Podcast -- Jason Calacanis, Mahalo

18-03-2008

by Tom Raftery

Tom's guest this episode is Jason Calacanis. Jason is the founder of Weblogs Inc., and more recently founder and CEO of Mahalo, the human-powered search engine. Tom invited Jason to come on Podleaders to tell him a little about Mahalo.

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Here are the questions Tom posed to Jason along with their times during the interview:

How did you get into the Internet first day and what businesses were you in before Mahalo? - 00:22

You got involved in Internet businesses quite early on, Weblogs Inc. comes to mind.. - 03:14

Audience questions:

Pat Phelan -- Can you ask him if they have any plans for Techcrunch 40 this year please Tom? - 05:14

Solnyshok -- Why no engadget in Russian? I could write for it. - 10:33

hostyle -- How well does he know Veronica Belmont (of Mahalo Daily)? How long does he reckon until she's free of that Engadget guy and would she be willing to come live in Ireland? - 12:52

ross -- and if he knows Amber MacArthur and Morgan Webb my phone number is 087... :D - 14:01

Tell me about the Tesla, you were tailing it the other dayÂ… - 18:43

Laurent Blondeau -- Well Tom, I don't really realise the consumer benefits of such Mahalo, just one network more in the jungle... Maybe it's not obvious to me (and I just want to learn more of it!), but this portal is no more than contents/social/contacts aggregation; what are developments of next steps and features on-going? Is there any partnership in goal, soon, with some actors of social networking? If you can clear this up for me... - 22:57

How many people are adding links into Mahalo every day? - 32:08

Eoghan McCabe -- Could you ask him please if he still thinks SEO is BS? I said the same recently on my blog and have been compared to Jason "who has his own agenda for coming out with such gibberish" - 36:32

Bernie Goldbach -- Hi, Jason. IÂ’ve listened to your journey against fat, learning some things that might help me improve my health. I wonder if you've noticed any significant changes in your mental state. Have you euphoric moments more frequently now? Are you less stressed out with mumblings of your name from across the Bay? Are you sleeping better?" - 41:59

Why in the world desecrate a Corvette with canary yellow doodoo masquerading as paint? - 41:59

Ken McGuire -- How about a slightly off topic question. If Jason Calacanis had to pick just one album to bring with him anywhere (be it on his iPod / phone / media player of choice), what would it be and why?

Always interested in what people listen to! - 45:44

Larry Miller -- Two Questions and One Comment: 1) Can he give us any hint into what he is going to announce at SES2008? 2) Can he elaborate about the contest he mentioned on his blog last month? Lastly, Please tell him he is an inspiration to us all and THANK YOU! - 46:51

Last question before we wrap - have you kissed and made up with Dave Winer? - 50:13

All content, including audio interviews is copyright of Tom Raftery of Podleaders.com. Tom Raftery is a social media and communications consultant, blogger, podcaster and professional speaker. Tom is leaving his current gig and is now actively looking for a new job. You can see Tom's skills set and his cv here.