Congratulations and thanks to the teams at Sirtris, PA Semi and Gracenote, three Bessemer portfolio companies who all signed and announced their acquisitions in the last 12 hours.
Sirtris, the startup that cheats death, fetched $720 million from GlaxoSmithKline. This company, whose sirtuin activators have been touted as the fountain of youth (at least for overweight laboratory mice), was the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Christoph Westphal, a Harvard trained doctor and geneticist. Chris Gabrieli (pictured right) and Steve Kraus led the investment for Bessemer (huge hat tip to Jonathan for the intro--we owe you one!).
Meanwhile, Gracenote--that music database in the sky that tells us all what song, artist and album we're listening to on our PCs, in our iPods, in our CD players, and increasingly in our cars--has fetched a $260 million price from Sony. Special congrats to founder Ty Roberts (pictured right), CEO Craig Palmer, my partner Jeremy Levine and our co-investor Sequoia Capital.
And finally, Forbes reported just minutes ago that Apple has disclosed its acquisition of PA Semi, the innovator in power efficient microprocessors. PA Semi was the brainchild of DEC's rock star chip designer and Sibyte founder Dan Dobberpuhl (pictured right). Thanks to my partner Rob Chandra, who led the A round with help along the way from Ted Lin, Devesh Garg, Umesh Padval and Derrick Lee. Congrats as well to our co-investors Venrock, Highland and Focus.
It wasn't the usual crowd that filled the seats in Kepler's Bookstore on February 25, 2008. The evening's audience consisted mainly of families from all over the Bay Area for whom this was their first Author's Talk. Such standing-room-only would have been expected for a Secretary of State, an NFL quarterback, or a Nobel Laureate--not for a local teenage boy.
But Blake Taylor's recently published memoirs of growing up with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has already touched the lives of thousands of families, with the promise of reaching several million more in the US alone who strive to cope with the realities and myths of this widely misunderstood condition. So this audience came keenly interested in meeting a family role model (now a freshman and molecular biology major at Berkeley), with written questions and no deficit of attention to his advice.
* a heartening coming-of-age story whose hero's unique perspective shines through an authentic stream of consciousness similar to Mark Haddon's A Curious Incident in the Night-Time;
* a field journal of the first-hand scientific observations that normally elude pediatric psychiatrists who must normally speculate about the intentions and feelings locked up inside relatively un-communicative kids (e.g. "what was he thinking when he lashed out at his sibling?"); and
* a self-help book for kids and their parents who strive to understand and cope with ADHD.
But unlike the recent swarm of What-You-Need-To-Know-About-ADHD publications, this is not a science or medical book, and Blake makes no pretense otherwise. Readers are clearly advised to direct medical questions to their doctors, as Blake reinforced during the Q&A session at Kepler's. A clear-thinking, humble scientist at heart, Blake understands that it's okay to lack answers.
This honest self-awareness is critical to Blake's success at overcoming his disability. Among his many tips, Blake encourages open communication about ADHD among families, friends and teachers. His personal anecdotes demonstrate how such disclosures have prevented misunderstandings around his behavior, his medicines, and his tics. As he grew comfortable telling people that he has ADHD, they warmed up to him faster, and helped him solve his problems. It even tempered the bullies who prey on odd kids.
Obviously, the book itself exposes highly personal information, and in this way Blake sets an example for his reader. But by the very existence of ADHD & Me, Blake sets an even more profound example. Here's a kid whom several teachers were ready to write off as incapable of meeting normal academic expectations--with illegible penmanship and an inability to complete simple everyday tasks without the aid of psychotropic meds. And yet he authored a highly celebrated book while still in high school. This fact conveys hope, even before the reader has cracked open the cover.
The book itself is a quick and easy read. Each of the 15 chapters corresponds to one aspect of growing up with ADHD: being distracted (his "mind is surfing channels, but someone else has the remote"); being impulsive (e.g. setting the table on fire); being disorganized; being hyperactive; having tics; being unpopular; being bullied; being isolated; being misunderstood; being blamed; being rigid; being disobedient; being discriminated against; taking control; and last but far from least, being gifted. Each chapter includes a memory, lessons learned, and tips on making the most of life with ADHD. For example, Blake explains how he overcame his poor social skills by approaching friendship like a science-through observation, experimentation and planning, he learned to develop scripts and techniques that helped him socially.
For any family coping with this disability, Blake's stories strengthen the bond between reader and author by sharing all the quirks that often characterize ADHD kids, such as an obsession with Legos and Knex toys, the inability to sit through a meal, hypersensitivity to noises, bright lights and crowds, an impaired sense of the body's boundaries, the tics, poor penmanship, the perception of disrespect from "trying to defend yourself," and the mysteriously cancelled playdates. Many readers will recognize their own stories unfolding in the pages.
