How it started
Early life
Calacanis was born in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, New York, and has two brothers. He is of half-Greek and half-Irish descent. He graduated from Xaverian High School in 1988 and attended Fordham University, where he received a B.A. in psychology.
Career
Calacanis started his career in the 1990s as a reporter covering the internet industry in New York.
Calacanis was the founder and CEO of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published print and online publications. During the dot-com boom, Calacanis was active in New York's Silicon Alley community, and in 1996 began producing the Silicon Alley Reporter. Originally a 16-page photocopied newsletter, it eventually expanded into a 300-page magazine, with a sister publication called the Digital Coast Reporter for the West Coast. Calacanis' socializing earned him a nickname as the "yearbook editor" of the Silicon Alley community. The company also organized conferences in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco focused on the Internet, web, and New Media.
Calacanis co-founded the blog network Weblogs, Inc. with Brian Alvey on September 24, 2003, and the startup was supported by an angel investment from Mark Cuban.
From Wikipedia’s article on LAUNCH Conference, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2