Mg Siegler
M.G. Siegler is a general partner at Google Ventures, where he primarily focuses on early-stage investments. He has been deeply involved in the startup space since 2005, first as a web developer, then as a writer, and most recently as an investor and advisor.
Having spent the past year in London helping to get Google Ventures’ European organization up and running, M.G. is now back in the Bay Area, working mainly out of Google Ventures’ San Francisco office.
Before joining Google Ventures, M.G. was a founding partner of CrunchFund, an early-stage investment fund. Prior to that, he reported on the startup world as a writer for both TechCrunch and VentureBeat. M.G. still writes a column for TechCrunch on top of writing on his own sites and from time-to-time doing movie reviews in haiku.
Originally from Ohio, M.G. graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before moving out west to work in Hollywood. One day, he will write that killer screenplay.
CrunchBase profile →Featured Picks from Mg Siegler
Latest from Mg Siegler
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Mobile Burst
I use my phone far more than I use a computer these days. If you’re not already, soon, you’ll be doing the same. Yes, a huge part of this is that it’s a device that is always with you. But recently, there’s something else I’ve noticed too. For a few services out there, I far prefer to use their apps instead of their websites. What’s interesting is that I… Read More
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Why Magazine Apps Suck
Well, The Daily failed. It wasn’t all that fun while it lasted. And it didn’t last all that long. If everyone had known that it was going to cost $25 million a year to run, it probably would have been easy to predict its eventual failure. At a high level, the reality is simple: the economics didn’t come close to working. But because the media industry loves nothing more… Read More
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iTunes — It Goes To 11. (In Design, If Not Performance.)
Yes, that headline. Obvious. But appropriate. Yes, after much delay (about a month), iTunes 11 is here today. And yes, it is one of the biggest overhauls of the media management service yet. Perhaps the biggest. And yes, it is now better positioned to compete in the era of the cloud. And yes, they even made the icon a bit better. It was back at the iPhone 5 event in September, when Apple… Read More
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With Amazon, It’s Records All The Way Down — Which Is Brilliant
So let me get this straight: this year’s “Cyber Monday” (the worst fake holiday name in the history of fake holidays — and names) was a new record day for Amazon when it came to Kindle sales. So was “Black Friday” (at least this one sounds like a plague). Overall, the holidays brought “more than double” the numbers of last year’s record… Read More
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An iPad Lover’s Take On The Surface With Windows RT
When I saw the initial wave of Surface reviews hit, I started pinging some folks to see if I could get my hands on one to review as well. I wanted to try out Microsoft’s new device because I like testing all new devices, ensuring that I maintain a good sense of the overall landscape. Plus, I find it fascinating that Microsoft is now doing their own Windows-based hardware. It’s… Read More
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We’re Getting Very Close To The Perfect MacBook
For the past six months, I’ve heard the same thing over and over again: “The MacBook Pro with the retina screen looks amazing. I want that screen on a MacBook Air. That would be the perfect computer.” Well, we’re almost there. Not quite. But for some of you, we’re now close enough. What I’m describing, of course, is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the… Read More
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The Next CEO Of Microsoft Suddenly No Longer Works At Microsoft
“Floored.” “Wow.” “Wild.” Those are some of the reactions within Microsoft tonight upon hearing that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky would be leaving the company “effective immediately“. Those are the reactions because nearly all Microsoft employees found out about the news tonight alongside the rest of us. Read More
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The Surface Of Mars: My Date With A Microsoft Kiosk
“What’s the best feature of the Surface?” “Um, everything.” Thus began my experience at a local mall buying a Microsoft Surface. Read More
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If Pen Beats Sword, Camera Beats Pen
Yesterday, Instagram launched web profiles. To some, they’re lovely. To others, they’re long overdue. And to a great many, they’re ho-hum — an obvious way to inject yet another zinger about Facebook buying the startup for a billion dollars (but actually *only* $700-something million — ZING!). To me, these profiles are actually a very clear window into why… Read More
