Fortune Takes a Look at Bram Cohen

jackstack writes "Fortune has an interesting article about bittorrent creator Bram Cohen. 'Right now I'm the CEO because I don't trust anyone else to be the CEO,' Bram says. The article goes into some interesting detail about Bram's state of mind, his poor history in college, and gives a glimpse of what it's like to go from being an unknown, brilliant geek - to the CEO of an $8.75 Million startup company."

Comments

It's all about the community

[Red_Foreman]

It's all about the community - what Bram did was to unify the community into donating bandwidth through BitTorrent, and that's what makes it so special.

Bandwidth costs money, and offering, say, Linux ISO's is expensive. But, if people opt in (BitTorrent) each person is joining a community and helping out with the cost of bandwidth - especially those who are accessing via an ISP and not through work.

It's the same level of cooperation that makes OSS so special.

Re:It's all about the community

[rovingeyes]

Your first line should read - "It's all about the community - what Bram did was to unify the community into donating bandwidth & pornthrough BitTorrent...". He made it popular by offering pr0n. See he has some marketing skills in him. I think he is qualified to be CEO.

Re:It's all about the community

[zerocool^]

Not to mention - the technology is so phenomenal, and yet executed so beautifully, that it takes the breath away.

For years, most of us have been thinking "The more people downloading the file, the slower it goes for every user", and have been trying to solve this delima.

Bram looked at the problem and said, "What if... the more people downloading the file, the faster it went?" And then he coded it.

I understand the technology, but I'm still in awe of its seeming ability to just shrug off the confines of the known universe in order to solve the problem. It's like someone walking into Boeing and saying, "Hey, instead of building these planes to carry people... what if gravity pulled people upward?" and then proceeded to make it happen.

This is the programming revolution of the decade, mark my prophetic words - BitTorrent and subsequent derivative technologies will be the biggest thing to happen to information technology this decade. If it doesn't awe you, you're just too jaded.

~Will

Ummm

[cached]

I don't mean to troll, but given that he has Asperger's Syndrome, should it not be in his best interest to give the job of CEO to somebody who is more charismatic (in the sense that he can communicate exactly what people will want to hear), in an attempt to gain extra customers?

Re:Ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

It's important to note that it's a self-diagnosis, not a medical one.

Re:Ummm

[DigiShaman]

Why should he hand over his title to some facist punk that will bank on his hard earned work. He's the brilliant guy that came up with this, he should run the company as he sees fits. Sometimes it's not about profit, but about ideals and vision.

Re:Ummm

[Karma_fucker_sucker]

but given that he has Asperger's Syndrome, should it not be in his best interest to give the job of CEO to somebody who is more charismatic

The job of a CEO is to provide direction and strategy for an organization. I would say that maybe he needs a PR person. He seems to be doing quite well as the CEO.

The other thing that has me thinking - who diagnosed his illness?
I've met quite a few people who said that they had various illnesses. When I asked them about the diagnosis and what the physician (or some other qualified expert) said, they don't say anything about an expert diagnosis: just something vague. I don't know about him, but I think a lot of folks use popular illnesses as an excuse for their own shortcomings or as an excuse for not doing something that they're not interested in doing.

Forgive my spelling, but I have spellexia.

Re:Ummm

[AsmCoder8088]

Asperger's Syndrome, for those who don't know what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger's_Syndrome

Re:Ummm

[eln]

Asperger's lies on the Autism Spectrum. However, the Autism Spectrum is extraordinarily vast, ranging all the way from barely impaired to completely nonfunctional. Most geeks are probably somewhere on the spectrum, they just aren't severe enough to consider getting tested. Since this guy is self-diagnosed, it's impossible to tell where on the spectrum he is. Most Asperger's people have perfectly normal lives, and can learn to be great communicators with training.

In my Management class last semester, we had a few CEOs of local companies come in. One said he had always been extremely introverted and technical (Asperger's? Possibly), but had learned to overcome it to an extent. As long as he could have his required periods of downtime by himself, he could handle the day to day CEO duties, including the public and social aspects.

A person with Asperger's is not necessarily retarded, and in some ways can be profoundly gifted. In my mind, someone with the analytical frame of mind that most Asperger's people have is the perfect candidate for a CEO position, which is concerned mainly with long-term strategy.

