By: Hillel Fuld
Most recent interviews at the bottom of the post…
One of the best parts of my job has been interviewing tech & marketing superstars. Don’t forget to bookmark this page as I will be updating it frequently with new interviews that I conduct. Just this week, I have two extremely exciting interviews I will hopefully be adding to this list.
The following is a list of industry shakers that I have had the opportunity to interview thanks to Twitter:
–Guy Kawasaki: The founder of Alltop and the man who made Apple, cool. In this interview, Guy gives some sound advice to beginning entrepreneurs, and talks about the future of the Web.
–Walt Mossberg: Walt is widely regarded as the father of all tech journalists. Here is the man that Steve Jobs walks up to right as he gets off the WWDC keynote stage with his newly announced product in hand. Walt was the first person to ever see and review the original iPhone.
–Robert Scoble: If you have gone anywhere near the internet, you have most likely heard of the Scobleizer. The man makes and breaks companies. Some celebrities have action figures and others have verbs named after them. A company that meets Scoble and succeeds thanks to his PR is a company that was Scobleized.
–Alyssa Milano: Yep, this has to be the most surreal interview I have done. Alyssa Milano, or Sam from Who’s the Boss, is now a super geek tweeting to her almost two million followers about tech, baseball, and saving the world (yes, she has done amazing work.). She was kind enough to take off the time to answer my questions, and since then, has also tweeted some of my posts, which caused my entire server to collapse thanks to her tremendous online influence.
–Gary Vaynerchuk: Gary is a man that can be summed up in one word: Passion. The guy need a new shirt after he gets off stage and it does not matter what topic he was speaking about, wine, social media, or starting a business. You watch Gary speak, you cannot possibly stay unaffected. His charisma is addictive and that explains his tremendous success.
–Sean Percival: I had not heard of Sean because he is the VP marketing of MySpace, I had heard of him because he is all over the Web. Between creating viral photos thatare spread around through sites like TechCrunch to his popular Twitter account, Sean is a pretty interesting guy with some awesome insights in this interview.
–Richard Barley: As the Community Manager of Tweetdeck, Richard does a better job than anyone out there. The man seems not to sleep and offers support to Tweetdeck users around the clock. Between the awesome product, the professional team, and the massive user base, it is no wonder Twitter just bought this company for $40m.
–Chris Brogan: One of the most influential bloggers online, as well as an online marketing specialist, Chris talks about social media, blogging, and gives me a lesson or two on what to ask or not to ask in an interview.
–Mike McCue: Mike, the founder of the wildly popular iPad magazine app, Flipboard, is one of the nicest and smartest people I have ever spoken to. Everyone who meets Mike is immediately impressed, and Mike is a sought after commodity in the tech world. He sits on the Twitter board and consults with many different companies.
–Peter Versterbacka: In today’s mobile industry, if there is one developer that rules the market, it is Rovio, thanks to their games including Angry Birds, and others. Rovio, by all standards has done some phenomenal marketing work, and Peter is the “Mighty Eagle” in charge of the company’s marketing strategy. Peter is also a really nice guy who does not let his success get to his head. He is responsive, professional, and a true role model.
–Ben Parr: As the Chief Editor of Mashable, Ben has to be the most professional writer/author I have ever known. The guy is a machine and pops out blog posts faster than I can say Mashable. He is also a really nice guy and tries to help when he can.
–Patrick Mork: As the CMO of GetJar, the largest independent app store, Patrick has his work cut out for him going head to head with giants like Apple and Google, He is doing a phenomenal job defining the app landscape and had some extremely interesting insights about the future of this space.
–Chris Pirillo: Chris was blogging before the term “blog” was even coined. The man is a legend on the Web and was a true pioneer in the Web video space. His sense of humor is something you do not generally see in people as influential as Chris and that is Chris for you, a down to earth guy who truly gets it. This was also the only inteview that was answered in a video.
–MG Siegler: As one of the main authors on the leading tech site, TechCrunch, MG is a brilliant writer and a tech expert. His posts are always insightful, highly technical and somehow humorous all at the same time. Getting MG to do this interview took a few months, but he gave me some awesome insights in the world of tech and blogging.
–Om Malik: One of the most professional and highly regarded online journalists online, Om has been recognized by many for excellence in tech reporting. He is also a really down to earth guy, which is something that caught me by surprise, as he is truly a legend on and off the Web.
–David Pogue: David Pogue is the technology journalist for the NY Times, need I say more? As someone put it to me this week “David Pogue is the man when it comes to tech. If he endorses your company with just one positive word, you are made. And the opposite is true as well, Pogue is a powerful man as far as tech entrepreneurs are concerned. From my communication with David, you would never know how important the guy is, I don’t think he knows how important he is.
–Jonathan Geller (Boy Genius): This was somewhat of a more difficult interview to conduct as Jon is breaking tech stories almost daily. Named one of the top 100 most influential people in tech, Boy Genius has been quoted across the Web and recognized for his expertise on matters of technology. Like many others on the list, based on my correspondence with Jon, you would really never know who he is and what he has achieved, but as far as I am concerned, he has reached the highest possible level that a tech journalist and blogger can achieve.
– Tim Stevens: The new Editor in Chief of Engadget, I was fortunate enough to connect with Tim on Twitter. The man is completely down to earth despite being widely regarded as one of the biggest experts in the mobile and gadgets space.