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Where The iPad Mini Fits On My Digital Tool Belt
Happy iPad mini day. Since my review a few days ago, by far the number one question I’ve been asked about the device is: how does it fit into my life? Do I really need another iPad — let alone a smaller, less powerful one with a non-retina screen? Will I use it alongside the regular iPad? What about alongside a MacBook? Instead of those devices? This question keeps coming up… Read More
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With The New iPad, Apple Accelerates; With The iPad Mini, It’s Pedal To The Metal
“So why is iPad so phenomenally successful? Well it turns out that there’s a simple reason for this,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told an audience at the Apple event last week in San Jose. “People love their iPads.” The response drew some awkward laughs as it seemed almost like the punchline of a misfired joke. But it wasn’t a joke — Cook was absolutely serious. Read More
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As Google And Amazon Fight Up, Apple Refuses To Fight Down
After this past week’s Apple event, one thing stood out to me above all others. And just to make sure, I watched the event again. Same result. The shots fired at Android tablets. For everything that Apple announced (new MacBook Pros, Mac minis, iMacs, iPads, and iPad minis), this was what I walked away thinking about. It was a fascinating look into the collective mind of Apple. Read More
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Cars That Fly *And* Float: Explaining Apple’s Q4 And Beyond
Apple’s Q4 2012 results were mixed. As usual, reading Twitter, you’d think this was the end of the world. Nevermind that Amazon managed to post a loss on $13.8 billion in sales today — Apple only made $8.2 billion in profit. “Ahhhh!!!!! What is wrong with Apple?!!!” “This would have never have happened under Steve!” That’s right, such a… Read More
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I Come Back To You Now At The Turn Of The Tide
A year ago sucked. I mean, it was actually great, but it sure seemed to suck at the time. We were getting CrunchFund off the ground and I think everyone thought we were going to do that in full conjunction with Aol — they were and are the largest limited partner of the fund, after all. Read More
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In The Age Of Cloud Music, The iPod Nano Endures — But For How Long?
I remember my favorite Sony Walkman. It was yellow. And bulky. And slow. And ugly. I loved it. It played cassettes. Cassettes! I took it to Australia one summer. It’s still something I think about from time to time. Just me and my music in this yellow player thousands of miles from home. So when Apple asked if there was a particular color of the new iPod nano that I wanted to test… Read More
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The New iPod Touch Will Further Obliterate The Point-And-Shoot Market
It’s easy to forget that the iPod touch didn’t even include a camera until 2010. While such a key feature has been standard on the iPhone since its initial unveiling in 2007, Apple apparently didn’t think it was one of the must-have features of the touch. That changes this year. With the new iPod touch (the fifth generation, for those keeping score at home), which was unveiled… Read More
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Welcome To TechCrunch’s Words-Driven Friday
For the rest of today, every story you read in TechCrunch’s main news river will contain words. This is an experiment, and it’s probably less of a risk than it might look. Words have always been central to TechCrunch’s approach. In fact, a huge number of our stories on any given day already include original words. Our word people call sources, check facts, and get words said… Read More
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With iPhone 5, Apple Has Chiseled The Smartphone To Near Perfection
You pick it up and it almost feels fake. That’s not to say it feels cheap; because it doesn’t — quite the opposite, actually. It just doesn’t seem real. Certainly not to someone who has been holding the iPhone 4/4S for the past two years. It feels like someone took one of those devices and hollowed it out. The iPhone 5 is here. I’ve had the opportunity to play… Read More
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Apple’s Magic Is In The Turn, Not The Prestige
The opening dialogue of Christopher Nolan’s 2006 film, The Prestige: Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course…it… Read More
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iPhone 5. Because Of Reasons.
It turns out we may have been over-thinking it. If the invite sent out this morning by Apple is any indication, the next iPhone is likely to be called the “iPhone 5”. No, it doesn’t technically make sense — it is the sixth iteration of the iPhone — and yet, at the same time, it makes all the sense in the world. It’s the iPhone 5 because that’s… Read More
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