Ballmer on Clubhouse: Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer joined former Windows president Steven Sinofsky for a surprising chat this week on the live audio conversation app Clubhouse. Aside from a surprise twist at the end -- turns out Ballmer was in a hot tub for the entire talk -- he shared some great insights about his time at Microsoft and current role as chairman of the NBA’s LA Clippers.
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Developers, developers, developers: Ballmer’s sweat-drenched chant at a 2000 Microsoft developers conference has become an epic meme. But there was a strategy behind Ballmer’s boisterous presence in front of thousands of people. “Whether you’re doing a product launch, whether you’re doing a sales meeting, you have to make sure that you can instill understanding, confidence and excitement in your people,” he said.
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Customers and the cloud: Some questioned Ballmer when Microsoft went “all in” on the cloud. A decade later, the decision is fueling Microsoft’s renaissance. “You have to understand enough about what your customers may need that they don’t know about yet,” he said. It’s not just about patching customer pain points, but thinking about how to “fundamentally redo” things, he said.
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Business lessons from sports: “I've learned so much owning the Clippers that would have made me a better CEO of Microsoft than I ever could have imagined,” Ballmer said. Basketball takes accountability and transparency to another level, he explained. “There’s no time for random crap — you really have to be together on the floor, and everybody can see it if you’re not.”
From the GeekWire archives: Numbers of the NBA: A courtside chat with Steve Ballmer about the basketball metrics that matter
How to upgrade democracy: Another former Microsoft executive, Jon DeVaan, has become deeply involved in the political reform movement since retiring from Microsoft in 2013. DeVaan joins us on this week's GeekWire Podcast to discuss the path forward for political reform, and the role that tech companies and other businesses can play in the movement. He also shares books, articles and other resources that have informed his understanding of the issues.
Listen here and subscribe to GeekWire in any podcast app.
AI bill seeks to ban discriminatory AI tech: Washington state could become a national leader in regulating the technologies of the future, thanks in part to a bill up for debate that would establish new guardrails on government use of artificial intelligence. Read more.
Like father, like daughter: Madison McIlwain considers herself fortunate to have learned about venture capital from her dad, longtime Seattle tech investor Matt McIlwain — so much so that she followed him into the field. Madison is now an associate at San Francisco-based Defy, an early stage VC firm founded five years ago. We caught up with Madison (and Matt, too) for a twist on this week’s Geek of the Week to talk about VC, family, SF vs. SEA, women in tech and more.
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and see all our latest headlines below. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, editor@geekwire.com, and GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.
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