Tag: StartUp
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Founders Acting Like Cult Leaders Is Bad For Startups
Worshiping Visionary Leaders Hurts Innovation People are so hungry for a singular genius who “think different,” that once someone is broadly accepted as a visionary, people will give them credit for ideas they didn’t have. A pile of innovator points awarded by nothing but perception gives them the advantage of support for any idea, no matter how…
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Billy McFarland Got More Money Apparently
Startups are filled with psychopaths enabled by delusional investors. Billy McFarland somehow managed to get more funding, to do more stupid shit. Billy McFarland has secured funding for Fyre Fest 2.0 and a Broadway musical
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The Business of Helping Build Businesses
This goes out to freelancers and those who run professional service companies. Are you building a business or helping others build theirs? It can be both. But that requires awareness, caution, and focus.
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Push ROI: Capital Spent, Deployed, And Made Up
I wrote a post for Push ROI, about startup BS. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Capital: Spent, Deployed, Made Up
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How Forbes Monetizes The Frauds They Create
Sam Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes, and Charlie Javice share a few things in common. They all seem to have committed fraud; though a court of law convicted only Homes at the time of writing. The three are also Forbes ’30 Under 30′ Alumni. Forbes is the best in the business at monetizing frauds on the way…
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AI Will Break Online Search
AI is going to give super powers to Blackhat SEO, breaking online search as we know it. RIP magic box at the top of the browser where we all reflexively type “how to [blank]”, “[blank] near me”, “best [blank] Reddit”, and anything else we seek a semi-reliable answer to at any given moment. Online search…
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Add Value, Not Noise: An Orwellian Social Media Post
Seeing engagement bait posts in social media groups is common. “Add value not noise” posted in a startup group on Facebook, however, is noteworthy due to the Orwellian level of using the behavior you’re cautioning not to use, to condemn the behavior you’re using. To the person who wrote this single sentence a few days…
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How Gawker Media Once Kept Silicon Valley In Check
At one time, Valleywag part of Gawker served as a tattletale hall monitor for the startup community. But since Peter Thiel sued the publication out of existence, the startup world has run amok without media coverage until hundreds of millions of dollars are involved. That’s a problem for the entire ecosystem.
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How Companies Scare Away Job Seekers
Most articles about hiring or getting hired are from the perspective of the business. These articles will either advise job seekers how to apply or will attempt to mentor a crop of inexperienced hiring managers and HR minions on how to screen for the best candidates. This post is from the perspective of job seekers to…
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5 Pieces of Etiquette for Startups Approaching Advisors
We’re coming upon the end of the year and a lot of people are planning to take the next steps toward starting a company. I can’t back that with statistics, but as a guy running a marketing agency, I’ve been having a lot of meetings with startup founders who would like help and advice. I…
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My Writing About Musk Isn’t About Musk
It seems like I’ve been writing a lot about Elon Musk. Objectively I, and most other writers have been. I cannot speak for others, but for me Musk is just an object lesson in the bad part of startup land. I’ve been around startups since I was a teenager. I’ve seen so many gallons of…
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Partner Or Employee With Extra Steps?
This morning I saw a post by Paul O’Brien titled “A VC is asking 6% for acting as an advisor…” – My first thought, that is some b******t – O’Brien agreed. His post is well worth reading, and it lead me down another thought pathway. When you give out a lot of equity, you are…
