Start-Ups Starting Up: Bay Area Tech Culture

[theme music] Next, another in our "On Technology" series-- PBS's Steve Goldbloom takes the temperature of startup culture in the Bay Area and beyond.

STEVE GOLDBLOOM: OK, testing, banana, banana, banana, banana-- are you getting that?

Do you get any-- [phone ringing] Hello.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Stevey, Jordan-- how are you?

Yeah, no, we're just testing the-- JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Listen, last episode, I've got to admit you did a really good job.

So we got you down for startup culture.

You think you can handle that?

Yes, definitely.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): OK, listen.

Great.

We set up 30 interviews for you over three days.

Jordan, that's, like, 10 interviews a day without edit time.

It's just Noah and I.

That's not possible.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Steve, this is PBS.

We go to war with the army we have.

All right, Noah, we have, like, 72 hours to get all the stuff.

I need you keeping that camera.

Moving fast.

We're here at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference.

You ready to go, Noah?

My name's [inaudible].

I'm the co-founder of curator.com.

We are the creators of Bracket.

JobScout is an online learning platform.

MAN 1: This is the ZBoard.

It's a weight-sensing electric skateboard.

This is an artificially intelligent robotic bartender.

You know where we're going next?

And it's called "Sprayable Energy?"

Right, exactly.

I shake it up?

Yeah.

Not shake it up?

We can do this one together if you want.

Yeah.

Just take it on three.

Three, two-- It's here?

WOMAN 1: [inaudible].

How do you cock it?

[gun cocks] All right.

So we're learning about 3D printing.

What we're doing here is a hack-- I'm just testing to try out-- WOMAN 2: A NASA space camp-- MAN 3: For nerds-- STEVE GOLDBLOOM: Thank you very much.

And I think we need to slow down, Noah, if we're going to do anything of substance.

You know about Reddit, eh?

No?

MAX GOODMAN: Reddit is essentially a community of communities because when I say "internet community," that means some stuff to you.

But if I say it to my mom, like, that means something totally different.

STEVE GOLDBLOOM: You know, my favorite moment would be if you explained to my mother what Reddit was.

MAX GOODMAN: Yeah.

That would be a full day.

MAX GOODMAN: Hi, Lynn.

My name's Max.

I'm an engineer at Reddit.

LYNN GOLDBLOOM (ON PHONE): Hi.

MAX GOODMAN: There's a bunch of people who post things to the site and then everyone who views the site, who has an account, votes on what they think is the most interesting.

And the most interesting stuff gets shown up in this big list.

Think of it as, like, your circle of four million people who you can ask anything or talk to anything about.

LYNN GOLDBLOOM (ON PHONE): I like it.

Never, like-- you told me to go to Wikipedia whenever I want to know something.

I'd rather just call you and have you explain it to me.

I think it sounds great.

It's very exciting.

It is exciting.

It is.

Noah, we're here at Yammer.

ADAM PISONI: I think Yammer has over 400 employees, of which a little less than 300 are here physically.

Right.

There's obviously a portion of them which are sales, which is literally what you'd imagine as sales.

Yeah.

And then, another portion of them are what we call the "customer engagement team"-- Mm-hmm-- Which are the people who are helping companies get the most out of Yammer.

I think if we actually could not do the interview in here.

I think it's distracting.

It's a casual office environment.

It's like a cocoon.

I do play a little bit.

Are you a competitive guy?

Oh, of course.

I work in a startup.

Hello.

STEVE GOLDBLOOM: We're here at Giant Pixel in San Francisco.

This is an incubator startup accelerator.

I don't know what any of that means but I-- ELLIOT LOH: And what we do is we bring in talented people and then we give them a lot of runway to take an idea and create a solution around it.

Great.

So it's a startup for other startups to start starting up.

Right.

STEVE GOLDBLOOM: This looks delicious.

We do lunch from 12:00 to 1:00.

And the reason why we do that is so that everyone will be here at the same time and you'll meet new people and start conversations.

This looks like what I want my best friend's basement to look like.

Exactly.

STEVE GOLDBLOOM: I mean, this is like a cool bar.

Is this-- this is a bar.

What am I doing?

It is.

It is a bar.

We're a private members community that learns people's tastes and preferences online and then produces and curates events based on what they like and when they're free.

We want to disrupt the way people plan their social lives, something that is going to be what we like to call a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" often.

So disrupting social lives for the sake of improving the lives of whatever it was.

Some have criticized startup culture in Silicon Valley for placing too much focus on the needs of the elite.

They say it's created a culture aimed at disrupting the norm rather than solving actual problems.

In other news, we're here inside a single-engine Pilatus PC-12 that flies from San Francisco to LA and back as many times as its members, for $2,000 a month, care to travel.

David, you're a co-founder here at SurfAir.

Yeah, a co-founder at SurfAir-- I started this with my brother Wade.

Airlines are a terrible business and the only way we felt like we could be successful in it is to change it.

STEVE GOLDBLOOM: Hey, Jordy.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Hey, Steve.

Where are you, Steve?

What's that noise?

I'm just heading down to LA for some last-minute pickup shots.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Steve, how are you getting to LA?

We're hopping down there on a plane now.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Steve, there is no money in the travel budget for a plane!

It's fine.

It's a private little plane so-- JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): A private plane?

Who are you, Puff Daddy?

It's OK.

It belongs to SurfAir.

We're taking them down-- do a little profile.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): No, Steve.

I do not want you abusing your press pass.

OK, they're telling me to put the phone away because they're going to serve some snacks and stuff so I have to jam.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): No, Steve, I want you out of there now.

We're cutting out.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Steve, I want you to jump out of the plane.

All right.

Yep.

JORDAN SMITH (ON PHONE): Parachute out of that plane!

See you, Jordy.

[music playing] If we've learned anything from our reporting in California, it's that the key word is "disruption," everything from transportation-- [feedback] Education, skateboarding-- [audio out] Can't hear anything?

[audio out] [mouths "nothing?"]

[beep] Jordy, we have a problem.

Our wireless mic died and we need to get a new one.

If you could just fax me your credit card number or shoot me a text with it, it'd be helpful.

It's Steve.