Episode 294: Don Dodge - Investor, Entrepreneur, & Tech Executive

If you’ve listened to this podcast in the past, you probably know that I’m an avid fan of tech history. There’s nothing like a legendary founding story of a company that completed disrupted an industry. Well, I have an amazing episode today that is going to cover a lot of ground at several ground-breaking, platform shift companies. I’m talking about the stories of legendary companies or products like AltaVista, Napster, Groove Networks… and the early days of tech pillars like TechCrunch, Y Combinator and more. Here are just a few tidbits that you’ll learn from our conversation: * Did you know that AltaVista tried to hire the founders of Google while they were still at Stanford? * Did you know that Napster was actually trying to build a legit platform with a business model that would have allowed the music labels to welcome in and embrace the digital era? * Did you know that Y Combinator held their very first demo day in Cambridge, Massachusetts and can you guess what company demoed that day and is now a top 20 web property? Now that I think about it, Don and I go way back. Not only am I thankful for his time to share these great stories, but I am also thankful for all of his support. When I started VentureFizz, I used to syndicate content from investors and influencers in the tech industry and Don was one of our partners. Don was a prolific blogger and it definitely helped up build up our credibility. His blog was called The Next Big Thing and if you want to take another trip down memory lane, check it out, as it is still published. In this episode of our podcast, we also cover many other topics like Don’s thought on AI, which he was blogging about years ago and what he’s up to these days. This week’s episode is sponsored by MarketMuse, a content intelligence platform that sets the standard for content quality. Their AI-powered software enables companies to create predictably better content at scale that increases traffic and engagement, cuts down your content process, and improves your search visibility. Get more out of your content with packages starting at $0/month. Plus you can get 20% off the MarketMuse Standard plan, which includes a ChatGPT integration, by using our code "VFIZZ20" at checkout. Go to marketmuse.com to get started!