The stories follow Blake's inner dialogue as he struggles to behave normally and as he slowly improves with treatment and therapy. And so they stand as direct evidence refuting the widespread and harmful myth that ADHD is a figment of our imaginations. Egged on by sensationalist media hounds like Rush Limbaugh (who calls ADHD "a hoax"), most Americans believe that the true epidemic is not a mental health condition, but the aggressive medication of kids with unnecessary psychotropics merely because they act like "rowdy boys." They believe that parents and teachers, too lazy or liberal to exact some good old fashioned discipline, resort to doping up the children on "kiddie cocaine."
As evident in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM of Mental Health Disorders, the scientific community was long ago compelled by the preponderance of evidence from behavioral studies, brain scans, clinical trials, etc. But unfortunately for Blake and others, a gap between real science and popular science always persists, and ADHD is no exception. That's why Blake's first grade teacher, rejecting Blake's diagnosis, tried to "fix him" through repeated detention and humiliating punishments (e.g. cleaning the toilets).
Blake clearly goes after other myths as well: that the mother is to blame for bad behavior; that kids shouldn't seek assistance from adults (or "snitch") when harassed by other kids; and that disadvantaged kids should be left alone to build character, rather than be "coddled" with aids and special accommodations. He refutes the common misperception that he didn't care about the other kids. Recalling his first day of pre-school, Blake describes how the noises, fluorescent lights and crowds overwhelmed his senses-how he sought refuge in the quiet corner, which the teachers misinterpreted as lack of interest in making friends. Sometimes adults condemned Blake as violent when he tried to defend himself from bullying.
Nonetheless, ADHD & Me is ultimately upbeat. Blake's concluding message is that ADHD is a difference, not a disability. ADHD minds clearly present disadvantages that kids must learn to mitigate. But usually they also present gifts like intelligence, hyper-focus, passion, energy, creativity, an adventurous spirit, and love of nature. ADHD & Me reflects many of those gifts.
Blake's book is a good read for all. For kids with ADHD, it's a source of self-esteem and inspiration. For their families--including the lucky ones who met Blake at Kepler's--it's chock full of great advice. And for those who still dismiss ADHD kids as simply non-thinking derelicts, how can they refute Blake's testimony of his inner dialogue?
To them, Blake Taylor's story says: I write, therefore I think.
BMC announced today that it is acquiring Bladelogic for $28 per share, which values the company between $800 and $900 million.
Bladelogic was founded in 2001 by Dev Ittycheria, an EIR in our Massachusetts office. Prior, Dev had co-founded early SaaS pioneer Applica, which he sold handsomely to Breakaway Solutions.
Congratulations as well to my partner Bob Goodman, who continues to defy the bear market.
Airborne, the miracle cure to the common cold, has just lost a class action lawsuit by customers for deceptive advertising, with $23 million in damages. Aw, what a shame.
Thank you to the more than 100 readers who sent me an email alerting me to the news. Many asked if I had something to do with the lawsuit. Not directly, but I'm guessing that the plaintiffs submitted into evidence the Scientific American column featuring my blog post on Airborne's deceptive marketing.
And now that there's a scandal to report, suddenly people are paying attention to the experts. "Have you heard?" "It's all over the news." "Omigod! I can't believe it!" "It's true, I saw it on E!" The very pop science that elevated Airborne to a billion dollar company is now sending this rocket crashing back to earth. Here's what a popular Hollywood news site reports:
Airborne is shit!!!! The company has just settled a class action lawsuit for $23 million!!!!
"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," David Schardt, a nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a written statement this week. "Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."
We feel lied to!!!!!
Over the last two years I have received endless emails and blog comments (most of which, I confess, I "moderated" away) maligning the FDA as corrupt for refusing to approve "non-Western" medicine. Now that they can spin conspiracy theories around a new villain (a certain second grade school teacher's billion dollar corporation), perhaps they will acknowledge that the FDA has good reason not to approve scammy, new age, bullshit medical claims.
This is my final post on TED 2008. If you've made it this far, thank you for being here.
Oxford economist Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion, offered some clear advice on how to help developing nations transform natural resources into long-lasting social benefits. Obviously some nations have squandered their windfalls of oil, diamonds, copper, etc. while others have managed to leverage their advantages into broad, robust economies. The distinguishing factor is, according to Collier, the establishment of checks and balances in the nation's systems of governance. Populations will rise to the occasion if given the chance, as happened in Nigeria when a freed press led to skyrocketing newspaper sales. This advice is timely for Uganda, which just discovered oil, and Angola, which now sells about $50 billion a year of oil.
Collier's prescription is to establish a global agency that monitors and rates nations for best practices, in the same way, I guess, that Institutional Shareholder Services rates corporations for their governance practices. One example of a best practice is to sell national resources (oil rights, mining rights, frequency spectrum, etc.) through verified auctions rather than secret deals cut by the finance minister.
