>> if mike cassidy were a ballplayer, he would be batting 1,000. he's gone 4 for 4 on multimillion dollar startups making him one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country. plus, entrepreneurs not from the country. the mexican government sending business people to learn silicon valley secrets. this week's guests in conversation with our reporters from "usa today" jon swartz and maggie shiels of the bbc this week on "press: here." good morning. i'm scott mcgrew. my first guest is not the richest man in silicon valley

though he is rich. the smartest? maybe. he has a degree from harvard and works at google. what we can say for sure is mike cassidy is one of the winningest entrepreneurs in the valley creating and selling companies. i first met mike about ten years ago. he was already a millionaire but working in an office with just one other employee and a dumpy office at that. our photographer lit it with red lights to make it look more interesting than it really was. mike was at the time working on a program he called xfire that helped friends find each other in the growing world of online gaming. >> there are over 90 million people in the world today playing games online. >> he and his partners sold xfire to mtv networks for $110 million. it was his third million dollar deal. he sold his first company for

$13 million. his second, a search engine, sold for a half billion dollars to ask.com and xfire 110 million. even his dad told him to quit working but to that he added a stint as a venture capitalist and then started up another company called ruba that enables every day internet users to hand out travel advice. what did mike do with ruba? he sold it to google. we're joined by maggie shiels from bbc and jon swartz from "usa today." you are not mike cassidy. that's the one thing that perhaps you don't do. you have managed to sell four for four, right? >> yes. >> vastly diverse startups. you didn't do the same thing

again and again and again which is what some people do. >> right. one was internet search. one was pc online gamers and last one was for recommendations based on signs in travel. >> do you know all those things? those are four things you know? >> i like going into new spaces for a couple reasons. one is sometimes it's easier to actually come up with new ideas because you're not sort of stuck in the that won't work paradigm and it's also fun to go to that phase where when you are first in the new industry, nobody returns your calls for months and months and months and then after a while you get traction and they start calling you back and that's fun to go through that. >> i have a feeling your calls get returned quite a lot. >> every time i start a new one. it's still painful and nobody calls me back for a while. >> even now 4 for 4 hundreds of thousands of dollars. nothing. >> when i start a new one. >> what about the next one? what is the next big thing for

you? >> i'm at google now which is a blast. i focus on where i am and don't think ahead. >> what is it like giving for another guy given that you have worked for yourself and done your own thing for so many years. >> google is crazy. you don't feel like you are working for someone. you feel like you have big projects to go on and you tackle them and even people supposedly on my team don't ask me what to do. >> at google you can create something on your own and build a team around it without necessarily having to start from scratch and you have resource behind you to do that. >> that's exactly right. >> what is it you do at google? can you talk about it? >> i'm the director of project management for search. the core search engine which is exciting for me because my second company was an internet search engine. >> do you know what you're doing? i mean that in the sense that you've not known what you're doing in the past. are you learning as you go or have you got a good idea as to how this works? >> it's a fire hose analogy

that's true. for first five weeks i didn't know half of what is being thrown around. you learn fast. >> of the four companies that you started and sold, was there any of them that you wanted to take public or were you approached and blown away by the offer? >> we filed our s-1 and we were supposed to go on the road show but that was a crazy time. that was december of 1999 and when ask came with the 500 million, that sounds like a good opportunity. grass is always greener. now i wish we would have stayed the course. >> look at what they've done. that worked out well. >> this is just a personal curiosity and you will probably not understand the question at first. when somebody buys your company for $500 million? how does that work? you sign a bunch of papers -- having never done this -- you

sign a bunch of papers and do they print a check out or do you go to wells fargo and say -- >> that's a good question actually. >> how does that work? >> it's all wire transfer. there was one check that had whatever 10 million plus digits on it that we carried to the bank which was fun. >> you went to a teller. >> it was great. it is good. it's amusing. >> you should document that. >> have you kept your bank statement where it says off the charts balance? >> i have. the most amusing thing is i get my social security statement every year and it looks like this year your total salary was $11,000. this year it was -- every startup i make dirt in the beginning and then i have a big payout and then i make dirt again. >> did you take time off, relax your brain, think about buying a private island, a private jet? >> i don't have a private jet.

i want the private jet. >> the private island? >> that would be fun too. >> you have to have some place to fly to. >> one time i went to berkeley college and music between startup companies which was a total blast. incoming freshman at berkeley college. they go through orientation. i say i have three college degrees already. it was fun. another time i was at benchmark which was a blast. >> did you like that? a lot of people i've spoken to have kind of said that they haven't really enjoyed that experience. i think it's the kind of being in a corner everybody waiting for you to come up with a big idea for everyone else to make money from. >> i did enjoy it. benchmark put very little demands on me. they didn't require me to go to a lot of pitch meetings or things like that. they put very little pressure you have to do this by a certain date or whatever. >> i'm sorry to interrupt, for a viewer that doesn't know what that is, sketch us through that.

