Gawker: valleywag, saul griffith

Google, Makani, and the kite surfing-industrial complex at Moffett Field

Jackson West — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

How did wind energy startup Makani Power garner $10 million in investment from Google and space at the NASA-run Ames research center on Moffett Field? Through at least one convenient marriage and a shared passion for kite surfing, a tipster points out:

Nice to see NASA was able to find room at Moffett Field for Makani Power, the startup headed by kite-surfing dudes Saul Griffith (Tim O'Reilly's son-in-law) and Don "Father of Kite Surfing" Montague, which received $10M bucks from google.org, the foundation headed by kite-surfing dudes Larry Page & Sergey Brin.

So to recap, the Valley is a meritocracy, and there's money for anyone with a good idea. Assuming "anyone" means "marrying into the local entrepreneurial aristocracy" and "merit" means "can totally shred at kite surfing."

Tim O"Reilly takes care of his own with prized Startup Camp invites

theodp — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Information is sparse on some of the companies selected to attend the exclusive O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures Startup Camp (and follow-up Foo Camp), but no less than 4 of the 7 companies picked from 'an overwhelming response' have principals whose resumes include stints as O'Reilly authors or O'Reilly conference speakers.

For starters, take Michael Slater, CEO of Collective Knowledge, who not only spoke recently at RailsConf, but also helped O'Reilly arrange a past invitation-only Foo event and is allowed to use O'Reilly HQ for his events.
Then there's Luke Kanies of Reductive Labs, a perennial O'Reilly OSCON speaker. Stonewall Software CEO John Viega has penned two O'Reilly books and made appearances at O'Reilly Conferences both in the States and abroad. Finally, there's eduFire CTO J. Scott Johnson, who co-wrote O'Reilly's Essential Blogging with Rael Dornfest, O'Reilly's ETCON conference chair and ex-CTO. And while Replicator founder Steve Leibman apparently has yet to strike a deal with O'Reilly, his Fab professor - MIT's Neil Gershenfeld - is an O'Reilly favorite and oversaw work Tim's son-in-law Saul Griffith did on his PhD at MIT. (Photo by takeshi)

Tim O'Reilly has a mancrush on his son-in-law

Owen Thomas — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:41:51 EST

In-laws can be so embarrassing. Like Tim O'Reilly, Saul Griffith's father-in-law. The book publisher and conference organizer wrote a lavish profile of Griffith, calling him a "genius" and "a scientist and engineering polymath" before disclosing that Griffith was married to his daughter Arwen. (The happy couple is shown here.) More recently, O'Reilly has lavishly praised Griffith's upcoming keynote at an O'Reilly conference, without reminding readers of his family ties. It's better than the alternative, I suppose: At least Arwen's dad doesn't think she married a loser. After the jump, a more intimate picture of Saul and Arwen.

(Photos by arwenoreilly)