Iceland is quite a magical place, and I wanted to take in its natural beauty before sinking myself into the Startup Iceland event later today. I took the backroads, turned off my cell phone, fired up my camera and went photo crazy. I came back to my hotel room last night jet-lagged and dead tired, and I went to sleep without as much as turning on the phone.
I woke up this morning to find out that Jony Ive has a new title, Re/code has been sold to Vox Media for an undisclosed amount and the assets of Gigaom have been acquired by an Austin, Texas–based company called Knowingly. I had no idea this was coming, so like everyone else on the former Gigaom team, it came as a surprise. It is good to see the last chapter on this book closed. For me the story of Gigaom ended on March 9, 2015, a red letter day in life if any.
Knowingly or unknowingly, it is time for the next chapter.
The new owners promise to adhere to the old Gigaom editorial standards, and I hope they really do. My former colleagues at Gigaom are a stellar bunch of journalists, and their excellence is reflected in the fact that they were hired away just a few days after we turned out the lights on the company. They created a strong ethical editorial culture, which takes a lot of effort and hard work to maintain. I hope the new owners will remember that and look back at the history to find an ethical and editorial moral code.
I joined True full-time in January 2014, eschewing life in the newsroom for one where I help others find their utopia, something that brings me satisfaction and joy. As an early-stage venture capital firm, we see the transformation of a concept into an idea, an idea into a product and a product into a company. It is a magical thing to behold. I have had a year and a half of finding opportunities — I don’t consider them investments — in often overlooked areas. Augmented intelligence, data-informed network services, next-generation cloud and sensor platforms, and sometimes plain old visual computing: these areas continue to excite me.
When it comes to writing, I will be devoting significant future energies to my blog here (Om.co) and my column for Fast Company. I have been offered a chance to write for a handful of other publications, and hopefully you will see my opinion pieces there too. Last, there is Pi.co, my interview series, a personal art project which I plan to work on more regularly. Stay tuned!