Re:Ummm

[MoggyMania]

Aspergers isn't an illness -- it's a neurodevelopmental disorder on the autism spectrum. It's also not "shortcomings" to be designed to do things differently than most people.

According to experts on autism Baron-Cohen, Atwood, and Wing, people identifying as being on the autism spectrum are accurate 99% of the time, because the internal characteristics are so striking. They can include severe sensory sensitivity, extreme motor clumsiness, weak or lacking depth perception, difficulty speaking (often with loss of speech under stress), extreme difficulty changing from one task to the other even if we want to, native use of different (autistic) body language that is incompatible with that of non-autistics, having multiple senses report one sense's information (like seeing colors for sounds)...

A LOT of stuff that comes nowhere near the neurotypical experience, and that we're aware is different long before we can name it.

Speaking as the moderator of three of the largest online discussion groups for adults on the spectrum, plus having been heavily involved in the community for four years now, I can pretty much verify their claim. Out of the many hundreds of people that have joined thinking that they're AS, I can only offhand think of one clearly that was obviously wrong, and two or three where I was uncertain.

Also, I can't imagine why anybody would *want* to claim they're one of us if they aren't. It doesn't get us out of anything that isn't obviously a meltdown-inducing problem (plus rarely even then), we're subject to constant criticism based on our differences or what we are... I'm proud to be autistic, but I hate the prejudice I encounter.

Re:Ummm

[Jozer99]

Sometimes fame outweighs charisma. If Linus hadn't invented linux, do you honestly think he would be a spokesperson for Transmetia?

Re:Ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

"Also, I can't imagine why anybody would *want* to claim they're one of us if they aren't."

You'd be surprised.

While it may not be present (or at least prevalent) in your circles, it's rather "popular" for teens to claim to have some kind of disorder. Whether it's Aspergers, dyslexia, bipolar, depression, schizophrenia, OCD. I've seen threads on sites like deviantART dedicated to things like "What kind of mental problem do you have?" and the post numbers are in the thousands, with people claiming to have all sorts of problems but offering no information when asked about diagnosis. Some even claim to have combinations of disorders that would be impossible to have in reality. I'm guessing it makes them feel "special" or "different." Like this one.

Re:Ummm

[still_sick]

For a while, whenever a similar story would come up - there would be a myriad of posts ala "I like technology and am socially awkward, therefore I must have Aspergers!".

Why would they make the claim? Probably it gives them an "excuse". It's no longer "their fault" that they're clueless when talking to people.

Of course one post on Slashdot does not equate to seeking out and joining one of your groups. I have no doubt that your claim is true.

Loved and hated

[Vvornth]

I can picture all the recorded media company execs getting together in small cabals, swapping stories on ways they'd like to kill Bram Cohen.

bittorrent as a business???

[Anonymous Coward]

I may be a good way to share files, but I'm afraid the investors are throwing their money away. It's like trying to make money off of FTP.

Worth

[squoozer]

How can this company be worth 8.75 million. What does it do that is worth that much a year? As far as I can see nothing. The only "product" it has it gives away for free. If it started charging a dozen open source versions would appear in it's place. Even if they didn't the system can be copied by others for virtually nothing. What is it with these really high value estimations?

Re:Worth

[Jherek Carnelian]

What is it with these really high value estimations?

That's just the dollar value of how much capital investment the company has received. Obviously someone thinks the company has potential, just because you are not privy to their business plans doesn't mean that the plans are not feasible.

Re:Worth

[mochan_s]

How can this company be worth 8.75 million

When Fortune magazine runs a story on the CEO.

The name BitTorrent is alone worth that. This is a name millions and millions of people know - it would take more than $8.75 million dollars to achieve that through advertising.

Good call on Bram's part

[MacFury]

He developed something unique and functional. If someone else takes over the company, they will probably just not "Get it"

Besides, CEO's of american companies are usually in it for the quick buck and end up screwing over the company they work for and all of it's workers. One CEO of a rather large company, forget his name...well...he presided over the company while its stock plumetted 20%, took a massive severence package and ended up making $54,000 an hour when it was all said and done. The average yearly salary of his employees...$35,000.