>> it's a dream job in some ways. they pay you. you sit there and you can brainstorm ideas and if you want to get to market research you walk down the hall and you work on a project and say would you like to talk to ceo of verizon. sure. that would be helpful. they get you a phone call. you brainstorm ideas and bounce them off them and they want the opportunity as you come up with ideas to pitch them and they do get to invest. >> what advice would you give to entrepreneurs trying to come up with their next big idea that will make money for them? that's what silicon valley is full of. full of guys and females who are trying to make it big. >> i always say look for where there's problems. it's not that hard. there's lots of things going wrong. if you can't find things in your life that work -- >> the solution is the hard part. a practical solution to build into a business. you make it look easy but it's hard for me actually to find besides yourself people who have

more than two big successes in a row in tech. >> first of all, it's not easy. i can tell you horror stories. horror stories about my companies. three times they've been two weeks away from shutting down out of payroll disastrous things go wrong. every horrible thing goes wrong. the pain. it's not easy. second thing three out of my four companies had to change direction. first idea completely failed. i always encourage people to get in the space. get in the game. >> you can adapt well. >> once you're in the game, you'll learn what -- the first company we were going to change the way everyone shops for groceries by scanning bar codes as you throw your grocery item into the trash and go to the telephone and change the way everybody shops. then we realized that's not going to work. along the way we were like the computer tools were weak so we said we'll build that. >> we'll talk more about microcassidy and his startups

when "press: here" continues in just a moment.

>> we're talking with mike cassidy. so excited about it. talking about him during the break as well. one of the things that came up was speed. you've had companies that went very fast from start -- from idea to people answering the phones. >> yeah. i probably say speed is the ultimate weapon for startups. i have this presentation that 18,000 people have seen. i believe in speed in every stage of the company in raising money, i think i raised seven rounds of venture capital and i got the signed term sheet from venture capital the same day i pitched them. hiring. i give offers the same day people come in for the interview we sort of huddle while they're

there and give them an offer before they leave and we say great. we're excited. are you ready to accept? don't rush you. come back tomorrow morning at 9:00 and let us know. >> you have paperwork done. everything worked out. >> by the time you do that, you'll find other companies that take years or go public and the market isn't there and then they want to find a buyer and yours is almost instantaneous. remarkable. >> we look for excitement and turmoil. when we came into the online game space it was a tumultuous time and there's advantage to momentum you get when you move that fast. >> do you get bored easily then? >> many people think i get bored easily, yes. and that's one of the funny things i used to say. as a entrepreneur whenever a meeting got boring, the meeting

was over. if i was listening to a pitch, sometimes i would be polite for an hour and that was hard for me to do. >> why haven't you stopped? why haven't you just sat back and enjoyed the benefits? >> i'm happy doing this. i'm much more happy doing this. >> it's not about money for you? >> no. >> that's interesting. some people use money -- at some point money becomes irrelevant. not for me but that's what i heard. they use it as a score. you don't feel that way at all i don't get the sense. >> the goal is happiness. so don't confuse the goal. many people use money as a means to the end. why not just go to the end. >> i imagine you like two or three ideas that you think about that are germinating in your brain thinking maybe i leave -- not saying you'll leave google but maybe i jump to something else. >> sure. there's always ideas bubbling around. you know, at google there's five

new ideas a day. i think we did 125 improvements last quarter on stuff we're working on and i've got seven project managers on my team and every day somebody comes up with a new idea. that's the challenge there. we have a billion queries a day. it's fast paced. >> why would they want someone like you who is so used to working for yourself, doing your own thing, surely they would worry you'll be a fly by night only there six weeks but you may go in six week's time. >> they do want the drive and speed and intensity that i bring. and in terms of how long will i be there? i'll be there as long as i am happy. i'm happy now and they treat me great. this is great experience for me to work on products that touch hundreds of millions of people every day. i never had that.

for me the kid in the candy shop. you have an idea and roll it out and hundreds of million people see it that month. >> that seems like a logical place to stop. mike cassidy, wonderful venture capitalist and nice guy. thank you for being with us. when we come back, the country of mexico tries to find its own version of mike cassidy.

welcome back to "press: here." here is something those guys on cable news don't talk about. hundreds of mexican citizens cross the border into california each year seeking venture capital for their internet startups. here are some of them at a meeting sponsored by the mexican federal government's ministry of economy taking part in an

incubator mexican companies learning how to pitch american company capitalist and how to get business in the silicon valley or taking that new knowledge back to the santa fe neighborhood of mexican city. mexico has the second largest gross domestic product in the spanish speaking world behind spain and a nonprofit organization funded by the mexican government wants to grow that gdp sending mexican businessmen and women to silicon valley, austin, detroit, phoenix, seattle and montreal and vancouver. jorge is the man behind the effort and ceo of the technology business accelerator joined by "usa today's" jon swartz and bbc's maggie shiels. we're really represented in the countries of the world. mexico is not what i think of

what i think high tech and you do more than high tech. we'll talk about the other stuff in just a moment. how much of mexico's economy is high tech and is it growing? >> it is growing. we are seeking how to bring technology and mindset of the people. you can not imagine there is more students in computer science in mexico than in the u.s. >> say that again. that surprised me. more students -- >> in numbers we have about the same number of people getting degrees in computer science in the u.s. >> is that because you're playing catchup with the u.s.? >> that's right. we're focusing how technology is going to be really do well. it's very important and we're focusing on that.

