I was at Y Combinator Demo Day today (it was a very good batch of companies). At one point during a break I went over to talk to the gaggle of TechCrunch reporters there to cover the event.
We were talking about the various companies and what not when John Doerr walks by. Apparently to have a phone call in a quiet corner of the room.
“That’s John Doerr right there,” I said.
They looked at me.
“He’s all alone, probably on a secret phone call,” I added.
Stares.
“Go get ’em! Get your iPhones out and start the video and ask him hard questions!”
“That would be quite rude,” said Colleen Taylor (or something similar), pictured far left.
“Yeah but he’s practically begging to be attacked by you guys. HE’S HAVING A SECRET CONVERSATION RIGHT BEHIND ALL THE BLOGGERS. IT’S LIKE HE’S MOCKING YOU!”
Nada.
So I watched, yearning for my younger years when I would have made a nuisance of myself while performing an unwanted and impromptu video interview of one of the most important people in Silicon Valley.
I think it was better back then, when sources were at least a little afraid of the bloggers.
🙂
Uncrunched 
Just a thought…you’re a blogger too and left him unmolested. Losing your edge?
It’s different for me now. KP is a partner in our fund, we do deals with them all the time, etc.
Ahh, I guess I should have gone with my Google Glass.
Ok this is a hat-tip-worthy comment. A self-effacing and good-natured riposte. Thanks for the laugh. Great stuff.
Mr. Arrington, I admire your willingness to be an asshole more than any other quality about you. Most people simply don’t care enough about anything to bother being an asshole.
At least you got a picture Mike!
yep 🙂
It would have been smart to eavesdrop first to make sure he wasn’t, like, arguing with his wife about groceries. (I don’t ValleyWag, so I dunno.) If it was something important (er, blogworthy), then keep listening. That’s where you get the good stuff.
Then, when he’s somewhere else, maybe at the toilet, (provided he didn’t see you,) approach him and start asking the stuff you heard! Don’t mention that you totally overheard him, but instead act like you were tipped off.
“Doerr, sources tell me that you something something Netflix and Golden iPhone and you have the lost episode of LOST!”
I mean, I would. But fuck it, here in Seattle we just buy each other beer. And I’ve had a few.
SLOW NEWS DAY??
I think the same could be said of network and newspaper reporters now. They have little drive to ask deeper questions. They just take what’s spoon fed by Reuters and AP. Unless, of course, it involves an entertainer; then modern journalists act like reporters (or worse). Sad.
Sorry, Mike. The Techcrunch you started and very successfully ran for a few important, significant years for IT… is sadly gone. Very little of what is published on TC now is worth reading… it is just an advertising — and money-making vehicle for AOL.
TC writers now are very young and mostly clueless, more concerned with politics, political correctness, and other matters that touch IT only tangentially or not at all..
So, no wonder that they DID NOT SEE an opportunity at Demo day to just talk to John Doerr, one of the most important and influential people in the Valley!
What can you do? If you are clueless…
Doerr was the last person I talked to as I was leaving Demo Day. He was chatting one on one with the 20-something co-founder of DoorDash. I was thinking, “How psyched is this kid?”
I *really* miss the old TC.
And I still like Arrington’s sense of humor.
Reblogged this on SoshiTech.
You didn’t have you as a boss 😛
I miss your interesting posts, I almost never visit TechCrunch any more.
This is exactly why TC has gone down hill. Since you left it hasn’t been the same (obviously) and although they break news they just don’t bring it like when you were around. But things change, I get it. I was a very early and regular reader via rss reader now not so much. I read what hits tech meme now and sometimes I head to TC. Comments are broken. It was better when the negative comments were published and fights would ensue. Maybe TC needs to remove comments and if people have something to say then they will have to post a trackback.
Anyways, your site is more interesting than TC. More startups less politics.
Mike, seriously, would you consider to create something like Techcrunch once more? That would be great…because, you know, we are bored.
There’s The Verge, which is fine for reviews, but other than that, what have we got? Gizmodo and Engadget are boring, Pando didn’t make it, TC isn’t that great either…of course I am not counting re-writters like gigaom and whatnot. We need people like you, to stir things up and do bold things. You would be successful – see, there’s isn’t much competition. Just tell us if you need to be persuaded more… 😉
Reblogged this on What They Dont Teach You At Stanford Business School and commented:
Lol!!!