louisgray.com : Silicon Valley Blog

Since 2006, I've utilized LouisGray.com as a platform to express my personal observations on the world of technology, the Web, and innovation. As a massive consumer of technology, living and participating in the heart of Silicon Valley, I have tried to deliver an unfiltered approach to the day's trends and tools, one that opens eyes and is my viewpoint alone - not echoing what others have said, but instead, making people think - not just about what technology does today, but where it's going.

I write LouisGray.com without a hidden agenda, and am not in this venture for profit. In the years of writing the blog, I've enjoyed learning and listening to some of the thought leaders in the world of tech, and have, at times, been surprised to how much they are listening back. I've had a unique opportunity to help provide direct feedback to companies, from the very largest, to the very smallest, using my blog as a megaphone.

As a single individual, I know I can never outwrite and outshout large blog networks or those who can write more frequently, with blogging more closely tied into their day jobs. I recognize that I cannot win the race of popularity or total posts. But I also know that with focus and transparency, I have been lucky enough to see entrepreneurs ask me for help in shaping their products. I've talked with book authors about how new Web technologies are shaping business, marketing and communities, and I've seen the site grow, organically, gaining readership and subscribers, who share the same passion I do for making technology connect with consumers.

In 2008, I began to feature posts from guest authors, including Michael Fruchter, Jesse Stay, Rob Diana, Mona Nomura, Ken Stewart, Daniel Pritchett and others. None of the guest authors are provided regular compensation, nor are they assigned stories, or given a quota to fulfill. Instead, they are welcome to submit items relevant to regular readers of the site.

In the last 24 months, major topics for LouisGray.com have included next generation RSS feed readers, link aggregation, the practice of internal linking versus external linking, original source attribution, and whether it's better to be an early adopter, or a critical reviewer. While we don't write articles strictly for the purpose of gaining notoriety, seeing spikes in visitors, comments, or links, we have been pleasantly surprised by recent traffic increases, and recognition from across the blogosphere. We hope to include you as an RSS subscriber or frequent visitor.

About Me

Most recently, I worked as the director of corporate marketing at BlueArc, a Silicon Valley technology company in the high performance network storage space, from January 2001 to April 2009, with a focus on public relations, demand generation and content creation. Prior to BlueArc, I was the Web Marketing Manager for 3Cube, a communications application service provider, sold to Oracle in 2001. Prior to 3Cube, I was an e-commerce analyst for Internet Valley, Inc.

I earned my degree from UC Berkeley in 1999, double majoring in Political Science and Mass Communications, where I also worked as the Online Editor for the school newspaper, The Daily Californian, also holding reporter positions, covering crime the UC regents and city council. I first started working in Silicon Valley back in 1998, and live, with my wife, in Sunnyvale, California. In addition to technology, I hold a passion for sports, closely following the Oakland A's, California Golden Bears and Sacramento Kings, enjoy electronic music, politics and media.

In the last year, I have participated in speaking roles or panels at the SXSW Interactive conference, the Inbound Marketing Summit, and BlogWorld Expo - and am always willing to discuss the future of the Web, social media, and Silicon Valley technology, should you be interested in my participating. I am also open to meeting with companies and groups on a per-hour or per-day basis.

Disclaimer and Disclosures

Advisory Roles
I hold advisory role positions with four companies, as of May 2009, including ReadBurner, Inc., SocialToo, BuzzGain and TeensInTech. None of the four agreements involve any payments. Three of the agreements offer a small equity stake in the private companies, in exchange for verbal and written advice, product roadmap discussions, and strategy. On occasions, I will have knowledge of their future products and plans, which may be deemed competitive with other products I cover on the site. I am always willing to learn of new opportunities, and as they become concrete, they too will be disclosed.