Sky Dayton, Wireless Energy, and Helio

Last night, I interviewed Helio Chairman and serial entrepreneur Sky Dayton on stage at UCLA's Anderson School of Business. In January, Dayton stepped down as CEO of Helio and became chairman, presumably freeing him up to start yet another company. He had previously started Earthlink and Boingo before Helio.

I asked, in a number of ways, what he might do next, and he kept putting off the answer, usually smiling and saying, "We'll see." Toward the end of the session, in front of 100 or so students, I brought up something Dayton told me about when I saw him at CES in January: wireless power. He was fascinated by technology like Splashpower. The technology seems to have been pioneered by MIT a couple of years ago. This year, Splashpower will be behind a cell phone that charges wirelessly. Other companies seem to be working in this area.

Anyway, when I brought up wireless power, Dayton became coy. I asked if that was what he's considering getting into, and again he just said, "We'll see." But he sounded pretty excited about it.

On another note, I asked how Helio is doing. Press reports have said it is losing tons of money. Dayton insisted that Helio was doing fine and that cracking the telecom market is expensive. He certainly gave no indication of any trouble at his company.

Credit: Jessica Brandi Lifland / Polaris

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