Sarah Lacy to speak at Startup World launch party
Sarah Lacy has been an idol of mine for about 5 years since I got into this weirdly addictive industry we call tech. It was 2007/2008 in the days of debaucherous roof top hot tub parties a-la Paul Carr style. I was at university doing a journalism degree and Sarah was back and fourth to tech events in London from Silicon Valley to cover conferences and promote her first book; "Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0"
In my eyes Sarah was Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky, just like the title of her latest book- she was a women in a man's world and gave as good as she got. I remember seeing Paul Carr interview her on stage at a London club; there were more than a few sexual innuendos thrown at her by Carr, and she handled the situation, in front of a live audience of a couple hundred (mostly men) people, with grace and an air of 'You really wanna play that game? Because I can bat hard.' Her unique sense of San Francisco style projected her personality perfectly; I remember a pair of knee high boots oozing a women who knows what she wanted, yet quirky round the edges with an alice band holding back her black curly hair. I thought, wow, 'I wanna be like her when I grow up.'
I have followed her journalism career ever since, she is hard-core to say the least, reporting on everything from the financial markets to breaking news stories, post after post having to put up with evil commenter trolls at TechCrunch. Some trolls even made death threats on her after her candid reporting on getting into visa troubles in S. America, but she found the courage to keep on writing and exposing the truth about the ego infested startup industry aka Silicon Valley. The valley is an incredible small place, where often you have to choose between breaking friendships or stories and I believe Sarah had the integrity to tell the truth, no matter what the consequence be. Sarah is part of the fabric that makes up what Silicon Valley is today, she hung around the offices of startups like Facebook in the early days when there were just three or four people and no doubt her stories have been catalysts for change and innovation.
Since the early days, she's travelled the world observing startup culture and entrepreneurship globally, been through the Arrington circus/TechCrunch breakdown, pushed a little human into the world and launched her own venture: PandoDaily. She is speaking at our event next Tuesday and I am honored. I'm sure I was influenced by her global perspective and so I like to think much of the inspiration for Startup World came from her reporting on startup culture in emerging markets and watching this trend grow.
Want to come and see Sarah at our event next Tue? You'll have to be quick to get a ticket: http://startupworld.eventbrite.com/
The event schedule is as follows:
- 7.00pm open networking
- 7:30pm Hermione opens
- 7:45pm A word from our sponsors (Johhny from Tropo, I/O Ventures)
- 8:00 Global startup Insights -Sarah Lacy
- 8:30 Insights into Africa Mbwana AlliyInsights
- 8:50 Insights into South America Bedy Yang
- 9:10 Insights into Middle East Saeed Amidi
- 9:30 Insights into Europe Andri Kristinsson-H close
- 9-10pm H close Networking
- 10pm Networking
- Head to bar in Mission
You can read her fancy bio below.
Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily.
She is an award winning journalist and author of two critically acclaimed books, "Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0" (Gotham Books, May 2008) and "Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos" (Wiley, February 2011).
She has been covering technology news for over 15 years, most recently as a senior editor for TechCrunch.
See you there,
Hermione and the Startup World Team