Blake Krikorian, Slingbox co-founder, tech investor, dies
Blake Krikorian, Slingbox co-founder, tech investor, dies
Blake Krikorian, whose career as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor started when he couldn’t find a way to watch San Francisco Giants baseball games on TV while on business trips, died Wednesday.
Krikorian, known for creating the Slingbox online TV device with his brother Jason, had just gone paddle boarding off Linda Mar beach in Pacifica when he was found lying next to his car in the parking lot, according to San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault.
“He was a just a terrific guy,” said a stunned David Anderman, chief business officer of Jaunt, a Palo Alto virtual reality startup that counted Krikorian as an investor and adviser.
In an interview with The Chronicle in 2005, Krikorian and his brother said they came up with the concept for the Slingbox in 2002, when they couldn’t access Giants telecasts while they traveled outside the Bay Area.
Released in 2005, the Slingbox took the TV feed from a cable or satellite TV subscriber’s home service and routed it over the Internet.
Satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications bought Sling Media of Foster City in 2007 for nearly $400 million.
Krikorian subsequently became an investor and adviser to a variety of startups like Jaunt and was on the board of directors for Amazon.