Real Networks motto: We Train the World

Last year, I was discussing Real Networks with one of its alumni, Sherman Griffin, who now works for Amazon.com. He guesstimated that there had to be close to 800 ex-Real Networks employees in and around the Seattle area...which got me thinking when I read in John Cook's blog about Shelfari's recent funding. Two of Shelfari's cofounders, Josh Hug and Kevin Beukelman, are ex-Real Networks employees. Just how many other ex-RNs have risen to business prominence? Locally, there's Larry Jacobson as president & CEO of Cdigix, Scott Erlach co-founded Red Tie Media and we all know Senator Maria Cantwell went to Washington. Last month, Redback Networks announced it had hired Dr. Alan Lippman, who invented streaming audio and video production and was one of the first five employees at Real Networks. But ultimately, I suppose all of this pondering is really trivial, as Real Networks has to go a long ways to beat Microsoft as having the biggest group of alumni in town. Heck, even Real Networks founder, Rob Glaser, came from M$.

-posted by Rachel