Person of Interest: Guy KawasakiAKA: The Godfather
Known Associates:
Profile: Before founding and creating Alltop.com and becoming a well-known venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley area, Kawasaki was one of the main forces behind the marketing for Apple's Macintosh in the 1980s and was the "chief evangelist" at Apple during its early years.
Kawasaki has become a legend in Silicon Valley, seemingly everywhere technology, and the marketing of that technology, are prevalent. After his time with Apple (though he did return in 1995 as a fellow), Kawasaki went on to become a founder of his own software company called Fog City Software and then later begun his own venture capital firm Garage.com with two other venture capitalists.
Even though Kawasaki begun his career in the technology space, his marketing strategy started very traditionally with Apple. However, he was quick to adapt to inbound marketing, contributing for the likes of Forbes, MacUser, and Macworld. Writing columns on marketing, start-ups, and Apple in particular.
After founding Fog City Software and Garage.com, Kawasaki developed Alltop.com, a site which curates and aggregates all of the most popular articles, images, videos, and other content across the Internet. Kawasaki describes Alltop as more of a "magazine rack" for what's going on in the world right now more so than a ranking website, which has become Alltop's company mission.
Not only has Kawasaki founded several companies, wrote columns for well-known magazines, and helped to get Apple off the ground, but he is also an avid speaker and published author. Some of his most well-known works include The Macintosh Way, Selling The Dream, and Rules For Revolutionaries. He is still an avid writer and has recently published a book all about social networking platform Google+, titled What The Plus! Google+ For The Rest Of Us. Kawasaki speaks often about start-ups, innovation in technology, and of course, Apple. Current whereabouts have him located in Silicon Valley.
Last Seen:
- Apple -- Kawasaki helped sell Apple as an evangelical marketer to beat out IBM in the early years, then returned as a fellow in 1995.
- Fog City Software -- An email software company Kawasaki help founded.
- Alltop -- The "magazine rack" of the Web, with the most popular articles curated and listed.
- Blog -- Kawasaki has an informal blog where he talks about sales, marketing, and life.
Special Skills: Many of the best inbound marketers have begun their careers as bloggers. Kawasaki is one notable exception. It was later in life that he become an avid writer and blogger, and social media maniac.
Kawasaki is widely regarded as the "godfather of evangelism marketing," for his efforts with Apple, igniting a culture based in a belief in the product. While he admittedly did not create the title, he certainly defined it for an entire industry. Apple is arguably still the best working example of a company using evangelism marketing successfully, others have taken a cue from Apple and Kawasaki. Companies both big and small have begun to see what is essentially the power of word of mouth when properly cultivated by the company itself.
In an industry as complex as computer hardware, these cultivated evangelist "groups" were able to break the product down and create buzz around each individual element that they may have been excited in. Something Apple probably never would have been able to accomplish on their own in those early years.
Alltop, on the other hand, exemplifies that an idea as simple as list ranking and aggregating can still be put on its head and made better or easier. In fact, most of Kawasaki's ventures have been like this.
Notes: Kawasaki is originally from Hawaii, where he grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods.
This post is part-one of the 11-part blog series "The Inbound 11," a collection of today's best inbound marketers as seen through the eyes of Magnetic MarCom. You can learn more about upcoming "Inbound 11" profiles by visiting our introductory post.
