The internet helped make John Borthwick's career. Now he wants to remake the internet. Straight out of the Wharton School, he launched a web content studio that was bought by AOL, working there for a few years. He then hopped to Time Warner to lead its technology strategy. In the mid 2000s, he co-founded Betaworks, a venture capital firm that invested in household names like Twitter and Airbnb, and operates some of its own, like Giphy. He's here to talk about where the internet went wrong and how tech startups can help make it right.
Hello, everyone. I'm Andy Serwer. Welcome to "Influencers." And welcome to our guest John Borthwick, who is the CEO of Betaworks, which is a venture firm and so much more. We'll get into that. John, how are you doing?
JOHN BORTHWICK: I'm doing good. Nice to be here.
ANDY SERWER: Thanks for coming. I want to talk to you about technology. And there's so much to talk about in the world of tech these days. And you've been critical of what the big tech firms have been doing. Do you want to sort of just lay out your case? I mean, there's a lot to it, I know. But just sort of what's the basis of it?
JOHN BORTHWICK: I mean, I-- I think in 2019 it's clear that tech is no longer the-- when I started in this business, it was-- we believed and we were seeking to create magical experiences which would change people's lives. I think that, in 2019, tech is both the-- it's the solution to some problems, but it's also the problem in our society.
And I think that as software-- Marc Andreessen called it right. Software is eating the world. But I think that generally, we on the technology side haven't thought clearly or articulated clearly, what is that world we want to make. What is the future that we want to create?
And so I think you can see the sort of unintended, sometimes intended, consequences of just bad tech, which sort of looks like-- it looks like a pollutant. It looks like-- it's toxic. It's similar to cigarettes. And it's just I think not what I wanted to create in this business.
ANDY SERWER: Right. I mean, one thing I know that you were concerned about, just as a for-instance, are personal assistants with speakers in homes, like the products that Amazon has, and Facebook is getting into it, and Google, and all the rest-- and Apple. Why is that a problem, for instance, John?
JOHN BORTHWICK: I mean, I think that the-- the smart speakers are-- on one hand, they are this incredible innovation that represents the way that I think-- and my team, we talk about this, is we think about it as a new interface. Right? So think about you go into your kitchen, and you can talk to this device, and it gives you information.
Smart speakers-- also smart headphones, right, I have in the same category. So Siri-- with my AirPods in, I can speak to them. That's kind of cool, right?
So I would-- I would say that there's two or three layers of-- sort of problematic layers with these new smart speakers, smart earphones that are in market now. And so the first is-- from a consumer standpoint, user standpoint, is that these-- these devices are being used for what's-- it's hard to call it anything but surveillance.
And so there's been incidences of, there was a smart TV that was listening into-- a bunch of people bought the smart TV. American consumers bought the smart TV. 11 million-plus were sold in the US. And they were listening to the activity going on in the room, and using that to target ads and using that for data to be able to personalize experiences. But that is just-- that doesn't seem OK.
And then in the same way, these smart speakers-- I was particularly sort of disturbed by-- it sounds very wonky, but the-- the smart speakers are driven by an implication. You invoke it. And you say, hey, smart coffee cup--
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