Joe Kraus
FameRank: 4

"Joe Kraus" is the founder of Excite, JotSpot, and DigitalConsumer.org, along with his long-time business partner Graham Spencer (entrepreneur)/Graham Spencer. Currently, Kraus is an Investment Partner on the Google Ventures team.

A long time entrepreneur, Kraus has been involved with early-stage technology development and starting companies for more than twelve years. Upon graduation from Stanford University in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in political science, he joined with five engineering friends to found the Internet company Excite, which would declare bankruptcy in 2001 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNO/is_2001_Nov/ai_79531140]. The original president of Excite, Kraus was deeply involved in product strategy, direction and vision as the company grew. He also held senior operational roles in business development, international development and content.

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They tend to acquire interesting technologies that they help water and fertilize, not necessarily products that are already successful.

I've never seen such a competitive market for talent as in the last six months to a year. And it's funny, you think it can never get any more competitive. And yet the next year it gets that much more competitive.

I think it's very difficult to be a successful Internet company that isn't based in Silicon Valley.

I'm tired, but I'm having a great time. I think that's sort of the common answer that anybody in Silicon Valley has. I've never had more fun. I've never been more tired!

It's generally due to the Internet boom. It's due to both companies like Excite@Home who are further along in their life cycle as well as the second-, third-, fourth-generation startup companies that surround Excite@Home.

It is ironic that the Internet is a global phenomenon -- yet if you're not in Silicon Valley, it's really hard to get a sense of the pace and the connections between those companies. So many of the ideas get transferred in hallway conversations, meetings over lunch and the casual interactions of the companies that are proximate.

I have a hard time believing that they can buy a company with 2,000 people and make it work. The notion of buying a gigantic company with a lot of cash is a very risky proposition.

They've been buying dark fiber for a good five years. It allows them to have such cheap communications between all their data centers.