Going from P2P to P-NP?

[adavies42]

In the very last paragraph, it mentions Bram dropping by an old Bell Labs friend to talk about "satisfiability testing". If they're talking about 3SAT, does this mean he's working on P-NP?

enough with the aspergers

[circletimessquare]

there's always been smart people who can do complex topological analysis in their head but can't balance their checkbook

likewise, there have always been people whose minds always flit from one subject to the next every second- in other words, attention deficit disorder

but now we have these buzzwords, asperpgers and ADD and others, and people think its some miraculous discovery, and its all they talk about and they act like it explains all sorts of behavior

but it's just a fad, and meanwhile, the conditions have always been there, always will be there, and those who have these conditions are no more special or less special than the rest of us

cohen is a smart guy, and he can concentrate on a complex math problem, and he likes to do it, that's all, that's it

i'm just so sick of everyone jumping on the buzzword bandwagon, it doesn't mean anything

there once was a time in the 1800s when everyone thought phrenology was the end-all explanation of character and intelligence

it's long forgotten, like the racist pseudoscience it was

meanwhile, in a hundred years, when our language and our attention isn't controlled by the marketing department of large pharmaceutical companies, our hypochondriacal way of looking at our mental differences will have moved onto the next stupid fad

Re:enough with the aspergers

[hkb]

Why is this marked as troll? Cohen goes on about his "SELF-DIAGNOSED" Asperger's in every single fucking interview about him. He's never been diagnosed by someone qualified, like oh, say a doctor.

God it was stupid and pathetic the first time, and each successive mention just compounds the stupidity.

He wrote Bit Torrent, he didn't create the world in 6 days.

I hate to point out the obvious

[BewireNomali]

... but an undereducated, socially-crippled, obsessive-compulsive, uncouth geek found a fertile, viable woman to not only marry him, but bear him child thricefold...

dude is just getting his license. this is far more amazing than bittorrent and deserves its own thread.

does anyone know if she's hot?

Congratulations and ENCOURAGEMENT for all of us

[Work Account]

Bram Cohen, congratulations on your accomplisments.

May you continue to live a productive and happy life and continue offering innovative and hopefully open source software.

Let this serve as encouragement to all of us: with desire, dedication, brains, a computer, and Internet access, anything is achievable.

Do what you do best; for most of us this is coding!

Or the Web.

[PCM2]

I mean, after all, anybody can set up a Web site. How could a company possibly make money doing that??

I wish him luck

[SimplyBen]

As a founder of a funded startup myself I hope he suceeds, but statistically he won't. Maybe i'm alone here, but i'm having a hardtime envisioning the business model of such a company (and doubt his ability to lead it to profitability). Sure bittorrent is a neat technology: but its just that a technology, and an open one too. It appears to be a long shot, and thats why funding came from venture capitalists. From most slashdotters POV i'm sure that sounds awesome until you realize what accepting venture capital is typically about: 90%+ stock takeovers with rider clauses allowing the investment firm first dibs on any money withdrawn from the company. I hope he hires someone to run the company that can translate whatever products he comes up with into something that can actually be sold.

When your big, bandwidth finds you.

[IpSo_]

"In mid-October, Apple unveiled its long-rumored video iPod and started making some TV downloads and Pixar shorts available through its popular iTunes service. Navin says that the Google and Apple moves are both competition, but that BitTorrent's market will offer much more than just movies and TV shows. Plus, he speculates that Apple is paying "an astronomical price for bandwidth."

For anyone big, bandwidth becomes more and more of a non-issue. Only the little guys actually pay a significant amount for it.

Having worked for a web hosting company that went from small, averaging only 50mbits/sec in total, to over 800mbits/sec their overall bandwidth costs actually went DOWN. Why? Because once they started pushing over 100-200mbits/sec they could sign free, or next to free peering agreements with major Tier 1 providers. As long as you don't piss them off, and the agreement continues to be mutually benficial you get "free" bandwidth.

I'm sure Apple and any other big players pay fractions of a cent on the dollar for bandwidth.

I still believe Cohen's company can help out the little guys sell their wares, at least until they push enough bandwidth that it becomes cheaper to host the content themselves. I doubt you'll ever see Apple or the MPAA paying him money to host content though.