While others are better suited to pen a remembrance, I too have fond memories of Blake Krikorian – who most know as the guy behind the Slingbox.
We first connected the summer of 2005 on AVS Forum… which is an unusual place to find a company CEO geeking out (and taking on trolls). I had a bone to pick since Windows XP Slingbox support wasn’t sufficient, given what I assumed (wink wink) was a potential customer base of folks in corporate settings running Windows 2000.
In October of 2005, shortly after this blog got going and well before Sling Media hired me, Blake agreed to hop on a call for a recorded interview. Being the least productive blogger ever and given the poor audio quality, I never ran the conversation. Not to mention his handlers probably wouldn’t have appreciated me airing much of our fun, frank, and wide-ranging 60 minute chat. However, the prescient clip below highlights Blake’s focus on the consumer experience and foreshadows Sling’s ultimate acquisition by Echostar that led to the DISH Hopper with Slingbox — and the industry’s “TV Everywhere” trajectory as a whole.
Sorry to hear about Blake. I met him once at a CES and was surprised at how technical he was since he was also the CEO.
The world needs more Blakes, not less. My condolences to his family and friends.
I met Blake years ago at a CEA event when he was demo-ing Slingbox and he was engaging, enthusiastic and sincere. And in all the years I knew him, that never changed – he remained appoachable, willing to help, sincere in his friendship. What a class act: more entrepreneurs should use his legacy to see how you can be a great guy AND a great business leader at the same time.
We are so sorry about Blake Krikorian.He was a great CEO. We worked with him for a long time.