Guy Kawasaki (born 1954) was one of the original Apple Computer employees responsible for marketing of the Macintosh in 1984. He is noted for bringing the concept of evangelism to the high-tech business. Kawasaki was a former Apple Fellow, and after leaving the company, became CEO of a pseudo-spinoff of Apple's called ACIUS, which produced the 4th Dimension database program.

He is currently CEO of Garage Technology Ventures (garage.com), which helps high-technology startup firms in Silicon Valley, California.

He is author of eight books including:

• The Art of the Start
• The Computer Curmudgeon
• The Macintosh Way
• Selling the Dream
• How to Drive Your Competition Crazy
• Rules for Revolutionaries
• Hindsights
• Database 101

Some of Kawasaki's ideas are not accepted by experienced direct marketers or consumer advocates.

For example, in Rules for Revolutionaries he advances the controversial principle of "Don't Worry, Be Crappy" in which he encourages companies to release shoddy, buggy, dysfunctional or barely functional "crap" products to the consumer. The hope is that the consumers will then forgive the company, send in their specs for improvement, and eagerly await the new improved version. Some consider this the "dumbing down" of beta testing and sheer marketing suicide, since it ignores negative word of mouth advertising by "chumped" customers.

Kawasaki has a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and an MBA from University of California, Los Angeles. He is Japanese American and a native of Honolulu, Hawaii.

See also

• Apple evangelist

External links

• Garage (http://www.garage.com/)