we recently built competitive but the focus is how we jump into knowledge based economy based in technology and technology means any things. not just software. >> do you use israel as a model of how you want to do this? there are companies based in silicon valley that have operations in israel and a couple weeks ago i went to an israel conference where there was a huge presence from google and oracle. >> israel has small country. mexico has tremendous opportunity. we have a fantastic condition and that's one of the things we're seeking. how we learn venture capitals to make an interview to michael cassidy and how we replicate

that. we shop companies that are getting into that business and we pursue how we create that. >> how do you appeal to a u.s. entrepreneur? how do you convince them to establish some sort of presence in mexico or vice versa? >> there are two different models. one is mexico to learn the technology where we provide service capabilities. a tremendous amount of companies from ibm and hp and oracle announcing things like that and that's the kind of things that can be done and we're inviting to have a meet iing. >> what about perception of doing business in mexico? it doesn't have the greatest of reputations. >> that's what i was just going

to say. this is going to be your second point. much of what mexico is doing, every country wants to draw in american investment i think but in this case mexico is coming out of the country and coming into silicon valley as well. but then that goes to your point. what sort of roadblocks are you having? >> in fact, the focus is how to go outside of the country and learn how to do things and we can learn how to do business here and establish in the u.s. and then seek venture capital. the idea is how to bring that foreign investment into mexico and provide the capability to do the high tech abilities and use the people and use the benefit to be close in technologies for

example solar energy is hard to bring things from far away and do that closer to the u.s. and that's a strong advantage. that's two parts. how to bring knowledge and companies here to learn how to do that kind of business and grows companies that aren't able to generate dollars for employees that are friends to investment generating $20,000 a year for employees. >> how do you create the next mike cassidy? what is it that you entrepreneurs copping out of mexico coming to silicon valley and detroit what are lessons they learn that they are taking back home? >> silicon valley is a place you can talk to people in the streets like mike cassidy and share ideas of things that aren't feasible to do in mexico. there's a lot of things going

on. recently there was a group of 14 students from mexico that came here and worked with the organization to learn how to build a product. that sharing is interesting. this year the group of mexico came here. last year a group of people came to mexico and stayed for 24 hours on technology and went to a tourist environment. >> do you encourage mexican companies to set up operations here or would you prefer them to bring their knowledge they learn here back to mexico or is it whatever works? >> we're doing two things. companies are coming here and opening a branch in the u.s. and some of the branches are interesting. that branch is on research and development and projects right now with the university of

california at san francisco and projects at the university of texas and they are not only bringing the company but the technology and that technology brings into mexico the capability to grow the company in mexico and how to grow and at the same time both sides. we want a win-win situation. department of state has a program that is focusing how to develop but a way how to generate jobs that are needed in mexico but we're working on how to develop employment in the valley. >> is mexico ready for that kind of growth? it does have its troubles. >> yeah. it's something that at least we have going for more than ten years with the project started five years ago. we have learned tons of things. we're reaching into the high peak of the situation.

that's the thing that we are seeking where you are invited how we do it together because there are tremendous amounts of opportunity when you bring companies into mexico and take advantage of that capability and train all these people and mexican people is very crafty and solve problems and that's one of the things we have but we don't have skills of doing marketing and doing the business focus and the mindset where we need to do it. >> jorge, marketing is doing just fine. we'll be back in just a moment.

welcome back to "press: here." i'm joined by jon swartz of "usa today" and maggie shiels of bbc. twitter has this mood map that discovers that we're much happier than everyone else.

i mean the west coast. >> right on. it must be true. they were saying on the east coast they are more grouchy and west coast read 300,000 tweets or something. >> done a psychological map. >> west coast comes out ahead of the rest of the country. another report showed that the west coast was much more highly educated than the rest of the country. >> originates from someone on the west coast. >> we are happier but we tweet about everything we do. >> we are kind of caught up in our own ego. like everything we have to say is so interesting to the world. >> it is. i like how you say we on the west coast. you have been here long enough that you are adapted. the one thing i was talking about during the break is i bought myself an ipad. it's extraordinary. i went into the store several

times and said, $500. it does what my laptop does. now that i have it, it's amazing. >> i want one. i so want one. i don't need one. i want one. >> i'm going to buy one as a luxury. it's going to be not as big as iphone or ipod but i actually think it's going to continue to grow in terms of appeal and it will become almost a platform of use of families. >> they just leave them lying by the side. >> i got to pay for my ipad with commercial time. check out pressheretv.com for more. see you next week.