Vice-President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore was next. In a sure sign that he is NOT running for president, he blew a kiss to the flamboyant and flirtatious Tom Reilly. Gore's message was all about the need for civic activism. "I'm a big advocate of changing the light bulbs, but it's more important to change the laws." (I suppose this message justifies Gore's regular use of private jets.)
As we have come to expect, Big Al had some compelling slides with him:
half the polar ice cap has melted in the past 25 years, and the rate of loss is increasing. Last year the ice caps lost an area the size of the eastern U.S.
68% of Americans believe that human activity causes significant global warming, and yet they rank global warming near the bottom of the 20 most important political issues.
In the last year, the reporters from CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX and CBS were each televised asking the presidential candidates 956, 844, 601, 481, and 319 questions, respectively. For each network, no more than two of those questions related to global warming.
Now that Australia has ratified Kyoto (responding to severe droughts), the US stands alone in opposition to the global treaty.
Al's final call was to put a price on carbon consumption. No brainer.
Chris Anderson: "Does it hurt that you're not in a political position to effect this yourself?"
Al: "You have no idea."
Jonathan Haidt, who claims an expertise in happiness and morality, spoke of conservatism and liberalism as the yin and yang. He cautioned us not to get too worked up in our opposition to the other side. What a wimp. Skip this talk.
Saturday's best speaker is a banjo player, watercolor artist, founder of www.planetwalk.org, and writer of Coast Guard oil spill regulations...
One day, at the age of 27, John Francis decided to take a break from talking. He was surprised at how much he learned that day. He decided not talk another day. And another... (This continued for 17 years). In 1971, the day two oil tankers collided and spilled half a million gallons into the San Francisco Bay, John Francis resolved to stop driving and riding in motor vehicles. So he quietly walked to Ashland, Oregon and registered to study for a 2-year environmental degree. When he graduated, Dad said "You're gong to have to talk and ride in cars now." But instead he walked to another school in Montana. He had no money to register, so the Dean himself paid the $150 needed for one credit, and told John he could take the remaining courses and have the grades escrowed until he can pay for them. John got his master's degree there, and even taught a class by gesticulating and writing on the board.
John walked to Wisconsin where he got a PhD and wrote a lot about oil spills. When the Exxon Valdes spilled its charge, John's expertise was needed so he walked to the east coast. Later, when he worked for the UN, he sailed to Venezuela and walked the countryside to visit the prison town El Dorado. You can get a feel for John's unique story in this video.
In 1990, on the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Day, he resumed talking, to a crowd gathered in Washington, DC. Here's what he said to them: "Thank you for being here."
Friday afternoon at TED2008 culminated in TED's shining moment...
Jim Macgraff, founder of Livescribe, demonstrated the $149 pen-based computer that his startup will soon launch. Me want! It remembers what you write, along with the concurrent audio. A small, embedded LED display can be used for applications like real time language translation while you write.
Next we heard from author (and former arbitrage trader) Nassim Taleb. Nassim wrote Fooled by Randomness and the Black Swan (thank you, Chini, for first introducing me to both those books), each of which explains a common cognitive pitfall in human reasoning. In this talk Taleb discussed Black Swan, a metaphor for the statistical outliers that invariably arise. The point of his book is that some outliers are safe to ignore--a hurricane that disrupts a store's weekend sales, for example, is a one-time event that doesn't threaten a business. But other outliers are too important to ignore--such as the hurricane that actually destroys the store. Too many people congratulate themselves for success, up until the inevitable point that inherent risk catches up with them.
Taleb reminded me of another book which, I think, better portrays the hubris that grips successful risk-takers--When Genius Failed, Roger Lowenstein's true story of Long Term Capital's demise. Eight years ago, at the peak of The Bubble, my partner (and Harvard professor) Felda Hardymon sent this book to me and our other partners at Bessemer as a cautionary tale.
Chris Anderson (no relation to the TED curator) came next, sharing his enthusiasm for building cheap Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. His first attempt was a LEGO Mindstorm drone, assembled for $1,000. His second attempt, at a $500 cost, was a model airplane with a cellphone attached that supplied all the electronics for processing, communications and imagery. His latest attempt is a mini-blimp that comes in at a $100 cost.
Professional Optimist Peter Schwartz, who wrote The Long Boom, asserted the contrarian position that in the coming century the world will become a better, safer place to live. The crux of his (un-compelling) argument is that things have to get better this century because there are no world wars brewing, billions of poor Asians are joining the middle class, and the economy should steadily grow as it has over the last century.
