Inside the startups, projects, and technologies building what’s next.

Barton George
Founder, 808labs

I’ve spent more than three decades in tech, focused on developers, open source, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure. My career has included leadership roles at Dell Technologies, Sun Microsystems, and Sony in Tokyo.

At Dell, I founded and led Project Sputnik, growing it from a $40K experiment into a Linux developer laptop and workstation portfolio generating tens of millions in annual revenue. At Sun, I helped drive the company’s Linux strategy, served as an open-source evangelist, and built and led Java.com. My career began in Tokyo at Sony’s workstation division, where I worked entirely in Japanese.

I grew up in Honolulu, attended Williams College and Harvard Business School, and now live in Austin. Nearly 20 years ago, my family and I left Silicon Valley for Texas and never looked back.

More than 15 years ago, armed with little more than a Flip camcorder, I started interviewing people across the industry who were building interesting things. That archive has since grown to more than 400 interviews.

Those conversations helped me realize what I enjoy most: meeting people, learning from them, and sharing those insights with others. 808labs grew out of that idea.