ML122: Steve O'Hear on How To Ask Great Questions and the State of the Global Tech Industry
Learn how technology has affected journalism and changed the rules of the game, the key to asking good questions in an interview and the current state of the global tech ecosystem.
Steve O’Hear is a leading technology journalist for Techcrunch where he focuses on European startups, companies and products.
Steve has written for some of the world’s top publications and has also started a company himself, co-founding the London and Prague-based startup Beepl, In his role as CEO there, Steve helped the company raise its first round and develop and launch its product.
A man of many talents he also wrote and directed the critically acclaimed documentary 'In Search of the Valley', which was released in back in 2006 spending one month visiting and talking to many of the valley's biggest personalities.
In this episode we discuss:
- How technology has affected journalism and changed the rules of the game
- Steve’s tips and tricks for asking good questions in an interview
- The current state of the global tech ecosystem and whether we’re in a bubble
We also discuss Steve’s experiences as a founder and filmmaker, which makes this episode a wide-ranging and multidisciplinary one. So whether you’re curious about the state of the global tech industry, how journalism is evolving or what it takes to make the most of an interview, this episode has you covered.
Show Notes
- Introducing Steve [00:33]
- Why did Steve find school particularly hard? [01:56]
- Who were the people that Steve found inspiring growing up? [02:40]
- Why did Steve pursue journalism? [03:14]
- How did Steve get a job in The Guardian? [04:38]
- What was the inspiration behind the documentary 'In Search of the Valley'? [07:00]
- What was Steve’s experience staying in Silicon Valley for a month to do their documentary? [11:12]
- What insights about Silicon Valley did Steve take away from interviewing the valley’s personalities? [12:30]
- Is the Silicon Valley mindset credited to the location? How does the network effect amplify people’s ambitions? [14:13]
- How did writing for TechCrunch inspire Steve to build his own startup, Beepl? [15:36]
- How did starting his own startup change Steve’s perspective as a journalist for TechCrunch? [18:03]
- What does Steve consider good journalism? How does he navigate the different innovations in the tech sector? [20:19]
- What does Steve’s process of completing a story look like? How fast and effective are his interactions in online channels? [23:46]
- How do you formulate a good question? Why does Steve prefer to be direct when interviewing people? [28:55]
- Why emotional-based questions enrich an otherwise standard conversation with Steve [32:14]
- Why does Steve maintain open and honest conversations even with his subjects? [33:27]
- What is Steve’s take on the current status of the tech industry? [35:06]
- What current developments in tech is Steve interested in? [28:46]
- While tech today is filled with opportunities and benefits, are there things that Steve is pessimistic about? [42:46]
- What has Steven changed his mind about recently? [47:36]
- Closing remarks [48:31]