– Dennis Crowley: Co Founder and CEO of Foursquare. Dennis has pretty much accomplished the impossible and reeducated consumers to launch Foursquare and check in to places when almost all Foursquare users said at one point “I would never do that, why would I?”
– Paul Carr: Tech Journalist and hotel dweller, Paul manages to inject humor in everything he does. This interview is no different.
– Vic Gundotra: Senior VP Engineering of Google, Vic is one of the nicest people in tech. Vic regularly replies to users on Google+ and was kind enough to spend time talking to me.
– Jeri Ryan: I originally connected with Jeri on Twitter and Google+ and quickly learned that she does not realize just how awesome she is. Read the interview, you’ll understand.
– Mike Elgan: Mike is one of the most prolific tech journalists out there. Or in other words, the man is a tech content machine. Follow him closely and you will see. Meanwhile, enjoy this interview.
– Amir Shevat: Amir is in charge of developer relations at Google, Israel and having known Amir for a few years, I can safely say he earned that title of the nicest guy in tech.
– Robin Wauters: Robin is one of my all time favorite bloggers. Previously of TechCrunch, Robin now writes for TheNextWeb and is always first and last on the scene.
– Jay Yarow: Jay is one of the funnier bloggers/journalists around. He writes about the tech world for Business Insider and always has unique insights on trends and the industry in general.
– Steve Wozniak: Steve is the legendary Co-Founder of Apple Inc who started the company alongside his best friend Steve Jobs. Need I say more?
– Mathew Ingram: Mathew is a senior Gigaom writer and hands down, one of the best sources on Twitter for tech. If you follow Mathew on Twitter, you get a mixture of tech analysis and general updates on current events.
– Damian Burns: Damian leads strategic partnerships at Google and is one of the nicest people I know. His interview answers were nothing short of awesome. Due to his senior position at Google, it was not a trivial thing for him to do this interview but I asked so he made the effort. Very much appreciated!
– Marc Andreessen: Mega investor and entrepreneur, Marc is best known for pretty much inventing the web browser. Marc is also widely regarded as the father of the technology venture capital world. This was my first Twitter interview and my first guest post on Venturebeat!
– Martin Bryant: Editor-in-Chief of one of my favorite tech blog, The Next Web, I have sent Martin many stories over the years and always found him to be a super professional who gets things done.
– Tomer Sharon: A Senior UX Researcher at Google, NYC, Tomer opened my eyes to the fascinating world of UX. Very enlightening interview!
– Saul Singer: The man who coined the phrase “Startup Nation” and one of the greatest and most forward thinking individuals in the Israeli and global tech scene!
– Hunter Walk: My first interview of 2015! Hunter Walk, one of my top follows on Twitter talks to me about mobile, entrepreneurship and investing!
– Mark Suster: Top tier VC, blogger, and one of the best accounts to follow on Twitter for topics of tech, politics, and just about everything else.
– Emmanuelle Chriqui: Star of the show Entourage and many other TV shows and movies, Emmanuelle prides herself first and foremost as a philanthropist. And rightfully so!
– Mark Gurman: Widely regarded as the top Apple journalist and one of the top tech journalists on the Web, Mark, in his mid 20’s, is best known for breaking all the Apple news we all read and love.
That’s all folks. Stay tuned for some upcoming interviews that will blow you away. Also, if there is anyone that you would like to see me interview, please let me know in the comments, and I will try my best to reach out to them.
Also: check out why and how you should interview your industry’s superstars using Twitter and Google+.
What exactly was your approach in your message?
Nothing out of the ordinary, just a normal human approach. “Would love to interview you for my blog, got a few minutes” and things similar to that.
Beautiful. I always say this in my conferences. Why do we need to go professional when we’re asking for something or even engaging a conversation when it comes to Social media? Twitter has given us the opportunity to talk and befriend people that rock the industry one works in. And the magic potion is just a “hey what’s up, how is your day so far?”
@BarryckR
Hey Hillel,
This is quite an impressive list of web celebrities. Want to interview me 😉 just kidding. Seriously though, you highlight how beneficial Twitter can be to connect with people, especially devoid of any geographical hurdles.
The way I think of Twitter is that it perpetually shortcuts the distance between any two web users on the face of the earth. Six degrees is something mankind will eventually turn into five degrees, and so forth.
Julian
Joe Hewitt could be a an interesting interview
Thank you for sharing your “secret.” I think I’m going to give this a shot and start aiming for some superstars. The worst they can tell me is no, and I’m already there. Thanks for the inspiration.
And, why so few women on your interview list?
ChaChanna, any women you think belong on this list? Let me know, always looking for new ideas… 🙂
Great group of people…I myself know the power of Twitter and have made some amazing friends there, including yourself.
I use the very same approach that you do..I simply ask if I need a favour and with very few exceptions my Twitter friends are more than happy to help in any way they can…as you know I am passionate about saving the dolphins and whales and when I wanted to do a video including my Twitter family every single person I asked to be involved jumped on board!
I am also very lucky to be able to DM Alyssa..she is an amazing generous person and when she retweets it carries alot of influence as you point out..I remember a tweet that I sent out about rescuing dogs from Afghanistan and Alyssa retweeted it…it got over 1200 retweets within a few hours.
I will bookmark this and be back to read thru all of the interviews.
Jackie
Impressive list of completed and “to complete” interviews.
Thanks for your efforts