Ryan Block

Ryan Block (born June 25, 1982) is a San Francisco-based technology entrepreneur. He was the editor-in-chief of AOL’s Engadget[1] before he co-founded the community site gdgt.[2] With gdgt's sale to AOL in 2013, he returned to the company and headed up its product group, but left in 2015 to start a new business.[3]

For the commercial building in St. Joseph, Missouri, see Ryan Block (St. Joseph, Missouri).
Ryan Block
Ryan Block
Entrepreneur
Born (1982-06-25) June 25, 1982
OccupationTechnology entrepreneur, product manager
Known forEngadget, gdgt
Spouse(s)Veronica Belmont

Block currently co-hosts MVP, a technology podcast, with frequent collaborator Peter Rojas. He lives in San Francisco, California with his wife, Veronica Belmont.[4]

History

Block joined technology news website Engadget as a part-time reporter in June 2004, and started full-time in June 2005.[5] He went on to replace the site's creator Peter Rojas as editor-in-chief in 2007.[6]

In July 2008 Block posted on Engadget that he would be stepping down as editor-in-chief to create a new company, leaving then Associate Editor Joshua Topolsky in charge.[7] On 1 July 2009,[8] using $550,000 in initial seed financing received from Betaworks and True Ventures, Block and Rojas launched gdgt; a discussion forum that generates reviews and answers questions about thousands of gadgets.[9] gdgt was sold to AOL in 2013[10] , and Block left the company in 2015.

Comcast support call

In July 2014, Block and his wife attempted to disconnect their Comcast service over the telephone and were repeatedly blocked by the Comcast representative in a call which lasted 18 minutes. The last 8 minutes of this phone call was recorded by Block and posted to Reddit, immediately going viral across the internet. The next day Comcast apologized.[11]

gollark: The economy *does matter*, though, even in a "lives saved" sense. As someone on the interweb put it:> Damage to productivity eventually results in damage to people, since we use part of our productivity to preserve life.
gollark: Well, we could engineer humans with better DNA error correction or something, eventually.
gollark: Forever might be an overestimate, but cancer generally will probably stick around for a while as it is a complex and hard-to-cure thing.
gollark: ... maybe these are just hard problems which they're working on, rather than some kind of conspiracy?
gollark: It seems like the problem here might be lack of systems to track and respond to demand, since I think lots of people probably would be willing to pay some money for a ventilator to be available if they need it during this pandemic.

References
  1. Boutin, Paul (2010-04-03). "Gadget guru: We can't know yet what's best about iPad". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  2. Mumm, Chad (2010-04-24). "The Engadget Show Live! With roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong, Ryan Block, Rick Karr, and more!". Engadget. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  3. Panzarino, Matthew (2010-09-08). "Ryan Block Leaves AOL Alpha For Something New". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  4. Veronica Belmont fun facts from Mahalo
  5. Collardeau, Thomas (2008-01-08). "Interview with Engadget's Ryan Block". ontheinside.info. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  6. Rosmarin, Rachel (2007-12-18). "The Gadget Guru". Forbes. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  7. Block, Ryan (2008-07-22). "Some news from the editor's desk". Engadget. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  8. Arrington, Michael (2009-07-01). "GDGT Launches For Non Stop Gadget Action". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  9. Vascellaro, Jessica (2010-04-07). "Gdgt Raises New Financing with New Concept". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  10. Block, Ryan. "Engadget is getting a whole lot bigger: profiles, forums, product database, and so much more!". Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  11. Stampler, Laura (15 July 2014). "Recording of Man's Attempt to Cancel Comcast Will Drive You Insane". Time. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
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