At the Billionaires' Dinner, Tech Stars Move to Grown-Ups' Table
[A new weekly column on the people and culture of the high-tech world]
MONTEREY, Calif. — Like a lot of things in the frothy Internet world, it didn't take long for an annual get-together at one of the industry's trendiest conferences to show mindboggling growth—in this case a change in its name from the Millionaires' Dinner to the Billionaires' Dinner.
And why not? Sure, precious few of the people at the dinner supping on ahi tuna and shrimp scampi on Thursday at Cibo restaurant actually had billions in net worth. But the crowd was sprinkled generously with those who had amassed wealth beyond imagining in a historical eye blink. The muscle and money behind tech stars such as Microsoft, America Online, Sun Microsystems and others had gathered at the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference here.
When the host, New York literary agent John Brockman , added three zeros to the dinner last year, there was more than a bit of giggly discomfort among the attendees. The general agreement was that the provocative Mr. Brockman, who also runs a discussion Web site called Edge.org, was poking fun more than offering a description. The "B" word, many attendees insisted, just wasn't for them—who are really just regular people.
By last week, no one seemed to be bothering with such pretenses. Instead, the "M2B" shift seemed to fit the crowd gathered snugly in the warm restaurant on a chilly and rainy night as perfectly as the Jil Sander sweaters that had popped up among the more-typical jean shirts. And the chatter, which used to sound like gee whiz-kids playing at business, was now full of sober discussions of financing, deals, mergers and, most tellingly, the vast wealth that has been created and what to do with it.
One of the assembled moguls, Sky Dayton, who founded the EarthLink Internet access service (merged this year with its main rival MindSpring), zeroed in on the feeling immediately. "In a way, the whole tone of being understated was set long ago by Bill Gates and his insistence of doing things like flying coach," he said, surveying the scene. "But I think that is just about over."
Last year, he points out, many of the attendees came by private jet, but took pains not to talk about it. Now, "I think no one pretends any more that they fly coach," he laughs. "They seem less afraid to show their success."
As the Internet takes its first major steps out of adolescence, many of its leaders are, too. You could hear the new grown-up tone in the conversation topics at the dinner: Wall Street's recent trashing of some once-loved Web consumer stocks, the generous funding of slighter and slighter ideas by investors, a vague worry that the giant valuations need to be justified much sooner than intended.
The most grown-up topic of all was the longtime Web underdog America Online Inc.'s recent deal to acquire media powerhouse Time Warner Inc. AOL Chairman Steve Case, a regular guest of past dinners, missed this one so he could iron out details of the merger.
"Maybe [he's] out buying AT&T," joked one Internet executive. "You could never have imagined even imagining that a year ago."
Certainly not, said Brewster Kahle, one of the Web's most successful entrepreneurs—he sold his first company to AOL and his second to Amazon.com Inc.—who admits some stupefaction about how the Web's efforts have turned out. "It has been so very unreal, like it does not exist sometimes," said Mr. Kahle.
The unrealness factor is still high here at Cibo. In one corner is Nathan Myhrvold, who made a fortune as Microsoft's top research executive and now studies volcanic lava flows, among other things. He loves math and thinks it will prevail in the new Internet economy. "You have the law of averages, so some startups are going to come down on the weak side," he said. "But, others are going to make a real difference."
As he says this, Michael Milken, the financier who embodied another world changing gold-rush—Wall Street's takeover boom of the '80s—is taking compliments from many who gather around him. An Internet investor himself, he came to give a speech at the conference earlier in the day—about cancer research and financing——that was a big hit.
Another guest, Lazard Freres & Co. investment banker David Braunschvig, is talking about the favorite term among the Web players he advises: unit. A unit is $100 million. "They now don't think it's anything unless there are many, many units involved in an IPO, a merger, a stock sale," he says. "Can you believe that?"
It's the sense of unrealness that has kept moguls like these from taking themselves, their wealth and their world too seriously until now. While the old-style wealthy often live tucked away in isolated splendor and entitlement, the new class of plutocrats had always affected a different style: Ignore the Mount Everest of cash I am sitting on. Look, I wear Gap khakis just like everyone else.
"I am not sure why we acted that way," said Mr. Kahle. "But it seems the tone."
Searching around for a way to describe the group he is sitting among, a friend Mr. Kahle was visiting in Japan recently bestowed another name upon him and his Internet colleagues: the '99ers. "Like them, we have all been striking gold in California," Mr. Kahle says. Many of the Web's players have long affected the attitude that the whole thing has really just been one really cool lark.
"I think," he says, surveying the crowd, "now we all are beginning to wonder how it is going to affect us beyond just making the big score."