Marc Porat

Marc Porat
Born
Uri Porat
NationalityAmerican
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Stanford University (PhD)
Occupation(s)entrepreneur, advisor, board member
Known forfounding General Magic, and coining the term "information economy"
RelativesRuth Porat and Naomi Porat (sisters)

Marc Porat is an American entrepreneur, economist and technology executive. He is a co-founder of General Magic, a company that became known for developing concepts foundational to the modern smartphone, intelligent agents and cloud computing.[1] Porat is known for defining the information economy, his doctoral dissertation at Stanford University.[2] During his career, Porat has founded six technology companies. He is a partner at Millennial Advisors, focusing on frontier artificial intelligence.[3][4][5]

Early life and education

Marc Porat was born as Uri Porat in 1947 in Ramat Gan, Israel. His father, Dan Porat [6] was a refugee from Poland and Austria and fled Vienna on Kristallnacht to Palestine. His mother, Frieda Porat was a refugee from the Pogroms in Ukraine.The family emigrated from Israel to the United Kingdom where his father completed a PhD in ternary logic. Following this, the family emigrated to the United States and his father joined the Harvard University–MIT Cyclotron Laboratory.[7] The family then moved to Palo Alto in California where his father worked at Stanford University's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and authored three books on microprocessors and digital circuits.[8][9][10] His mother, Dr. Frieda Porat, was a psychologist and authored several books on behavioral psychology.[11][12][13][14]

Porat holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Columbia College, Columbia University and a PhD in communication and economics from Stanford University. His Master's thesis on The Economics of Information and his doctoral dissertation on the information economy defined the information sector and anticipated the United States' economic transition from manufacturing to knowledge-based industries, occupations, and technology.[15][16][17][18]

Career

Early career

While at Stanford University, Porat worked as a research assistant on an early internet protocol project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now known as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)) collaborating with Paul Baran, a pioneer of packet switching[19] and Vint Cerf, regarded as one of the fathers of the Internet.[20]

After completing his PhD, Porat served as an economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce and later as a program director at the Aspen Institute where he produced and hosted The Information Society, a PBS documentary based on his dissertation, which included interviews with John Kenneth Galbraith and Henry Kissinger[21]forPBS.

Porat worked as a subject matter expert at Booz Allen Hamilton advising on deregulation of the telecommunications industry.He co-founded Private Satellite Network (PSN), a direct broadcast satellite company that pioneered networks for encrypted video conferencing.[22][23]

Apple Computer and General Magic

In 1988, Porat joined Apple Computer as a Director at the Advanced Technology Group, where he led a research and development project on the future of personal computing and led the project published by Apple as "Whole Person Paradigm: Pocket Crystal". Porat provided a detailed vision for what would become a smartphone, including intelligent mobile agents in "the cloud", e-commerce, and the concept of a “facebase.”[24][25]

Magic OS and Telescript

With the support of the Apple Board, Porat spun out the Pocket Crystal project as an independent company. General Magic developed the Magic Link, a personal intelligent communicator, considered as a direct precursor of smartphones.[26] The Magic Link won the PC World World Class Award in 1995.[27] Magic Link PIC-2000 was released in 1996.[28][29][30][31]

In 1995, the company also published Telescript, a software language for intelligent mobile agents to run in the cloud. Telescript was modeled on the concept of small programs.[32][33][34]

Magicians and founding partners

The company's co-founders included members of the original Macintosh team - Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, Joanna Hoffman and Susan Kare. Other employees known as Magicians included Megan Smith (the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama), Tony Fadell (co-creator of the iphone and considered as the father of the ipod), Kevin Lynch (developer of the Apple Watch), Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay), Andy Rubin (founder of Android) and John Giannandrea (known for leading AI projects at Google and Apple Inc.)[35]

General Magic's founding partners included AT&T, Motorola, Sony, Matsushita, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Philips, France Telecom and Cable & Wireless.[36]

Porat served as Chairman and CEO from 1991 to 1996. General Magic held its initial public offering in 1995, reaching a valuation of approximately $834 million.[37] Porat left the company in 1996; General Magic ceased operations in 2002 and sold its patent portfolio to Paul Allen at Intellectual Ventures.[38] The General Magic story is taught as a business case study at many universities, including Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School.[39]

