Alan D. Mutter is perhaps the only CEO in Silicon Valley who knows how to set type one letter at a time, just like his hero, Benjamin Franklin. Mutter began his career as a newspaper columnist and editor in Chicago, starting at the Chicago Daily News and later rising to City Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1984, he became the No. 2 editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the newspaper business in 1988 to join InterMedia Partners, a start-up company that within five years became one of the 12 largest cable-TV companies in the U.S. Mutter was the COO of InterMedia when he moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 to lead the first of the three start-up companies he managed as CEO. The companies he headed were a pioneering Internet service provider and two enterprise-software companies. Mutter now is a Managing Partner of Tapit Partners, where, among other activities, he is involved in new media ventures that combine his twin passions, journalism and technology.

Visit his blog: Reflections of a Newsosaur