Tom Taulli and the Early Days of the Silicon Valley
By Klay Ketelle
Tech Marketing, the Old-School Way
Tech Marketing has come a long way since the 80s when computer hardware and ‘software-lite’ ideas were just entering the landscape. Back then, Bill Gates, Felipe Khan, and other soon-to-be tech juggernauts of the 21st century would do road tours, visiting various “Computer Club” hubs across the country. Tom remembers, as a student, how “they [were] very good at putting on a show and kind of getting people excited,” about their software. Tom recalls people ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘aah-ing’ when they were first introduced to Excel, “like, it was the best thing they’d ever seen.”
Marc Benioff, CEO and founder of Salesforce, would put on these small events and do roadshows to showcase this groundbreaking, completely disruptive, marketing software.
Is AI Taking Over the World?
The speculations about AI from Science Fiction Authors of our yesteryears is proving to be less likely than anticipated. HAL will not come for us while we’re fixing the spaceship, and Robots from iconic Asimov stories are far far away from achieving consciousness. As an AI expert, Tom confidently reminded us that “we can’t get rid of humans yet!” We still very much need humans in the loop. Tom believes AI-integration into our daily lives is already happening and will continue to aid in the betterment of our society. As Tom puts it, “‘[AI Integration will] make our lives easier and better. Maybe we’ll have more free time to devote to things that are fun or more interesting than doing the drudgery of other types of work.”
Closing
From his love of development early on in his youth to now, Tom has spent an illustrious career seeing Silicon Valley take shape into the household name it is today. Though AI is cool and all, we would be nothing without the humans behind it. As Tom mentioned in a tweet by Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, …”, we too agree that “Humans are underrated.”
You can find Tom’s articles on Forbes or grab a copy of one of his outstanding books for your next AI curiosity deepdive.
About the Metabob Podcast series:
This new, weekly series will take a deep dive into the tech ecosystem, putting real people and explanations behind some of the common household ideas and misconceptions about the tech industry.
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Guest(s) Featured in this Episode
- Tom Taulli, Forbes Contributor, Author, Developer, Entrepreneur
- https://twitter.com/ttaulli
Episode Resources
