TechCrunch featured Dropbox which found it’s way into me via Marc Canter’s post. Seems they’ve hit 1 million users and are experiencing 20+% month on month growth. Now that’s fast.
The service allows you to seamlessly sync files over multiple computers across operating systems. They say they support Linux / Mac / Windows. Looks like a very useful tool. Not sure if I’d trust them with my most sensitive files, but I guess you could encrypt files before uploading.
Michael Arrington is the main entrepreneur and journalist behind TechCrunch. According to Technorati, TechCrunch is the second most popular blog on the internet. TechCrunch covers technology startup news, specifically silicon valley, web based type stuff (as far as I know, I’m not a regular reader).
Michael posted some sad news yesterday. He is taking a break after being spat on at a European conference. He also said that he had received death threats and hired private security personnel to protect his family and employees.
As I understand it, Michael is a very public figure. He’s one of the best known web celebrities, whatever that means. As with all famous people, there comes a downside to that fame. While the likes of Mark Zuckerberg (24 year old, paper billionaire, Facebook founder) or Matt Mullenweg (25 year old, paper millionaire, Automattic / WordPress founder) keep a low profile, Arrington is the opposite. He’s been prolific in getting his name known, and very successful.
It’s a shame that fame is accompanied with such a downside. I’m sure most major actors have experienced similar issues to Arrington. Personally, I take this as a stark reminder that popularity has a cost. It reminds me that while fame may seem appealing, personally, I don’t think the benefit is worth the cost.
I hope Michael Arrington and his family are safe, and I hope he’s able to deal with these challenges and grow as a result. Good luck Michael.
I met Jason Calacanis at the blogger breakfast this morning. Duncan Riley was there, although I didn’t meet him. Somebody said he (Duncan) was a big wig, so I was checking him out online after the meeting. I came across Duncan talking about Jason. Jason originally posted, 37 signals responded (my favourite post of the lot), and finally Jason somewhat retracted.
Personally, the key quote comes from Jason’s follow up post:
My work *is* my life.
That’s in line with my impression of Jason from this morning’s breakfast. He struck me as the typically edgy, always on the go, workaholic, American entrepreneur. He has that craving that so many entrepreneurs have. I think it’s what drives them to achieve greatness. By contrast, I think it’s also what keeps them from being happy.
I met Jason’s wife at the event. If I’d read all this stuff beforehand I’d have been interested to get her opinion.
Personally, Jason epitomises the type of entrepreneur I don’t want to be. I respect his success and his drive, but it’s definitely not how I want to live. I’m much more in line with 37 signals thinking. In any venture, I’d want people to work as little as possible, while still getting the job done. I value my free time more than the money that any business success might bring. I’ll give the workaholics a wide berth.