I understand why they want Zuck to speak (it helps raise the profile of the event) but I'm not particularly excited. His talks are notoriously stodgy and unfocused, especially his Startup School appearances.
I'm much more excited about Max Levchin and Drew Houston. From past talks I've seen them do, I feel their message will be better focused and higher yield for the startup audience. The best talks last year were from entrepreneurs who had tasted a mix of failure and success - Dalton Caldwell and Brian Chesky.
His interview last year was anything but stodgy as well, with the movie "The Social Network" out and so much growth happening at Facebook. It will be interesting to see what he talks about this year - perhaps privacy issue in Europe?
The other repeats I see (Ron Conway and, of course, the person I'm replying to) will have no problem coming up with things to talk about, given their position in the startup ecosystem. In fact, I felt that the combination of subject matter and the speaker's experience with it outweighed some rough edges in delivery for all the speakers last year.
Startup School last year convinced me to leave my job at a big tech company and follow my passion. I am now a full-time freelance iOS developer and I couldn't be happier. This event is a life changer, congrats to all accepted this year.
His interview was underwhelming but a couple years he spent a lot of time (at least half an hour) in the hallway afterward talking to a handful of attendees (~8), which is pretty awesome.
Excited to go, but I do have to say the amount of valley stars that come every year is a testament to the quality of the event. And link for previous year's video clips (this years stream too?): http://www.justin.tv/startupschool
One might say his startup palmares are a little stale by now. I'm sure he talks to a lot of startuppy people though, so maybe he's just a good one-stop shop for trends and certain facets of the conventional wisdom.
Considering that it seems like a large preponderance of startups are trying to be "the next Facebook", I think the guy who started the current Facebook (I'm assuming the Winklevei were unavailable) would be super relevant.
I would think that Zuck's experience is in founding a tiny startup, and growing it into the company that everyone points to as the poster-child target for your liquidity event.
I don't disagree that for people who are now in the early stages of launching what they hope to be the next big thing, there isn't a 1:1 application of advice from the creator of the current big thing. I'm just puzzled that your initial comment seemed so puzzled about what value having Zuckerberg speak could bring.
The guy started a fantastically successful startup. He's bought a bunch of other startups. That would seem to make him a good candidate for talking at a startup-themed event (even if his current company isn't really a startup anymore).
> I would think that Zuck's experience is in founding a tiny startup, and growing it into the company that everyone points to as the poster-child target for your liquidity event.
Not really, by the time Facebook became a proper "company", it was already huge and growing faster. This is where we must draw a distinction between a "website" and a "startup". When Facebook became a startup, it was already in a position (vis a vis growth) that 99.9% of startups never achieve.
I'm much more excited about Max Levchin and Drew Houston. From past talks I've seen them do, I feel their message will be better focused and higher yield for the startup audience. The best talks last year were from entrepreneurs who had tasted a mix of failure and success - Dalton Caldwell and Brian Chesky.