Cullen’s Abc’s is sited by newspaper writer Dean Takahashi as an entrepreneur that has inspired him to leave the Mercury News. Dean is moving on to work at start up VentureBeat, a blogging Web site.
Here is the article Dean wrote on Cullen’s Abc’s: “Couple’s web site really kids’ play”
Read Dean’s last article below, with the third paragraph on Cullen’s Abc’s.
Takahashi: Jumping into valley’s entrepreneurial swirl
Article Launched: 02/25/2008 01:33:33 AM PST
var requestedWidth = 0;
if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById(‘articleViewerGroup’).style.width = requestedWidth + “px”; document.getElementById(‘articleViewerGroup’).style.margin = “0px 0px 10px 10px”; } This is my last column as a newspaper writer. After five years at the Mercury News and 20 years in newspapers and magazines, I’m leaving the old media for the new. Tomorrow, I’ll start a new job at VentureBeat, a blogging Web site created by my former Mercury News colleague Matt Marshall. Having spent 13 years watching Silicon Valley luminaries take risks, it’s time for me to join a start-up. That’s what this valley is all about. Change. Starting anew. Reinventing. There are many entrepreneurs I have written about that have inspired me to move along.
Just a year ago, I wrote about Cullen’s abc’s, a video Web site aimed at teaching parents fun activities to do with preschool-age children. Started by preschool teacher Cullen Wood and her husband Steve, the San Jose company has uploaded more than 300 videos to YouTube. They’ve been viewed more than a million times and the couple is moving on to make a profit from the venture.
That’s the great hope and beauty of the Internet. While it can threaten existing businesses, it can also be our friend. It allows us to create something from nothing but our own talent. I started blogging with my colleague Mike Antonucci in May 2005 at the E3 video game industry show. Then I started the Tech Talk blog at the Consumer Electronics Show at the beginning of 2006.
Even as I wrote for the newspaper, I had more fun writing thousands of blog posts where the readers could offer their immediate feedback. That close back-and-forth communication was addictive and I thank the readers who came back to talk over and over. Now blogging will be my full-time work. There are now more than 100 million blogs, and there are even conferences about blogging. As with any start-up, I have no idea if this is going to succeed. It’s a roll of the dice. Now that I know the feeling of sailing off into uncertainty, I have more admiration for the people who have taken such risks over and over again. I am not going to be sitting on the sidelines, watching and commenting. I’m going to be a participant in creating something new.
I wish my colleagues at the newspaper great success. They have a tough challenge in crossing the bridge from the newspaper age to the digital age. Journalism is changing and we don’t know where it will settle.
I have a lot of fond memories working closely with my colleagues on the big stories in Silicon Valley. We covered the rise and fall of Carly Fiorina, the rise of China, rebate scams in our own back yard, the fine cuisine of Google’s cafeteria, Facebook’s rapid growth and the mesmerizing keynote speeches of Steve Jobs where the audience goes “ooohhh and ahhhh” right on cue. I also had a lot of fun writing about new gadgets and then listening to the feedback of readers who thought I was inept. But the most fun for me was discovering hot new start-ups and technologies and writing about the personalities behind them. I’ll continue to do that, but the output will be in another place.
The great advantage that this newspaper will always have, which the Internet will never take away, is its sense of place. It is the hometown newspaper. It is right in the middle of the most interesting place on Earth.
I hope readers will continue to be involved in the newspaper and help it steer a course. If the newspaper keeps the readers front and center, then I have to believe it will stay relevant, the same way that radio has kept alive in the face of innovations such as TV, satellite radio, and the Internet. Wish us all luck.
I want to thank my colleagues and bosses for giving me this platform. And thank you for reading.
