Keen On

Few innovators have had a better front row seat on the internet revolution than Idealab chairman Bill Gross. Having founded Idealab in 1996, Gross has been a participant in every wave of digital innovation - from Web 1 and 2.0 to Web 3 and today’s AI revolution. He’s also been a frequent speaker at events like DLD, the Munich based annual conference which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in January. And so, having visited Gross at his ultra cool Idealab offices in Pasadena, I asked the serial entrepreneur and investor to reminisce about the last twenty years of tech history. What were his greatest successes and failures? And how fundamentally different is today’s AI boom from the other cycles of innovation that he’s experienced?Bill Gross founded Idealab in March 1996. Bill is a lifelong entrepreneur, starting his first solar business in high school. After graduating from the California Institute of Technology, Bill started GNP Development, Inc., which made a natural language product for Lotus 1-2-3 calle