Videos Archive

So Other Than That Ms. Lacy, How'd You Enjoy Your Breakfast?

People keep telling me to "travel safe." For the record this is the only time I've been TERRIFIED FOR MY LIFE during my whirlwind of travel for my new book on global entrepreneurs. I'm going to let this video speak for itself. Mostly.

First, know a few things:

1. This was not staged, and clearly Geoff can read the future.

2. See how fast he left? The pictures don't show it, but that's how fast he came in. I happened to be reviewing the first part of this video on the FlipCam, and I heard Geoff yell, "HE'S BACK!" and looked up to a big snout a few meters away and closing on me. I froze, looking around for the staff to do something. But he had waited for the ENTIRE wait staff to go downstairs. Wiley.

3. In ten years of being together, Geoff says he has NEVER heard me scream as loud as I did this morning. I really thought I was about to get rabies or lose an arm.

4. Afterwards, my driver came up and said, "Come and look at who's on the roof eating a croissant!" Yeah, that'd be mine. 

5. Our cat, Mr. Vinnie, is on a diet. Our other cat, Boo, is not. So whenever he gets a chance Vinnie charges in the room where we keep her food and eats as much of it, as fast as he can, terrifying Boo in the process. I used to tell her to toughen up. Now I know how she feels. Sorry, Boo. 

6. He sat on the roof and ate all of the pastries he stole, then came down and his kids ran up. He didn't even save them any! They were like "Hey Dad, where's the food?" He's not even a good dad! 

7. Regardless of this video, I *highly* recommend the Akagera Game Lodge in Rwanda. The staff was amazing, and the scenery was beautiful.

When China, Russia and Day-Care Collide

It's about a week in, and I've been having quite a time in China. I found Shanghai incredibly frustrating and difficult to navigate, but I've really fallen for Beijing-- which is funny because every single person told me I'd feel the opposite way. "When are you going to stop listening to everyone? No one knows anything!" the curmudgeonly Mr. Lacy said over Skype when I told him of this stunning revelation. It's good advice except for the fact that as a reporter I'd pretty much be out of a job if I stopped listening to people. (Insert bad reporter joke here.)

Last night, we had an amazing dinner party starring Peking Duck and Mr. Kaiser Kuo, a Bejing rock star (literally), former editor for Red Herring Magazine and all around Beijing gadfly. Meeting him when you come to visit appears to be a rite of passage. And speaking of rites of passage, after dinner we went to Chocolate, a weird Russian nightclub in the Russian district of Beijing. Yes, there is such a thing. When I walked in I heard some warbling to Hotel California and excitedly said, "Oh are we karaoke-ing!?" Nope. That was just the house band. And they decided to keep coming back to that classic Eagles standard throughout the set.

Also, in this video is my fabulous traveling companion Mr. Tom Limongello. Tom and I met online (Remember when that used to sound sketchy? Ok, maybe it still does.) and he somewhat insanely volunteered to be a research assistant and China guide for free. I somewhat insanely agreed having never met him, hoping he wasn't an axe murderer. Please go follow him on Twitter NOW so he gets something out of this transaction. ;) In case anyone is wondering, I'm taking all applications for un-paid India travel companions. And no, I can't afford to pay for your travel. Also, I can't promise sketchy Russian clubs, I don't even know if India has a Russian district. But I can promise having to answer, "What time is our first meeting tomorrow?" over-and-over again and that you'll meet lots of cool companies. Don't all apply at once!

NOTE: If you feel bad for the tiny girl watching the racy pseudo-strip show, don't worry. There was a kids section to the bar.

When China, Russia and Day Care Collide from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

Gone Shootin'

So first off, I know I have not been cross-posting things from Yahoo, BW and TechCrunch as I said I would. I'll do a best-of-what-I've-been-up-to round up this week, because I've been churning out a lot of content. In the meantime, here's a little gem for you. Mr. Lacy and I went to the Charles River Ventures Leadership Summit in Phoenix last week and one of the possible activities was Skeet Shooting. I signed Mr. Lacy up for that one and signed myself up for a relaxing afternoon of wine tasting. Well, you can see from this video who wears the pants in our family. We actually had bruises from that kick-back.

Note the fancy intro and please, Heart, don't sue me. I've been sitting on this beautiful piece of animation for a while. One of the many projects I was planning for this year was launching SarahLacy.tv and putting all of my video projects there: Morning Don't, travel lifecasting, embeds from TechTicker and Press:Here. Alas, we had some issues with Web designers, plus starting my book and unexpectedly starting to write for TechCrunch sopped up my last bits of free time. I'm still hoping to launch it soon, and if anyone wants to do some cheap work on it, leave your info in the comments! (The site isn't going to be monetized, so there's not much of a budget. Sorry.)

Speaking of people who do excellent work for cheap, a huge shout out goes to Sophie Askew who did the amazing illustrations, and Howard Kim who did this animation and the Morning Don't Intro. Enjoy!

SarahLacy.TV Feature Presentation ep. I from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

EXPOSED!!! Local News Fights Back

We haven't done an episode of Morning Don't for while. We've actually filmed several but no one (ahem, me) has had the time to produce them. So it's with much excitement I bring you the long-awaited episode 20. I've written a lot of harsh things about traditional media lately. But clearly, one local news channel has found a way to fight Web 2.0 and Google. Watch and learn.

Morning Don't Ep. 20 from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

Big News! Also, Yes, I Am Back at TechCrunch

As loyal readers know I’ve been spending quite a bit of the last few months quietly working on some pretty radical and exciting career changes. I’ve already blogged about my role shifting at Yahoo's TechTicker, and the fact that I’m cutting out almost all conferences this year. I'm finally able to talk about the last two pieces of news today, and you’ll see why it was crucial for me to make a little more time in my schedule. 

