Marc Porat

Technology Visionary, AI Pioneer, Entrepreneur, Board Member, Strategic Advisor

Marc Porat is a rare strategic force—a visionary and practitioner, a thought leader on the future of AI and agentic systems and their impact on businesses and society, the inventor of the smartphone, and a serial entrepreneur. Marc brings clarity, energy, context, leadership, and depth of execution to Strategy Committees, Senior Advisory roles, and Boards. He is a thoughtful listener, a compelling speaker, and a trusted advisor—effective in the boardroom, public forums, and internal offsites—helping leadership teams understand and navigate the design of a defensible competitive advantage with a world-class AI-first strategic plan.

  • Marc Porat Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    Please Inquire

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    California, USA

  • Marc Porat Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    Please Inquire

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    California, USA

Suggested Keynote Speaker Programs

The Frontier of AI: Superintelligence

AI has arrived, AGI is arriving, and Superintelligence will be here faster than you thought. Frontier AI and intelligent agents will be smarter and more capable than all the humans on earth. With so much ...

AI has arrived, AGI is arriving, and Superintelligence will be here faster than you thought. Frontier AI and intelligent agents will be smarter and more capable than all the humans on earth. With so much disruptive change coming, are we facing a technological dystopia or utopia, or something more nuanced?

Marc Porat has been at the forefront of technological and sociological revolutions over the course of his 30-year career, from coining the concept of “The Information Economy” to creating the first smartphone and intelligent agents with General Magic. In this fascinating talk that is equal parts positive and serious, Marc will share his vision of humanity’s future in the world of Superintelligence. Audiences will come away understanding how superintelligence can both create and destroy, and what it will mean for you personally and for your business.

Key benefits & insights:

  • Understand where AI is today and where it will be in the next 3 years and beyond.
  • Immerse yourself in what personal & business life will be like in the age of Superintelligence
  • Gain some immediate, amazing advice—for example, how to create an AI digital twin, a chief of staff, or a team of tutors and doctors.

Audience
Appeals to a broad audience, a wide variety of backgrounds, levels, and ages.

Formats
30 / 45 / 60 min from large audience keynote to off-sites to fireside chats.

Positioning
AI Strategist | Visionary Technologist | Inspiring Leader

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Navigating the Market Discontinuities of Superintelligence

AI is moving at lightning speed, creating a market discontinuity as profound as the Industrial Revolution. IIt can both create value for your business or destroy it. With superintelligence just around the corner, how can you, as a leader, and ...

AI is moving at lightning speed, creating a market discontinuity as profound as the Industrial Revolution. IIt can both create value for your business or destroy it. With superintelligence just around the corner, how can you, as a leader, and your business prepare for the future?

Drawing on 30+ years of founding breakthrough companies and his advisory work with large & small companies and private equity clients, Marc explores the personal, economic, and geopolitical implications of superintelligence. Audiences will come away learning how to identify opportunity windows, avoid risks, and build resilient and innovative strategies in a time of accelerating change.

Key Benefits & Insights

o Understand that sharp discontinuities are the black swans of this era—they can create and destroy value very quickly

o Learn how to think about AI-driven market discontinuities and take action before competitors.

o Motivate leaders to act decisively with a fine-grained strategic framework, with the awareness that falling behind might be unrecoverable, and moving with purpose can create an insurmountable moat.

Audience
Can be tuned to focus on high-level executives or a broad business profile.

Formats
30 / 45 / 60 min keynote; keynote + 30 min Q&A; executive roundtable.

Positioning
Technology Visionary | AI Strategist | Inspiring Thinker.

Learn More

General Magic: The Inside Story of the Most Influential Tech Company You Never Heard About

As co-founder of General Magic, the Apple spinout, Marc Porat created one of the most influential stealth tech companies in the world. Described by thought leaders as “visionary”, “legendary,” and “iconic,”), the amazing team created...

As co-founder of General Magic, the Apple spinout, Marc Porat created one of the most influential stealth tech companies in the world. Described by thought leaders as “visionary”, “legendary,” and “iconic,”), the amazing team created the first smartphone and intelligent agents in the early 90s.. While General Magic was ahead of its time, its inventors later spawned the innovations of the iPod, iPhone, Android, intelligent agents, and more. 

 

In this inspiring story of invention and failure, Marc shares how he envisioned the first smartphone (called the Pocket Crystal) before there was even an internet. He formed a superteam of tech geniuses from Apple who created all the technology you take for granted today—and all from scratch. While the company failed, the ideas Marc inspired changed the world. Audiences will come away learning not only the behind-the-scenes story of General Magic but also lessons on timing, building, scaling, and leading innovative organizations that can deliver breakthrough products without breaking themselves.

Key Benefits & Insights

o Translating moonshot vision into winning execution.

o Building hot, innovative cultures that can adapt to seismic market shifts.

o Avoiding failure mode

Audience
Appeals to a broad audience, a wide variety of backgrounds, levels, and ages.

Formats
30 / 45 / 60 min from large audience keynote to off-sites to fireside chats.

