Marc Porat

Marc Porat
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Stanford University (PhD)
OccupationsEntrepreneur, angel investor
Known forFounding General Magic, and coining the term "information economy"
SpouseClaire Tomkins
RelativesRuth Porat (sister)

Marc Porat (born 1947) is an American technology entrepreneur, executive, and investor. He is known for his work on the concept of the information economy and for co-founding General Magic, an Apple spin-off that developed an early personal communicator device and intelligent software agents. He is a partner at Millennial Advisors, where he focuses on artificial intelligence.

Porat has also founded companies in telecommunications and sustainable building materials and has been involved in philanthropic work related to voter access.

Early life and education

Marc Porat was born Uri Porat in 1947. His father, Dan Porat, was a physicist, and his mother, Frieda Porat, was a psychologist. The family emigrated from Israel to the United Kingdom and later to the United States, where his father worked at the Harvard University–MIT Cyclotron Laboratory and subsequently at Stanford University's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. A documentary about his father's life, titled Dan, was produced by Porat.

Porat graduated from Columbia College in 1972 and completed a Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1976. His dissertation, The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement, analyzed the growth of the information sector and introduced the concept of the information economy.

Career

Early career

While at Stanford University, Porat was a research assistant on a project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), collaborating with Paul Baran and Vint Cerf.

After receiving his PhD, Porat served as an economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He was later a program director at the Aspen Institute, where he produced and hosted The Information Society, a PBS feature documentary film based on his dissertation. He also worked as a subject matter expert at Booz Allen Hamilton, advising on the deregulation of the telecommunications industry, and co-founded Private Satellite Network (PSN), a direct broadcast satellite company.

Apple Computer and General Magic

In 1988, Porat joined Apple Computer as a Director in the Advanced Technology Group, where he led a research project on the future of personal computing. The project was published by Apple as Whole Person Paradigm: Pocket Crystal. In 1990, the project was spun out of Apple as an independent startup, General Magic, which Porat co-founded with Andy Hertzfeld andBill Atkinson. Porat served as its chairman and CEO. General Magic's objective was to create a personal communicator for email, messaging, and electronic commerce. The architecture utilized a network of software "agents" and a new programming language called Telescript for intelligent mobile agents. The company formed joint initiatives with Apple, Sony, Matsushita, Motorola, AT&T, NTT, France Telecom,Toshiba, Philips, and held its initial public offering in 1995. Its product was sold under brand names including the Sony Magic Link and the Motorola Envoy. In the late 1990s, the company also developed an early voice-command virtual assistant service called Portico. Porat served as the CEO of the company from 1991 to 1996. The company has since been cited as being ahead of its time, as many of its product concepts were precursors to later technologies. A documentary film about the company, “General Magic”, was released in 2018 and has won many awards.

Other ventures

In 1998, Porat founded Perfect Commerce, a business-to-business software company for online procurement. In 2002, he was a co-founder of Serious Materials (later Serious Energy), a company that produced energy efficient building materials. In 2007, he founded CalStar Cement (CalStar Products) to manufacture low-carbon building materials and Zeta Communities to build prefabricated net-zero-energy homes.

Porat is a partner at Millennial Advisors, a consultancy focused on artificial intelligence. He is also a senior advisor to SandboxAQ, a startup focused on AI and quantum computing and private equity firms.

Philanthropy

Porat is the co-founder and chairman of My Ride to Vote, an organization that provides free ride share transportation for voters to polling stations. The initiative was created in partnership with Voto Latino to increase voter turnout by removing transportation barriers.

Personal life

Porat is married to Claire Tomkins and resides in San Francisco. His sisters are Naomi Porat, an entrepreneur and sustainability consultant, and Ruth Porat, the President and chief investment officer of Alphabet Inc. and Google.

References

  1. ↑ Madrigal, Alexis C. (June 29, 2017). "The iPhone Was Inevitable".
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Fisher, Adam (August 1, 2018). "The Company That Invented the iPhone in 1990". Intelligencer.
  3. 1 2 "Remembering Dan Porat, Pioneer Of Electronics And Israel". February 11, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Dan Porat - National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism". www.nationalfonds.org.
  5. ↑ "Study for Congress: Slower Growth Ahead". February 9, 1978 – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ↑ Schwartz, Ariel (April 7, 2014). "How Do You Create A New Economy Based On Purpose And Meaningful Relationships?".
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Marc Porat". May 28, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Computing in Your Pocket: The Prehistory of the iPhone in Silicon Valley". March 14, 2017.
  9. ↑ "General Magic - The Future, Too Early - Commoncog Case Library". commoncog.com.
  10. 1 2 3 Kline, David. "I Want" – via www.wired.com.
  11. ↑ Levy, Steven. "Bill and Andy's Excellent Adventure II" – via www.wired.com.
  12. ↑ Markoff, John (February 11, 1995). "COMPANY NEWS; General Magic Stock Surges on First Trading Day" – via NYTimes.com.
  13. 1 2 "General Magic's forgotten second act was the Siri of its era". July 27, 2018.
  14. ↑ "Event: Film Screening + Discussion: "General Magic" | Harvard…". Harvard Innovation Labs.
  15. ↑ Robertson, Adi (April 22, 2018). "General Magic is a nostalgic film about the '90s startup that imagined the smartphone". The Verge.
  16. ↑ Sullivan, Mark (July 26, 2018). ""General Magic" captures the legendary Apple offshoot that foresaw the mobile revolution".
  17. 1 2 "Startup Builders Make Waves in Recession's Wake". September 9, 2011.
  18. 1 2 "Silicon Valley tech leaders are reinventing themselves for a cleantech revolution". January 19, 2010.
  19. ↑ Ross, Andrew S. (July 10, 2012). "Serious Energy hit by spate of troubles". SFGATE.
  20. ↑ "Princess Beatrice-backed start-up community OPUS lands $2m funding boost".
  21. 1 2 "Super PAC offering free rides to Georgia's 6th District voters". ajc.
  22. ↑ Olen, Helaine (November 8, 2016). "Now Startups Have Figured Out How to Make Money on "Volunteer" Rides to the Polls" – via slate.com.
  23. ↑ Huffman, Jennifer (January 10, 2019). "Historic downtown Napa property to be redeveloped as a business retreat". The Napa Valley Register.
  24. ↑ "Green building's next frontier: Net-zero energy homes - San Francisco Business Times". www.bizjournals.com. May 25, 2009.
  25. ↑ Langley, Hugh. "Google's quantum 'Sandbox' group is spinning out as an independent company, with funding from Eric Schmidt and Marc Benioff". Business Insider.