The first one is something I’ve been working towards since December 2007: I’ve finally closed my next book deal. Before I tell you about it, let me step back and say that the experience of writing “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” was probably the most exhilarating and challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life. I knew I wanted to do another book, but I was worried that anything would pale in comparison.

Business reporters are rarely in the middle of something that’s also a mass cultural movement, the way Web 2.0 was. And it’s even rarer to be the reporter in the middle of that trend early-on, with near-unfettered access. The book was also the culmination of ten years of covering startups and the Web, with so many of the themes of the book coming out of articles I’d written week-after-week and conversations at endless breakfasts, lunches and dinners with investors, coders and nearly everyone who makes up the Valley ecosystem. I worked hard, but I was also in the right place at the right time, and I didn’t think it was possible that I’d find another book that I could be that passionate about again.

Then, a month after finally turning it into my publishers in 2007, I was sitting on a beach in Mexico and my next idea hit me. (My husband may never take me on vacation again.)

The new book is about global entrepreneurship. What I don’t mean by that is globalization or social entrepreneurship. It’s the story of real, ambitious, risk-taking entrepreneurs in emerging markets around the world who are taking advantage of the turmoil all around them to build huge businesses, the Western venture capital money that’s trying to invest in them, and the cultural chasm the two are, so far, having a hard time crossing. To tell this story right, I’m going to spend between 30-40 weeks on the ground in Israel, China, India, Africa and Mexico/South America over the next year and a half. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I've actually already started. It works out to roughly 2-3 weeks at a time overseas, followed by 2-3 weeks here, and a few months with no travel here and there for sanity. My publisher is John Wiley & Sons and, yes, I was border-line insane to try to sell a book in this market. Huge thanks to them for believing in the project so much, and my agent, Daniel Greenberg, for pulling off the impossible once again.

I’ll still keep a foot firmly planted in Silicon Valley—after all, it’s an integral part of this story, too. And I’ll still write my Valley Girl column for BusinessWeek and do three-to-four interviews per month plus my daily Valley Buzz post for TechTicker. I’ll also still appear on NBC’s Press:Here during the weeks that I’m in town.

So, to sum up, we've got a column, I'm hosting one show, commuting an hour to be a regular guest on another and traveling around the world to write a book…is that enough to keep me busy? Hardly. That’s why I’m also announcing that I’ll have an ongoing gig with TechCrunch. Actually, Michael Arrington already did. Given my other responsibilities, I won't be there everyday, but I’ll be writing two-to-five posts per week, likely a lot on the weekends, a lot on airplanes and a lot from the road. You're better off sending announcements about your latest product launch wherever it is you send them now, because I’ll be focusing on analysis of the business of Silicon Valley, emerging markets and the collision between them.

While I've been working on pulling the book together for more than a year, no one is more surprised than I am at the TechCrunch announcement. You should have seen the Cheshire cat "I won" grin on Michael Arrington's face when we finished negotiating it all. He and I have had an ongoing Abbot-and-Costello routine about how I'd never write there because I was too busy and liked writing on this site too much.

But when I filled in for him in February, my thoughts changed. Trolls aside, I was blown away by the level of engagement and love for that blog among entrepreneurs around the world. It's not just a blog about Silicon Valley and Web 2.0. Subscribing to newspapers or business magazines doesn't really mean you read them. (Ask the tall plastic-wrapped stack in my hallway.) But TechCrunch readers read every single thing on that site, chew it up, digest it, spit it out and talk to their friends about it. It seemed the perfect place to write about what I was seeing on the road as the book unfolds, because I'm well aware I can't write this book alone. It needs a community. After all, a world of entrepreneurs is a pretty big topic.

I'm not killing SarahLacy.com. I'll be cross-posting my TechCrunch stuff here, linking to BusinessWeek and Yahoo stuff, and writing more personal posts about my experiences on the road as I travel. And yes, we'll have FlipCam footage.

I said in an interview late last year that my next book would be "stupidly ambitious" and I think I've delivered on that promise. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I know I will.

I'm Alive, BTW

Just wanted to say a quick blog hai. Things have been nuts for me lately, and now that I'm officially off Michael Arrington-duty, I am trying to dig out of a swamp of logistical things I've been putting off for weeks. Like, getting emails working on my BlackBerry and getting AT&T out here to fix my phone line so I can do radio interviews and have my TiVo back. I'm very proud I finally found time to call the bank and let them know it was indeed me in Africa logging onto my account, not some fraudster, so I can finally pay my bills online again. My various bill collectors are probably glad too. (Yes, I do need a new assistant. I know.)

Long time readers might remember that I'm neurotic and goal-obsessed enough that I not only make a very well thought-out list of New Years Resolutions, but every month I grade myself on how well I do. In January I scored a lousy 61 out of 100. In February I upped that to a 72, partially because i scored higher on the "Be Nicer to Mr. Lacy" category. I'm up to a C-student!

Speaking of goals, I should have some cool news soon. In the meantime, here's the coverage I did for TechCrunch in February, a link to the last two Press:Here shows I was on, my latest ValleyGirl column on unsexy but profitable eNewsletters, and, below, a few segments on gadgets I did with BusinessWeek review honcho Steve Wildstrom for TechTicker last week.

I am still lusting after the Palm Pre more than any other gadget, but the Kindle 2 is a close second.  With all the international travel I'm doing these days Bose Noise Reduction Headsets are a close third. And Mr. Lacy and I have been close to caving on a huge new flat panel for more than a year, but we're taking Mr. Wildstrom's advice in clip #2 below instead. Not that we can afford any of these indulgences. Oh to be back in pre-recession days!