- [Brad] It's lunchtime,
and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break.
(playful music)
Two of my favorite things about Microsoft
are the smart people that constantly visit campus,
and the great fleet of shuttles.
Whenever I can, I try to take advantage of both
of these things, and grab lunch
with some of the tech industry's best and brightest.
Today I'll drive around with Microsoft's own
Executive Vice President of Business Development,
Peggy Johnson.
(jaunty music)
Hello Peggy.
- Hey Brad, how are you?
- Really good, thank you for making time today.
- Sure. - Awesome.
- Nice wheels.
- You know, nothin' but the best for the SLT.
(laughing) - I didn't take you
for a minivan guy.
- Well you know, I wonder if should actually get
one of the security vans to take you around in,
you know, I mean this is like precious cargo here.
Three years at Microsoft now?
- Almost three years.
- And Sonti's first hire, first new member of the SLT.
- Yes, it's been fun. - So three years,
I mean, partnerships, acquisitions, relationships,
occasionally sleep, you know. (laughing)
You've accomplished lifetimes worth of work in three years.
So you and I both studied engineering in college.
- Yes. - Okay.
- Well, I lived in San Diego, and it's a Navy town.
So most of the dream jobs somehow were--
- Military. - Associated with
the military, so I, my first job was at General Electric,
working on anti-submarine warfare for surface ships.
- Oh, so like light stuff.
- Yeah. (laughing)
- So what was the most intriguing part about that job?
- Well it was at the time when that book,
Hunt for Red October was out, - Oh yeah, Clancy's first,
second book I guess, right? - Yes, exactly.
And so it was very much like that.
- Wow. - We were building
a system to listen in to what they call the signatures
of the submarines, and you'd have to identify
if they were a threat or friendly,
and super exciting stuff, because the book very much
mimicked what we were doing at work.
- So what was it called in the movie, were you working on
the Caterpillar Drive or what was that called?
(laughing)
- Something along those lines, and,
I should probably not talk any more
since I had a Top Secret - Oh it's classified!
- clearance at that time.
- I don't want you to have to kill me, for sure.
- But I do get right and left mixed up,
and I get port and starboard mixed up,
- Do you really? - So hopefully,
yeah all the time, and so I'm hoping that no one ever
has to launch those missiles, I don't want 'em
to go off the wrong side.
- [Brad] Alright, so let's play a little game
of this or that.
- [Peggy] Okay. (laughs)
- So I'm gonna give you a phrase and you're gonna tell me
which one of the things applies.
- Okay. - So the two topics,
or the two things you can select from are,
being a new hire at Microsoft, - Okay.
- Or building a nuclear bomb.
Okay, you have experience in both.
(laughing)
At first, everyone is way busier than you expected.
- Definitely a new employee at Microsoft.
- Okay, yep.
You don't wanna make a really big mistake on your first day.
- Nuclear bomb.
- Okay.
Everyone's using acronyms that make no sense at all.
- Definitely being a new employee at Microsoft.
I still, almost three years in, I still don't know
some of those acronyms.
- The opportunity to change the world is overwhelming.
- Being a new employee at Microsoft.
- The work then you do in mergers and acquisitions,
is that you're always looking ahead.
What's a piece of technology right now
that you know we're going to be using in the future
that maybe isn't on the radar of people today?
- Well certainly it is in the realm
of artificial intelligence.
But, specifically, I think this idea
of machine reading comprehension,
which is the focus of a company that we just acquired
called Maluuba.
Basically, when I first met them,
they showed us how they can ingest a page of text,
they happened to be a page of Harry Potter,
and not only read the words and define the words,
but comprehend what was going on.
That is going to open up all sorts of opportunities
for us, when you have tech that can comprehend
what's going on in reams and reams of documents.
For instance, in the legal field,
if you could just ask a question about all of the contracts
that you've ever done-- - So you said the first demo
you saw of Maluuba was a Harry Potter page?
- Yes.
- So you know what, I'm dying to ask the question.
Were they able to get the intent?
Did they know Harry Potter was gonna die?
(laughing)
You know in book seven?
- It wasn't that particular page,
but it was amazing.
- You spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley.
- Yes. - And there's a lot
of time there in, helping Silicon Valley understand more
about what Microsoft is doing,
and I'm curious, what have you seen in changes
as you interact with Silicon Valley,
and then how does that enable Microsoft
to deliver better value?
- Well, first and foremost,
we're part of the conversation, again.
We're at the table.
They think of us when they have
interesting new technologies.
They know we might be interested.
We're getting those calls.
We also have our new Microsoft Ventures arm,
which has allowed us to have a new fresh perspective
of the startup community in Silicon Valley.
We're in there, we are keeping pace,
we're exceeding them in many areas,
so they're interested in us, they're interested in our tech,
and understanding where they can take our tech,
and vice versa.
So, super exciting times just to be back in the Valley.
- Talking about startups here,
we're talking about investments,
I find that there's often some really strange startup names.
I wanna give you some names, and some are real startups,
and some are made up. - Okay.
- You tell me which is which. - Okay.
- Alright, the first one is Jigglu, J-I-G-G-L-U.
- No way, that's gotta be made up.
- That is an accurate name, it's an honest name
of a startup.
- Who would name their startup that? (laughs)
- I don't know, there's gotta be a great backstory
behind that somewhere.
The next one is Fashism. - Like facism?
- Yep, exactly.
- I would say no, that's gotta be made up.
- That's a real one too.
They're actually-- - How will they get funded?
- Ashton Kutcher is one of the investors!
(laughing)
Alright, next one.
PajamaZoom.
(laughing)
- Now it's a trick.
I feel like I should say that's a real one.
- That one's a fake one.
(laughing)
- KoalaSafe, koala the animal, KoalaSafe.
- That sounds real.
- That's a real one, ding ding ding ding.
- Yes, yes, whoo.
One out of four.
- And the next one is Wiggli, W-I-G-G-L-I.
- That is a real one.
- That's a fake. - Oh!
(laughing)
- Homestar Runner
- Homestar Runner.
That's a real one.
- Ding ding ding ding ding.
Alright, last one.
CreditDonkey.
(laughing)
That's fake.
- It's a true one, who would name their company that?
But you know? (laughing)
CreditDonkey.
Next time on Brad Anderson's Lunch Break,
- Whenever I tried to be something I wasn't,
the outcome wasn't very good
and so, I had a boss at one point who said,
why don't you just be yourself,
and that was sort of like, the turning point of my career.
- Not just like as a skill, but an endorsed skill.
- Hamsters? - How'd you know that?
- I have, (laughing)
- How good much you be at paranormal romance
for somebody else to endorse that?
(jaunty music)