Guy Kawasaki
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Guy Takeo Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is an American marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist.<ref name=Cameron2010>Template:Cite news</ref> He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing their Macintosh computer line in 1984. He popularized the word evangelist in marketing the Macintosh as an "Apple evangelist" and the concepts of evangelism marketing and technology evangelism/platform evangelism in general.<ref>Solis, Brian; Breakenridge, Deirdre K. Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR. FT Press, 2009. p. 9.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
From March 2015 until December 2016, Kawasaki sat on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit operating entity of Wikipedia.<ref name="Henner">Template:Cite web</ref>
Kawasaki has also written fifteen books, including The Macintosh Way (1990), The Art of the Start (2004), and Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life (2019).
Early life and education
Guy Kawasaki was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Duke Takeshi Kawasaki (d. 2015) and Aiko Kawasaki.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His family lived in an area outside Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. His father, Duke, once served as a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official while his mother was a housewife.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He attended ʻIolani School and graduated in 1972.<ref name=about>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kawasaki graduated from Stanford University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.<ref name=about/> He then attended law school at UC Davis, but quit after about a week of classes when he realized that he disliked law school.<ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1977, he enrolled in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he earned an MBA degree.<ref name=about/> While there, Kawasaki also worked at a jewelry company, Nova Stylings. Kawasaki observed, "The jewelry business is a very, very tough business, tougher than the computer business... I learned a very valuable lesson: how to sell."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Career
Template:External media In 1983, Kawasaki got a job at Apple through his Stanford roommate, Mike Boich.<ref name=about/><ref name=successmagazine>Template:Cite web</ref> He was the chief Apple evangelist for four years. In a 2006 podcast interview on the online site Venture Voice, Kawasaki said, "What got me to leave is basically I started listening to my own hype, and I wanted to start a software company and really make big bucks."<ref name=venturevoice>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1987 he was hired to lead ACIUS, the U.S. subsidiary of France-based ACI, which published an Apple database software system called 4th Dimension.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Kawasaki left ACIUS in 1989 to further his writing and speaking career. In the early 1990s he wrote columns that were featured in Forbes and MacUser magazines.<ref name=about/><ref>Kawasaki, Guy. The Beauty of Metaphor. Forbes. August 25, 1997.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also founded another company, Fog City Software, which created Emailer, an email client that sold to Claris.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=furchgott>Template:Citation</ref> A collection of namesake software utilities called Guy's Utilities for Macintosh (GUM), was published by After Hours Software in the early 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An edition of GUM for PowerBook systems was acquired by Gordon Eubanks and was subsequently remarketed by Symantec as The Norton Essentials for PowerBook.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
He returned to Apple as an Apple Fellow in 1995.<ref name=about/> In 1998, he was a co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm that has made investments in Pandora Radio, Tripwire, The Motley Fool and D.light Design.<ref name=alltop>Ostdick, John. Guy Kawasaki: Advice for Making Your Business Successful Template:Webarchive. Success Magazine.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2007, he founded Truemors, a free-flow rumor mill, that sold to NowPublic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is also a founder at Alltop, an online magazine rack.<ref name=successmagazine/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In March 2013, Kawasaki joined Google as an advisor to Motorola. His role was to create a Google+ mobile device community.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In April 2014, Kawasaki became the chief evangelist of Canva.<ref name="Canva">Template:Cite web</ref> It is a free graphic design website for non-designers as well as professionals and was founded in January 2013.
On March 24, 2015, Kawasaki joined Wikimedia Foundation's board of trustees.<ref name=wikimedia-board2015>Template:Cite web</ref> He stepped down at the end of December 2016.<ref name="Henner" />
On April 25, 2017, WikiTribune mentioned him as an adviser.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On February 26, 2019, Penguin Group released Wise Guy, described as Kawasaki's most personal book to date. While the book is written as what could be considered a memoir, it contains a series of vignettes that include various personal experiences that Kawasaki says have enlightened and inspired him.<ref name=InMenlo>Template:Cite web</ref>
In December 2019, Kawasaki created a podcast called Remarkable People. There are nowTemplate:When over 90 episodes available including interviews with Jane Goodall, Stephen Wolfram, Andrew Yang and Sal Khan. Kawasaki has stated that he believed the podcast was his best and most under appreciated work.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
Kawasaki and his wife have four children: Nicodemus ("Nic"), Noah, Nohemi, and Nate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nohemi and Nate are biological siblings whom the couple adopted from Guatemala.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Bibliography
- The Macintosh Way (1990) Template:ISBN.
- Database 101 (1991) Template:ISBN.
- Selling the Dream (1992) Template:ISBN.
- The Computer Curmudgeon (1993) Template:ISBN.
- Hindsights (1995) Template:ISBN.
- How to Drive Your Competition Crazy (1995) Template:ISBN.
- Rules for Revolutionaries (2000) Template:ISBN.
- The Art of the Start (2004) Template:ISBN.
- Reality Check (2008) Template:ISBN.
- Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions (2011). Portfolio Penguin, London. Template:ISBN.
- What the Plus! Google+ for the rest of us (2012) (only available on Amazon Kindle, iBooks, and on Google Play).
- APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur—How to Publish a Book (2013). (Guy Kawasaki; Shawn Welch) Nononina Press Template:ISBN.
- The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users (2015) (Guy Kawasaki; Peg Fitzpatrick) Template:ISBN.
- The Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything (2015) Portfolio Template:ISBN.
- Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life (2019) Penguin Group Template:ISBN.
References
External links
Template:Apple celeb Template:Wikimedia Foundation Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control
- 1954 births
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- 20th-century American writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American businesspeople
- American chief executives in technology
- American technology writers
- American writers of Japanese descent
- Apple Inc. employees
- Apple Fellows
- Hawaii people of Japanese descent
- Businesspeople from Hawaii
- Edu-Ware
- Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees members
- Google employees
- ʻIolani School alumni
- Living people
- Motorola employees
- Silicon Valley people
- Stanford University alumni
- UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni
- Writers from Honolulu
- American Wikimedians
- Shorty Award winners