These "chasm crossing" technologies include the:

• first color ink jet printer - HP
• first hand held PC with wireless communication - HP/Motorola
• first software interface that transformed Windows into "Rooms" - Xerox PARC
  
• first desktop video editing system - Radius/Adobe/Apple
• first multimedia "movies" - Eden Interactive
  
• first PC/Unix/Mac local area network - Sun Microsystems - TOPS Division
  
• first portable CD ROM Player - Media Vision
• first fax/modem/phone on a single chip - Cirrus Logic
• first Macintosh clone - Nutek
• first system-level PC security system - Phoenix Technologies
  
• first software product that automatically fixed technical support problems - CyberMedia
• first automatic software update service - Oil Change/CyberMedia
• first desktop search engine - Enfish
• first service that put Internet web pages on any wireless device - Everypath
  

Revolutionary products will only succeed if winning relationships are first created with the early adopters, press pundits and reference customers. It involves risk taking and foresight. As someone once said, "Every advance in civilization has been denounced as foolish while it was still recent."

Imagine sitting in a meeting, in the late 80s, while HP executives debated if anyone would ever find a use for a color ink jet printer. It seems obvious today. Or the press laughing in the early '90s when Radius suggested that someday, millions of consumers would be editing and broadcasting their own video. (Now, in 2006, they finally are--and Radius technology plus Adobe Premiere still sets the standard.) I also remember 1996, launching Oil Change, by teaching consumers why they needed to update their software. ("It's like milk -- it spoils. It should have an expiration date.") Today, we update our software continually, but then it was a revolutionary concept.

As a consultant to the many of the world's leading Internet and software companies, I've helped launch some of the most successful technology products in history, generate the early visibibility to help companies raise up to $100 million in venture capital funding, attract partners, and lead a company through a successful IPO named "IPO of the Year" by Red Herring. These include:

Blue chip publicly-traded (and private) technology companies like:

Hewlett Packard, Xerox, ASK/Ingres (now Computer Associates), Citrix, FileNet, Cirrus Logic, Phoenix Technologies, ERG Group, Claris, Sun Microsystems (TOPS Division), Panda Software (a $300 million privately-held European anti-virus vendor.)

Innovative technology startups like:

CyberMedia (acquired by Network Associates and now known as McAfee.com), ClearSpeed, Postini, NeXT, Media Vision, Frame (acquired by Adobe), Radius (acquired), Vadem, the ALICE artificial intelligence project, Enfish, JiWire, Invisible Worlds and Everypath.

Consumer products such as:

FriendFinder online dating, Eden Interactive (Multimedia titles: American Impressions and Greg Le Mond's Bicycle Adventure), Brilliant Photo, Admiral Envelope and Fuel Sell Technologies.

Non-profit organizations:

Yoga for Health Conference, Truth, Love and Freedom Healing Arts Festival, CompuMentor, Friends of the Urban Forest, Desert Survivors, Media Alliance and the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute.

As a journSalon , Red Herring, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal alist, my articles have been published in many magazines, including: Upside, InfoWorld, MacWeek, Microtimes, San Jose Mercury News, San Jose Metro, Sunset, City Sports, Whole Life Times, Pacific Sun, San Francisco, City Living and SF Weekly. A graduate of the prestigious Maui Writer's Conference, I studied investigative journalism training with the Center for Investigative Reporting, speechwriting with the noted political speechwriter Jayne Gaynor and hold a degree in journalism.

I ghostwrite articles for CEOs that have been published in magazines like: Computer Reseller News, eWeek, B to B and ComputerWorld.

And, perhaps as karmic retribution for subjecting so many others to the limelight, I've been quoted in: Salon, Wall Street Journal, Red Herring and the New York Times.

A practitioner of yoga for more than ten years, I am the co-founder of the Yoga for Health Conference and a member of the Craigs List Foundation Advisory Board.