Breakfast with Ballmer: Guest list and topics

I spoke to three of the participants. They told me that the group went around the table introducing themselves, then Ballmer talked for five or six minutes, and then he took questions and comments. The breakfast lasted about an hour.

Mostly, the group commended Microsoft on contributing to the innovation economy here in Boston with the growth of its Kendall Square NERD (New England Research & Development) Center, and implored the company to keep it up. Before NERD opened last year, Microsoft's local presence was much more diffuse.

Ballmer mentioned Microsoft's recent acquisition of Interactive Supercomputing, a Waltham company whose employees have now been folded into the NERD Center. He said that Microsoft will likely to continue acquiring local companies.

The one sparky interchange -- no surprise -- seems to have been initiated by angel investor (and former Lotus exec) John Landry, who said it seemed to him that Microsoft is still very much focused on desktop computing, and considers all other devices to be peripherals to the PC. Landry waved his iPhone and said he does 80 percent of his work on that device. Ballmer responded by saying that Microsoft was aware that it has to do much better with Windows Mobile 7, its forthcoming mobile operating system (the release of which has been pushed back into 2010). "We know we have to kill on that one," a meeting attendee recalled Ballmer saying. (I've got a call in to Landry, to get his version of the discussion about the iPhone.)

Twitter entrepreneur Laura Fitton also noted that very few people are developing Twitter apps for Windows Mobile. Ballmer responded by saying Microsoft realizes that the company is engaged in a long campaign to get more developers writing apps for the Windows Mobile OS.

One participant described Ballmer as very "workman-like" and said he comes across as more like a COO than a CEO.

Venture capitalist Michael Greeley told me that the meeting "wasn't brochure-ware. It was real nitty-gritty stuff: 'Here's what we're good at, and here's where we screwed up.' He was very approachable." Greeley said he had not met Ballmer before.

"There was a lot of discussion around rebuilding the community," Greeley continued. The group also talked a bit about the convergence of IT, science, and healthcare -- a particular interest of Greeley's, since his Back Bay firm invests in medical devices and healthcare technologies.

Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet software, told me he'd met Ballmer many times before. "He's very pragmatic. He talked about business models, and various things Microsoft has done right and wrong."

"They're happy being here," Bricklin continued. "They buy companies, and they will continue to buy companies here, so their presence will grow." Bricklin didn't want to talk in detail about what was said.

Following the meeting, Brian Halligan, CEO of the Cambridge-based digital marketing firm HubSpot, tweeted: "Met Steve Ballmer this am -- good/smart guy. Boy, he has a hell of a tough job. Fierce competitive battles in every market."

And prior to the meeting, Tim Rowe and Michael Greeley wrote this congratulatory article, "Thank You Microsoft," for Xconomy.

I have a message in to Microsoft's local PR person to see if she can shed any more light on what happened.

To read Kirsner's Innovation Economy blog on Boston.com, please click here.