Costolo served as CEO at Twitter for five years from 2010 before stepping down from his post in July. He certainly has the expertise to help the Emmy-nominated show prepare for a stellar third season: aside from being a former stand-up comic, Costolo, naturally, knows the ins and outs of the real Silicon Valley landscape the show parodies.
Related: Judging by this spoof trailer, the Michael Dell story probably won’t get told
Silicon Valley follows the story of a California incubator tech team that has created an algorithm for compressing photos, and has the two top rival firms, including the developer’s former employer Hooli (sound familiar?) salivating for it. The satirical show tackles all of the issues that are central to the Silicon Valley world, from copyright, to technology copycats, quirky VC investors, lawsuits, the race to be first, battles for funding, and more. The show even makes reference to real tech events, like TechCrunch Disrupt and CES.
According to Bloomberg, Costolo is working with the series’ writers for “a couple days” each week, presumably trying to help bring more realism to the spoof show. Who might they make fun of next? Many characters and situations on the show have already been theorized to emulate real-life happenings and people. For example, many have suggested that Chris Diamantopoulos’ quirky character of angel investor Russ Hanneman was modeled on Mark Cuban, and the character of Peter Gregory who appeared in the first season only (sadly, due to the actor Christopher Evan Welch’s untimely death) was reportedly modeled on PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. You’ll also see elements of Napster founder Sean Parker in Erlich Bachman’s character (T.J. Miller), the party animal who sold a startup for millions and now houses hackers and developers in his home for free while taking a cut of their inventions. The hilarious head of Hooli, Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) has some elements of Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff, such as his love of yoga and philanthropy.
It’ll be interesting to see how Costolo’s experience and expertise might help bring a new dimension to an undoubtedly hilarious third season. Season 3 is set to debut sometime next April.
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