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Featured on Mar 28, 2011
Greg Gortz
"If the world is a dark place, make it your business to build fires. That, and winning."
Bio:
Born Midwest and trying to make it in New York City. I have been in the sales/BD world for the last five years absorbing and learning from all the brilliant entrepreneurs in the tech community. In my former life, I was a bar-tender on Nantucket Island and a school teacher in Beijing. But nothing beats NYC.
What are some memorable moments that you had at SXSW this year (that you’re willing to share)?
Ha. Well, I worked with Jane Kim from Hashable and put together the NYC Startup Meetup during SXSWi. We wanted a way to introduce the emerging NYC start up community to the SXSWi attendees. Initially we thought we would get a hand full of start ups to meet at a bar. In the end, we had 40 start ups commit, 20 presentations, two great sponsors in WeWork and NYTechMeetup, and a keynote address from Albert Wenger of USV. It was a fantastic turn out and a great way for these start ups to recruit potential employees and network with the SXSWi attendees.
And the barbecue was pretty darn good.
In a previous interview that you did on Zemanta’s blog you discuss what attracted you to work there, but you never explained how you ended up there. So how did you end up at Zemanta as VP of Sales?
Good fortune. I was looking for a next step and I started talking to a successful entrepreneur I had previously worked for. He suggested I take a look at Zemanta and the great things they were doing. They had built this amazing content suggestion engine, rooted in natural language processing and were looking for a sales lead. It was a great fit.
Who do you admire?
Tough one, but I'd have to say my family. My parents make me want to be a better person. That and the Zemanta guys are ridiculously smart.