Ironically, the very next speaker took the stage to caution us that if we don't aggressively divert our scientific resources toward staving off neurological diseases, that they will reach dangerous, epidemic proportions over the next fifty years (primarily due to longer life spans). In the meantime, while we develop treatments, he advised us to consume caffeine (staves off Parkinson's) and fish (prevents Alzheimer's). He also cautioned us to maintain low blood pressure and to exercise our minds.
Larry Byrnes of General Motors gave a presentation on The Boss, a driverless car that won last year's DARPA challenge. To win, the GM Boss had to navigate to a destination through several miles of real urban streets, complete with complex intersections. One day, cars will not need drivers so we can finally write Blackberry emails without getting so distracted by the road. And oh yeah--no more accidents either.
Former Time Editor Walter Isaacson presented on the future of Narration in the digital age. I recommend you skip this one.
Harvard public health scientist gave a talk on the rise of STD viruses and the measures we can take to curtail them. I'd skip this one, too.
Helen Fisher's book Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love must be good because Richard Dawkins endorsed it. Fisher reports the clinical results of brain scans that show similar pathways among those who are in love as those who have just recently been dumped. The conclusion is that the "love chemicals" remain activated for some time after terminating a relationship--in fact they can even strengthen amidst unrequited love.
Other points of interest:
the brain regions activated during thoughts of love are the same regions activated during the contemplation of highly risky behavior;
a broken heart manifests the same physical symptoms as any other physical addiction; and
all animals in the wild (not in captivity) are discriminating in their choice of mate (except perhaps those slutty, cheating crows).
X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, who took me on a zero-gravity flight last year, shared a slide show of his Zero-G flight with Stephen Hawking.
Author, poet and dissident Chris Abani was repeatedly imprisoned and tortured by Nigerian authorities. Some of his childhood tales are too awful to repeat. According to Abani, the Nigerian word for rape and marriage are the same word. Abani also told some wonderful stories about simple acts of kindness.
The last session of the day was the best of TED2008. Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, resolved to make every last TED attendee love classical music. He deconstructed a Chopin piece, playing it on the piano as a 7, 8, 9 and 10 year old would, so that we could appreciate the increasing nuance of play. Zander exudes enormous energy and charisma, reminiscent of Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful. As a conductor he assumes the responsibility of energizing his musicians, inspiring them to feel the music. He know he is getting their best only when he sees their shining eyes. Success in life, he shared, "is not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me."
Quickly he warmed up the audience, and handed out lyrics so that soon enough every single person stood up and belted out Ode to Joy in the original German! Everyone loved it--we cheered and danced around as if at a rock concert. There were shining eyes everywhere.
If you watch no other TED session, watch Ben Zander, preferably on a big screen with big-ass speakers. It's the only session that TED Curator Chris Andersen dared not cut off at the 18 minute mark.
Meanwhile, Gracenote--that music database in the sky that tells us all what song, artist and album we're listening to on our PCs, in our iPods, in our CD players, and increasingly in our cars--has fetched a $260 million price from Sony. Special congrats to founder Ty Roberts (pictured right), CEO Craig Palmer, my partner Jeremy Levine and our co-investor Sequoia Capital.
And finally, Forbes reported just minutes ago that Apple has disclosed its acquisition of PA Semi, the innovator in power efficient microprocessors. PA Semi was the brainchild of DEC's rock star chip designer and Sibyte founder Dan Dobberpuhl (pictured right). Thanks to my partner Rob Chandra, who led the A round with help along the way from Ted Lin, Devesh Garg, Umesh Padval and Derrick Lee. Congrats as well to our co-investors Venrock, Highland and Focus.
And finally, Forbes reported just minutes ago that Apple has disclosed its acquisition of PA Semi, the innovator in power efficient microprocessors. PA Semi was the brainchild of DEC's rock star chip designer and Sibyte founder Dan Dobberpuhl (pictured right). Thanks to my partner Rob Chandra, who led the A round with help along the way from Ted Lin, Devesh Garg, Umesh Padval and Derrick Lee. Congrats as well to our co-investors Venrock, Highland and Focus.
An out-of-the-box thinker, Taylor has authored a book, 
BMC 
half the polar ice cap has melted in the past 25 years, and the rate of loss is increasing. Last year the ice caps lost an area the size of the eastern U.S.![[CASaveTheDate.png]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmelRII4ZFKwqfbxmGpc3dFMu0dzjVs-C1pjtgeGZwlU0TnTKlJpUc6b7VlPZfzLiDTxxbggqj22JU-q3cs2sWkxuTq2UtKKB8Mnz0-QMvSdKH92QQCj1nCs7gcz76tk2yrrtrXKYeuE59/s1600/CASaveTheDate.png)
Friday afternoon at TED2008 culminated in TED's shining moment...
As a conductor he assumes the responsibility of energizing his musicians, inspiring them to feel the music. He know he is getting their best only when he sees their shining eyes. Success in life, he shared, "is not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me."