Documentary film

A documentary film about General Magic [40] premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018, won multiple awards and was the #1 feature documentary on Apple TV for 10 weeks.[41][42] The film featured , Andy Hertzfeld, Joanna Hoffman and many of the magicians.[40][43] [44][45] The film is widely aired for audiences in universities and technology companies, and was screened at the Computer History Museum and many film festivals where it won awards including the Los Angeles Film Festival.[46]

Perfect Commerce

Porat co-founded Perfect Commerce, a SaaS company that developed a reverse auction platform for B2B procurement. He co-authored a patent with economist Paul Milgrom, who later received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on auction theory.[47]

Climate

Porat co-founded cleantech companies Serious Materials, CalStar Products, and ZETA. He also served on the Board of Directors of Carbon War Room, an NGO founded by Sir Richard Branson to combat climate change caused by major sectors of the global economy.[48][49][50][51][52][53]

Millennial Advisors and Artificial Intelligence

Porat is a partner at Millennial Advisors, a San Francisco based consultancy focused on frontier artificial intelligence (AI) and agentics. He is currently advising SandboxAQ, a company operating in the AI, simulation and large quantitative models space.[54][55][56][57] He regularly speaks on topics related to AI, superintelligence and information technology.[58]

Personal life

Porat is married to Claire Tomkins and lives in San Francisco.[59] His sisters are Naomi Porat, an entrepreneur and sustainability consultant and Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet Inc. and Google.[60]

Filmography

Films

Year Title Role Notes
1980 The Information Society Host, producer, writer Feature documentary based on his doctoral dissertation
2010 Deep Green Himself Documentary film on climate change
2018 General Magic Himself Feature documentary on General Magic
2022 Dan Himself and also the producer Documentary about his father's life

