By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

Celebrated Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Heidi Roizen invited me to her home to talk about her career and her new venture: Skinny Songs. A former executive at Mobius Venture Capital, Heidi has recently been featured on the Martha Stewart Show, Oprah & Friends Radio and The Early Show. We had an animated discussion about her motivations for this 180 degree career change and how she’s still keeping one foot in the tech world.

Heidi changed focus from software to song writing: what all-time-high became her impetus for change?

What inspired the lyrics for “Skinny Jeans” and “You Da Boss” and how did her Stanford degree help?

How does being politically INcorrect help her business?

How does she deal with the critics?

Why does she describe her product as “a sound track without the movie”?

What does she mean by her “portfolio career”?

What’s next for Heidi? News about her new book: “Can’t buy thin.”

Listen to this Fresh Dialogue with Heidi Roizen

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For part 2 of Heidi’s interview when she gives tips to entrepreneurs click here

On being the Green Mayor

 ”Governor Schwarzenegger gave me that moniker. I wear it proudly. We’re very much intent here in San Jose to be the world center of clean tech innovation; we have our Green Vision with very big bold goals and so I’m happy to be the Green Mayor.”

On his modest beginnings

 ”I know what it’s like to be poor. I started working when I was in elementary school….I worked in the fields digging trenches -literally – that taught me the value of hard work.”

 On his road to San Jose

 ”I aspired to go to California because of the Beach Boys. All that singing about California beaches and cars and girls and surfing all sounded like great fun. And guess what? It is!”

 On his motivations for going green

 ”I can look back to a conversation I had with a Marine Major in our environmental business cluster. I’m an Air-Force veteran myself… and he said he was tired of paying for both sides of the war, that our energy policy and our consumption of foreign oil was basically funding the Iranians, the Saudis, the Venezuelans, the Russians. He was working on a solar project…and I realized what they were doing in Silicon Valley was actually to give us an opportunity for energy independence and give the world energy independence from oil and fossil fuels.”

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

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I met with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed at his swanky corner office on the 18th floor of the gleaming City Hall just three days after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. We discuss what this historic election means for Chuck and his Green Vision for Silicon Valley; and how he got his moniker The Green Mayor. We also explore:

1. Chuck’s own dramatic journey from poverty in Garden City, Kansas (digging trenches) to top public servant in Silicon Valley

2. How the Beach Boys influenced that journey

3. Why his military background helped shape his green motivations today

4. What Mike Honda said to inspire his bold Green Vision

5. Why Silicon Valley companies from Fairchild to startups are getting into clean tech.

6. How a Green Mayor walks the green walk at home and why his lawn has brown spots.

To listen to Part Two of the interview on Tesla, tactics for attracting clean tech etc, click here

To check out selected quotes, click here

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

In part two of my interview with Laurie Yoler of Growth Point Technologies we explore the historic role Tesla Motors has played in changing the way consumers and car manufacturers view alternative energy vehicles. Tesla founder, Elon Musk says he wants to make Tesla the Apple of electric cars, but for now, he’s had to downshift on his new model plans.

How did Tesla wake up large car makers to the fact that consumers were demanding more choices?

What was Laurie’s role in the early days of Tesla Motors? Why was she so passionate about the company’s mission?

Why did Tesla choose San Jose for its new manufacturing plant and headquarters?

What is Laurie’s motivation for backing clean technology? Does she want to save the planet or make a buck? Or both?

Listen to Part Two of this Fresh Dialogue

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By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

I met with Growth Point Technology Partners Managing Director, Laurie Yoler just 12 days after the historic bailout of the US financial system was signed into law. She’s a seasoned investor in emerging technology, a specialist in clean tech and serves on the board of Tesla Motors, where she was an angel investor. Laurie gives a fascinating insight into the psyche of venture capitalists at this historic time and explains why she remains optimistic. We also explore these questions:

How long will it take before the market stabilizes?

How will the IPO, Merger & Aquisition and private placement markets be affected by the financial turmoil? What about those frothy valuations?

What clean tech trends have emerged this year?

What’s hot in clean tech and why is clean tech in Europe ahead of the US?

Listen to part I of this Fresh Dialogue

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Download Laurie Yoler’s Fresh Dialogue Part I

Check back soon for Part II when Laurie discusses her early involvement in Tesla Motors and the company’s role in clean tech history.

by Alison van Diggelen, Host of Fresh Dialogues

I interviewed LinkedIn director, April Kelly, at the Women In Technology International (WITI) conference in Silicon Valley.  She’s a former PayPal executive who describes herself as an effervescent leader and energetic coach. I asked her:

- why is it worth joining a (biz) social networking site like LinkedIn?