Positioning
Technology Visionary | CEO & Board | Inspiring Leader

Learn More

About Keynote Speaker Marc Porat

Marc Porat is a rare strategic force—a visionary and practitioner, a thought leader on the future of AI and agentic systems and their impact on businesses and society. His company, General Magic, is credited with inventing the smartphone and the first agent platform.

Marc brings clarity, energy, context, leadership, and depth of execution to Strategy Committees, Senior Advisory roles, and Boards. He is a thoughtful listener, a compelling speaker, and a trusted advisor—effective in the boardroom, public forums, and internal offsites—helping leadership teams understand and navigate the design of a defensible competitive advantage with a world-class AI-first strategic plan.

He is a though-leader on Superintelligence – the most powerful technology in human experience. It will change everything. It can unlock immense human and economic benefits, and it can create deep problems. It spans the continuum from utopian to dystopian. Marc’s keynotes are rated by audiences and organizers as powerful, thought-provoking, and “amazing”.

Marc’s key message to companies navigating the rapidly evolving AI discontinuity is to transform their business model and operations – with AI as a core competence – and harness its benefits; or risk dramatic and possibly irreversible decline.

  • How AI, agentics, AGI evolving to Superintelligence will reshape industries, markets, and the nature of work.
  • How to align leadership, culture, and technology to drive innovation during this revolutionary period of discontinuity.

Marc was the founding CEO of General Magic, the iconic Apple spinout credited with creating the first smartphone and Telescript, an intelligent agent platform, laying the groundwork for today’s agentic AI revolution. Key team members went on to build the iPhone, Android, and eBay. (See the award-winning “General Magic the Movie”).

Marc is an advisor to private equity firms and companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100. He invested early in VC funds and in companies such as Google, Sendmail, Dropbox, and Rescale, and is broadly connected to the Silicon Valley venture capital community.

As a leader, Board member, and operator, Marc has served as CEO, Chairman, and Director of six companies: Private Satellite Network, Serious Materials, CalStar Cement, Zeta, and Perfect Commerce. He holds senior Board of Advisor roles with SandboxAQ, focusing on AI for cybersecurity, pharma, and materials discovery; and with Delos, focusing on AI for commercial real estate and health.

Marc is a Stanford University-trained economist. His doctoral dissertation, The Information Economy, is widely cited as the definitive macroeconomic work on how knowledge workers and information industries drive economic growth and wealth. He lives and works in San Francisco.

Testimonials

“Marc Porat’s keynote on Superintelligence and General Magic was extraordinary. He masterfully wove together history, vision, and foresight to show how yesterday’s boldest ideas shape tomorrow’s realities. Our audience left inspired, energized, and ready to think bigger about what’s possible.”

Susan W.

EVP, Walker & Dunlop 2025 Summer Conference

“Marc has a way of describing something where you feel it and understand it. His Insights excite you. You feel his enthusiasm and his clarity, which is extraordinary. He connects emotionally with the audience. He has lived his experiences and shares them in story form.”

David Hoffman

Filmmaker, CEO, Varied Directions

“Marc has been at the forefront of several major technology revolutions: personal computers, smartphones, agents, AI, and cleantech. He is connected to some of the brightest leaders in Silicon Valley and has conceived markets and products way ahead of the field. (He is also a terrific human being.)”

David Stavens

Ex-CEO & Co-Founder, Udacity, AI Pioneer

“Marc is one of the most thoughtful, visionary, and strategic minds in the tech world. His accurate prediction of the current tech transformation from back in the 90s is something out of a Nostradamus-like myth and as such, he is an invaluable asset to companies at the forefront of technology, especially those aiming to shape humanity’s future through bold and consequential decisions. Read More

Yuval Dror

Sr. Director, Global SaaS Partnerships & Alliances

“Marc is a technology visionary, passionate, thoughtful, creative, and a valued advisor. He combines a rare ability to see over the horizon with real-world operating experience.”

Rick Sherlund

CEO, Sherlund Partners (former Managing Director, Goldman Sachs)

“Marc has been at the center of every major tech disruption for decades. His counsel helps leaders to understand AI, and act on it. He brings Silicon Valley’s boldness together with a deep understanding of Europe’s sensibilities and risk culture. That combination is rare and invaluable.”

Sam Tidswell-Norrish

Chairman, OPUS (former Founder & MD, Motive Partners)

“For boards wrestling with AI strategy, Marc is the calm, experienced voice you want in the room.”

Jack Hidary

Founder & CEO, SandboxAQ (former Google X)

“Marc has a unique ability to turn complex ideas and challenges into clear, actionable game plans—blending innovation with execution. His experience, judgment, and insight are simply unmatched. He’s someone I would want involved in any critical decision.”

Paul Scialla

Co-founder & CEO, Delos

“Marc is one of the most engaged and passionate speakers I’ve ever partnered with. He shows up eager to collaborate, refine, and push for the best talk possible – the audience feels that energy every time.  His keynote resonated powerfully and is one of the very best.”

Cari Levison

Creative Director of Programming at Summit, Co-Founder Up and Up Creative

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