Ryan Block | |
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![]() Ryan Block Entrepreneur | |
Born | June 25, 1982 |
Occupation(s) | Technology entrepreneur, product manager |
Known for | Engadget, gdgt |
Spouse | Veronica Belmont |
Ryan Block (born June 25, 1982) is a San Francisco-based technology entrepreneur. He was the editor-in-chief of AOL’s Engadget[1] before he co-founded the community site gdgt.[2] With gdgt's sale to AOL in 2013, he returned to the company and headed up its product group, but left in 2015 to start a new business.[3]
Block co-hosted MVP, a technology podcast, with frequent collaborator Peter Rojas. There have been no new episodes since October 2, 2016.
He lives in San Francisco, California with his wife, Veronica Belmont.[4]
Block joined technology news website Engadget as a part-time reporter in June 2004, and started full-time in June 2005.[5] He went on to replace the site's creator Peter Rojas as editor-in-chief in 2007.[6]
In July 2008 Block posted on Engadget that he would be stepping down as editor-in-chief to create a new company, leaving then Associate Editor Joshua Topolsky in charge.[7] On 1 July 2009,[8] using $550,000 in initial seed financing received from Betaworks and True Ventures, Block and Rojas launched gdgt; a discussion forum that generates reviews and answers questions about thousands of gadgets.[9] gdgt was sold to AOL in 2013[10] , and Block left the company in 2015.
See also: Criticism_of_Comcast § 2014_customer_service_scandals |
In July 2014, Block and his wife attempted to disconnect their Comcast service over the telephone and were repeatedly blocked by the Comcast representative in a call which lasted 18 minutes. The last 8 minutes of this phone call was recorded by Block and posted to Reddit, immediately going viral across the internet. The next day Comcast apologized.[11]