Michael Arrington

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington's arrival in the Seattle area is getting a rise out of the local tech community today. "Oh dear god, no," wrote one TechFlash reader upon hearing the news. Arrington is a polarizing figure, especially in Seattle where some entrepreneurs and investors don't really like his portrayal of the tech community as the minor leagues. I chatted with Arrington this morning about why he loves to get Seattle's goat, as well as his thoughts on skiing, startups, competition with TechFlash and more.

Why are you moving to the Seattle area? "A big part of it is that my parents retired up here....There's a lot going on up here and I have a lot of friends up here. It is a vibrant tech community up here that is great. It is also a very quick flight to Silicon Valley. You can get direct flights anywhere from here, so it is a great travel hub. So, it just made a lot of sense.... The house that I had in Silicon Valley, I was renting. It was time to buy a house, and so that is a pretty permanent thing buying a house. So I decided to buy up here. You know, some day this might be my second house, but for the next few years this is where I am living."

Are you concerned about entrepreneurs tracking you down in order to pitch you on stories like they have in Silicon Valley? "I don't expect people from Seattle to do that because they don't need to, and they are not idiots. People from Silicon Valley generally didn't do that either. It was people traveling, people from Europe or Asia."

You said today that Seattle is a hotbed for entrepreneurs and a vibrant tech community. But in the past you've described it as the minor leagues. So, what is it? "I think any Seattle startup can go toe to toe with any Silicon Valley startup. I don't think there is a problem with starting a startup in Seattle. I think you have just as high of a chance of success, and there are a number of successful startups up here. Obviously, Microsoft and lots of others.... But there's just so much going on in Silicon Valley, that particularly from a reporter's point of view there are always interesting stories to chase. There's just less of it here. It is undeniable that there are fewer startups and there's less venture capital and there's less going on here than there is in Silicon Valley. Those are just the facts. I think there are startups here. There are startups in Austin. I think there are startups in Los Angeles, certainly New York, that are awesome, and I plan on covering them."

Arrington with his father at the World Series.

You've seemed to indicate that startups in Seattle aren't as good or don't work as hard. Are you doing that to get under people's skin or do you believe that? "I mean part of it is to get their goat. But part of it is when people talk about Seattle or they recruit other people to come to Seattle, they do talk about the lifestyle and you see it a lot in like: 'Hey, Seattle is such a great city to live in and there's cafes and there's water and there's skiing and it is fun.' It is just kind of funny, and it is an easy thing to pick on. It is a nice place to live. That's why I am living here."

On being an Internet provocateur: "Look, I have been rough on the Seattle community, and I think that there's this concept of the literal Web and some people take things way too literally. If you are not controversial, it is hard to get people fired up and interested in what you are writing about. Seattle is great. There is definitely a lifestyle issue up here, and people love living up here.... It is fun. It is fun to create rivalries and exploit them."

Will Arrington give Seattle tech entrepreneurs the bird?

So Seattle techies shouldn't fear you, they should welcome you with open arms? "They should welcome me with open arms, and tell me all of their secrets."

Are you going to step back from TechCrunch as part of this move? "No. And, in fact, there's something that I didn't put in the post but it is hard to put into words, at least in written word. We have a CEO and we have a whole support infrastructure at TechCrunch. But being the founder and also being the face of TechCrunch, there's just a lot of stuff I have to deal with every day that takes up a lot of time. And it has to be dealt with, but it is not fun. What I really love to do -- which is probably what you love to do -- is sit and write. I love being in front of my computer with my phone next to me and just chasing stories, getting stories and writing them. You know it gets to the point with TechCrunch in Silicon Valley, I spend literally all day dealing with little fires. Just little things here and there.... I couldn't really start writing until 7, 8, 9 o'clock at night. In the old days, I dealt with that by writing until four or five in the morning and sleeping until 10 or 11, going to work, dealing with the fires, then writing again at night. But I did that for five years and it is not sustainable."

So, you'll be writing more? "Being away from the office when I travel, I always found that I have plenty of time to write. Sitting in a hotel room, no distractions. So hopefully being up here away from the office will actually let me write a lot more. Like a lot, lot more. And that's what I love doing."

How much of a fixture do you plan to be in the Seattle tech community? "I plan to be around a lot, especially in the next few months as I dig in. I want to go to all of the events. I want to go to your event.... There is a lot going on up here, and press wise there is (TechFlash) ... and there's not a whole lot else. I think we need to bring a little competition to that market and I think it will be fun."

Arrington at the Gnomedex conference in Seattle.

So you see TechFlash and TechCrunch as more competitive? "I actually don't see it that way. Every time a new blog launches that covers startups, our traffic goes up.... You link to us all of the time. We link to you all of the time, and nothing is going to stop and that's a good thing. It is just more discussion. If there's an issue that's being discussed in Seattle and I weigh in, then there's maybe two slightly different opinions and it is more interesting."

On Seattle vs. Silicon Valley: "Seattle is a little bit like what Silicon Valley was in 2005 in the sense that -- I mean there was competition and there were people who didn't like each other -- but there was a real sense of community. And most people in the community were there to add to it... Seattle from my viewpoint has all of the good things that Silicon Valley had a few years ago, and hasn't developed the bad things. Maybe I am wrong, but that's how I see it."

On his skiing plans: "I love Mount Baker, and Whistler isn't far away. In Silicon Valley, to get to skiing is a three to five hour drive depending on traffic. Here, you can get to the slopes from Seattle in an hour if you go east."

Is TechCrunch profitable? "Yeah, we've always been profitable. We've never raised money. Some years more profitable than others."

Have you thought about selling? "I wrote a post about the end of hand-crafted content a few months ago. And as long as the economics work for us -- meaning I can run a profitable business and pay my staff really good salaries and give them stock options and profit sharing -- I want to keep doing it.... Some of the (tech) blogs have maintained their identity to some extent -- like Engadget to some extent. But a lot ... have just turned into what I will call farms. I don't mean that in the sense of some bad sort of spam farms are anything like that. You know looking at Google trends and writing a post based on that and it is formulaic writing, and I hope we never turn into that. There is no reason why TechCrunch and our competitors like you ... there's no reason why we can't be our own business over the long run, like 20, 30 years. I think independent press is a good thing, and we are not covering the White House and Watergate and things like that. So it is not like there is a real sort of political need for us to be independent. But I think independent blogs covering tech is also important, and so I hope we do stay independent. We've had offers. Eight months after I started TechCrunch we had an offer for a couple million bucks that I turned down. And we've had a few offers since then to either raise money or sell, and we've always turned it down. It has never made sense. I am not sure that I would want to work at a TechCrunch that had been acquired."

[Flickr photos via Joi]

[Flickr photo of Arrington at Gnomedex via Laughing Squid]