- tips on building our brand and optimizing our online profile?

- how can you rebrand yourself and build a new career using LinkedIn tools? (April has some great ideas for you if you’ve lost your job, or are looking for a new opportunities)

She outlines how to use “recommendations” and “answer” forums to build your reputation and establish your expertise online. Checkout her online profile if you need inspiration.

Listen to this seven minute Fresh Dialogue:

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Just back from WITI‘S 14th annual Women and Tech Summit in Silicon Valley (Oct 12-15th) and the potent energy is still with me. There is something incredibly empowering and energizing about gathering hundreds of go-getting women in a conference hall. Wish you could bottle that energy.

WITI’S motto is “no woman stands alone” and just how apt this is,  given the current financial meltdown and shaky economic climate. We had senior executives announcing their personal emails from the podium, others inviting young entrepreneurs to get in touch after their talks, a real feeling of “let me help you get where you want to get sista.”

From the impressive keynotes of Cathleen Benko, Vice Chairman at Deloitte LLP and Sandy Carter, VP at IBM; the success strategies of Life Coach Kathleen Hill to the Clean Tech investment experts like Laurie Yoler and Marianne Wu, each one inspired and energized a packed auditorium.

I had the opportunity to interview several outstanding panel members for Fresh Dialogues, including LinkedIn’s April Kelly, GrowthPoint Technology Partner’s Laurie Yoler (who’s been involved with Tesla Motors from the early days) and Mary Vincent of Green Solutions. Check back soon to hear their take on the current financial crisis, how to leverage Web 2.0 to help your business, and one woman’s leap from Sun Microsystems to entrepreneurship and how global warming helped inspire that leap.

Here’s an extract from my interview at Streaming Media West about online video.  September 24, 2008.

Alison van Diggelen: What is it about online video that’s making it so attractive these days? […] Can you expand a little bit on that and the kind of feedback you are getting from your customers?

Alison Jeske from drugstore.com: Definitely when people see products in action they get very excited about it. In the prestige beauty world we get to see exciting new designers like Vena Cava showcased in fashion week, we get to see Oscar Blandi doing “How can I get that second day hair look”, we have Tina Turnbow (our fabulous make-up artist that we work with) showing people how to take a day look to a night look. Those things on the prestige beauty site get our customers really excited. On the drugstore.com side, it’s very new for us. We have just been introducing some funnier videos showcasing toys and games for the holiday, so we’re definitely getting some wordings and interesting feedback from our customers on the drugstore.com side.

Alison: So you’re getting a lot of feedback from your customers?

AJ: It’s early launch, early indications are real positive but on the drugstore.com we’ve had videos for about 2 weeks now, and it’s still real early. We’re measuring impressions we’re getting from the customers and definitely some of the feedback. It’s early to tell on order impact and conversion but it looks promising.

Alison: Do you feel you’re really on the cutting-edge of this, taking videos to the market?

AJ: I think we’re definitely in the early adopters – I think there is a lot of people doing it really well out there – eBags is a great example, REI is doing video. The real mavericks in this that have doing it for quite a while are QVC and the Home Shopping Network , they really kind of started translating their TV shows into the different medium. We’re excited to see where this can take us.

Alison: What are your expectations for this? Do you see being your main focus getting video streaming online?

AJ: We see this as mandatory going forward. Customers are demanding it, and we want to offer all the different ways to help a customer make a choice about a product that they want. We see this as a requirement to stay in the game.

Alison: What key message are you bringing today to the Video Commerce panel (you have a panel of four talking about the big picture)?

AJ: I think some of the key messages are that we still need to measure success. We’re excited about this opportunity but we still have to measure, and we’re still near the early stages. The other thing about video is that it’s that next evolution of going from product reviews where customers can describe right how they feel about a certain product and why they like it. Video brings reviews up to another level where we’re getting to the next evolution in the product  life-cycle.

To find out more about the conference, and listen to the Fresh Dialogues interview click here

by Alison van Diggelen, Host of Fresh Dialogues

Fresh Dialogues talks to Alison Jeske of Beauty.com about the use of online video in marketing products to women. What is the optimum length of video and what gets women engaged and excited about their products?

Click here for the audio

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For a link to the transcript, click here