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ Fisher, Adam (August 1, 2018). "What Happened to General Magic?". New York Magazine. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  2. ^ Porat, Marc Uri (May 1977). The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement. Washington, DC: United States Department of Commerce. OCLC 5184933.
  3. ^ "Silicon Valley tech leaders are reinventing themselves for a cleantech revolution". January 19, 2010. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  4. ^ "Green Building Entrepreneur: Build Green or Face Catastrophe". Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  5. ^ "Porat, Marc | US-China Green Energy Council". ucgef.org. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  6. ^ "Dan Porat Life Story". National Fund of the Republic of Austria. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  7. ^ "Remembering Dan Porat, Pioneer Of Electronics And Israel". The Forward. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  8. ^ Porat, Dan; Barna, Arpad (January 1, 1989). Operational Amplifiers. Wiley Interscience. p. 273. ISBN 0471847151. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  9. ^ Porat, Dan (January 21, 1987). Integrated Circuits in Digital Electronics. Wiley Interscience. p. 371. ISBN 0471011452. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  10. ^ Porat, Dan; Barna, Arpad (January 1, 1976). Introduction to Microcomputers and Microprocessors. John Wiley and Sons. p. 108. ISBN 0471050512.
  11. ^ Porat, Frieda (January 1, 1980). Creative Procrastination: Organizing Your Own Life. HarperCollins. p. 149. ISBN 0062506900. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  12. ^ Porat, Frieda (January 1, 1977). Positive selfishness: A practical guide to self-esteem. Celestial Arts. p. 170. ISBN 0890871418. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  13. ^ Porat, Frieda (January 1, 1983). The dynamic secretary: A practical guide to achieving success as an executive assistant (A Reward book). Prentice Hall. p. 196. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  14. ^ Porat, Frieda (May 28, 1995). Creative Life Management: Stress Reduction for an Enhanced Quality of Life. NewLife Books. p. 185. ISBN 096437451X. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  15. ^ Porat, Marc Uri (May 1977). The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement. Washington, DC: United States Department of Commerce. OCLC 5184933.
  16. ^ Porat, Marc Uri (May 1977). "The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement".
  17. ^ Salvaggio, Jerry. "The Information Society: Economic, Social, and Structural Issues". books.google.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  18. ^ "How Do You Create A New Economy Based On Purpose And Meaningful Relationships?". April 7, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  19. ^ "Paul Baran et. al., Cabledata Associates, ARPANET Management Study, January 20, 1974. Unclassified". National Security Archive. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  20. ^ Cerf, V. G. (2009). "The day the Internet age began". Nature. 461 (7268): 1202–1203. Bibcode:2009Natur.461.1202C. doi:10.1038/4611202a. PMID 19865146. S2CID 205049153.
  21. ^ "The information society (on YouTube)". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021.
  22. ^ "Private TV Networks Flourishing as Satellite Technology Advances". news.google.com. June 24, 1988. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  23. ^ "Growing Apple with the Macintosh: The Sculley Years". February 22, 2006. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  24. ^ "Computing in your pocket:The prehistory of the iphone in Silicon Valley". February 22, 2006. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  25. ^ Fisher, Adam (July 10, 2018). Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley (As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom). Twelve. p. 512. ISBN 1455559024. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  26. ^ "General Magic - The Future, Too Early". February 22, 2006. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  27. ^ "SONY MAGIC LINK(TM) WINS 1995 PC WORLD WORLD CLASS AWARD". PR Newswire. June 23, 1995. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
  28. ^ "PIC-2000 Magic Link Communicator". December 20, 1996. Archived from the original on December 20, 1996. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  29. ^ "Marc Porat: Philosopher of the Shared Vision".
  30. ^ Toffler, Alvin (May 1, 1984). The Third Wave. Bantam Books. p. 560. ISBN 9780553246988. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  31. ^ Levy, Steven. "Bill and Andy's Excellent Adventure II". Wired. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  32. ^ Kanellos, Michael. "General Magic: The Most Important Dead Company in Silicon Valley?". Forbes. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  33. ^ Kline, David (1995). "I Want". Wired Magazine. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  34. ^ The agents were described as “I Want”, executing goals defined by the user. They were designed to be proactive, interoperable, and have security mechanisms.Dolby, Thomas (2016). The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology: A Memoir. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  35. ^ "General Magic - The Future, Too Early". July 27, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  36. ^ Kline, David (1995). "I Want". www.wired.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  37. ^ Markoff, John (February 11, 1995). "COMPANY NEWS; General Magic Stock Surges on First Trading Day". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  38. ^ McCracken, Harry (2018). "General Magic's forgotten second act was the Siri of its era". Fast Company. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  39. ^ "Film Screening + Discussion: "General Magic"". Harvard Innovation Labs. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  40. ^ a b "General Magic the Movie". April 20, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  41. ^ "General Magic". Eastern Oregon Film Festival. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  42. ^ "SCREENINGS & EVENTS – Doc Stories 2018". SFilm.
  43. ^ Adi Robertson (April 22, 2018). "General Magic is a nostalgic film about the '90s startup that imagined the smartphone". The Verge.
  44. ^ Fink, Charlie. "'General Magic' Doc Is Full Of Life And Lessons For Inventors". Forbes. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  45. ^ Sullivan, Mark. ""General Magic" captures the legendary Apple offshoot that foresaw the mobile revolution". Fast Company.
  46. ^ "General Magic". Computer History Museum. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  47. ^ "Patents by Inventor Paul Milgrom". Justia.
  48. ^ Review, MIT Technology. "Serious Materials - MIT Technology Review". Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  49. ^ "The Wall Street Journal 2009 Technology Innovation Awards". Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  50. ^ "Startup Builders Make Waves in Recession's Wake". September 9, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  51. ^ "ZETA Communities wins green award for affordable, zero-energy townhome". Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  52. ^ "Porat, Marc | US-China Green Energy Council". ucgef.org. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  53. ^ "Different strategies of 'green building' for sustainable future". Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  54. ^ "Marc Porat at SandboxAQ company". SanboxAQ. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  55. ^ "Princess Beatrice-backed start-up community OPUS lands $2m funding boost". Sky News. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  56. ^ "Beem - Founded by Toby Brown and Marc Porat". South Park Commons. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  57. ^ "Marc Porat joins Beem as Creative Partner". Beem. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  58. ^ "Marc Porat on information economy and General Magic". The Kamla Show. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  59. ^ "Historic downtown Napa property to be redeveloped as a business retreat". Napa Valley Register. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
  60. ^ "World's Most Powerful Women: Ruth Porat". Forbes.
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