Chris Shipley Interviews Kai Krause

On the Demo 2005 stage, Chris Shipley interviews Kai Kraus on stage, who has been hiding in Europe for the past six years.

Chris starts by asking Kai, “Where have you been and what have you been doing?” Kai doesn’t spend much time talking about his new innovations – in fact, the tone of the entire discussion is about his desire to escape from it all for peace and solitude in rural Germany. He talks about buying his turn of the century castle, getting lost in his old German hometown, and working on his new project, which he is incredibly vague about. He adds, “I don’t need any money and don’t plan on doing a demo.”

We hear a lot about the castle and a lot about the past. People who have never seen Kai demo or know who is he is in the audience are confused.

His goal after MetaCreations and heading back to Europe was to start a future lab – but without the pressure. What does he mean by this? “In Europe, there’s not the same kind of infrastructure, such as the network of VCs that we here,” says Kai. “Sure, there are tons of great ideas over there and smart engineers but we don’t have the structure in place.”

Kai keeps echoing the words peace and solitude. He feels that the kind of pressure he left in Corporate America, forces companies to come out with things far too early. He syas that he didn’t want to live with the kind of pressure that it takes to meet $12 million a quarter.

As for his passion today, it seems to be more about his castle, his wife and creating innovation silently in the country. When Chris pushes Kai into sharing more about his new innovation, Kai continues to be vague. “It’s a window into a world, and where they really make or break it is at the final moment.” Hmm, I’m not sure what that really means. He says he wants to come to DemoEurope, so perhaps we’ll find out more in the next year.