is the Washington Post. Where Bezos takes that company will be huge for traditional journalism.

In 5 years, nobody will care if they are on A1.

I used to have a virtual assistant, but when I needed full-time, I hired and made sure she was local, because there are just certain things you can't do remotely.

"Culture" is a huge part of the Silicon Valley mantra. And culture is built by having teams close together, in the same space. That's why you see so many tech companies not doing remote teams (Automattic/WordPress and 37signals being the most notable exceptions).

Most people are willing to move, so you're always going to have to fight to get a job if you can't move. It sucks but it's the truth.

Life is awesome and hectic! It's not -25 degrees here in NYC, lucky me!

I am bullish on the wearable industry! The biggest issue it faces now is battery life, which is a thing I wrote about a few months ago: https://medium.com/@benparr/the-three-weeks-problem-the-real-challenge-for-wearables-33b17f170eb3

Once the power issue is solved, I think wearables will really take off, because it just makes sense to have a computer on you, wherever you go. Whether it's the Apple Watch, fitness bands or something else remains to be seen.

First, disclosure: I'm an equity advisor in Ustream, an enterprise live video platform.

To answer your question: I think it's fun and novel, but faces long-term adoption issues. The big problems are: it's mostly tech industry insiders using it at the moment (very few products who start out that way make it big) and it takes a lot of work to live stream stuff! Color tried it. Qik tried it. A lot have tried it. But it has never stuck, because it's hard and because users don't want to be "on" all the time. Photos are easier.

I think meerkat is cool, but has a lot of negatives going against it.

That's why photo-sharing apps have done much better, or at least non-livestreaming video apps. Livestreaming works best in specific circumstances -- workshops, seminars, teleconferencing, remote viewing of key life events (weddings, etc.)

I'm NOT enthusiastic about any social network whose value add is "you're not a product". So apps like Ello. I think great products add real value to a person's life, making it easier in some way.

There are other industries that I think make for good businesses but don't get me up in the morning. Most ad companies bore me, for example. Give me a wireless electricity company anyday! (I'm an investor in one)

Sort of merging with virtual reality technology. I LOVE what Microsoft is doing with the Hololens -- it's REALLY cool. I think smartphone augmented reality never really took off because it never found a way to truly add value to people's lives beyond the novelty of it.

I think augmented reality hasn't come close to the promise it holds. I think virtual reality may be where it really shines.

Aggregation is more important than ever to filter the noise. THat's why companies like Prismatic and Flipboard do so well -- they help us find the signal. In the same vein, companies like Circa find a way to make the news more digestible.

It's hard to be an investor in that space though, because SO MANY companies are tackling the issue of aggregation and very few really stand out. It's HARD to pick the winners in that category.

I got lucky -- I got mashable as a platform to build my career. But I also worked 10-hour days consistently to break stories and build my visibility and brand. I think the big thing for me was building an expertise in social media and technology through my blog posts and social media. It raised my profile.

Networking was the other big thing. As Editor of Mashable, I got to meet a lot of amazing people and I kept in touch. I made it my mission to meet as many people early on in my career as possible. When a college grad moves to Silicon Valley, my first piece of advice is for them to focus on meeting people at events, at coffee shops, everywhere. Build the network, then focus on building a great product.

I will say, though, that I taught myself programming so that I could understand the industry better. I taught myself PHP, I took C in college, I even taught myself a bit of Scala (I love Scala).

2)

Apollo came up early in my research. I already had Copperfield and Jon Armstrong, so I didn't need another magician, but his TED talk is amazing for anybody who hasn't seen it yet.

Uber, Wireless electricity, virtual reality, self-driving cars. So hard to see that far into the future. By then I suspect we won't be interacting with the Internet via laptops and PCs.

HUGE, but it will take time. The big issues are: most Internet of Things devices cost too much for the average consumer, most products are still a bit buggy, and hardware is just plain difficult.

But I want lights that will change on command. I want sound systems that are interchangeable room to room (that's why I love Sonos). I want more control over my home. But the cost has to go down.

Once the cost goes down, it'll become huge. Just don't expect it to be huge immediately.