The Triangle to Media Success: How to Leverage your Edit, Ads and Audience to...ArabNet ME
Successful digital media properties require a convergence of three areas: editorial, revenue & audience. Over the course of this talk, you’ll learn how to marry the three to carve out where your product fits in a person’s consumption habits and how to leverage that.
Speaker: Dan Maccarone, Co-Founder & CEO, Charming Robot
Uber is facing a lawsuit that alleges it misclassifies its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. The lawsuit could have major implications for both Uber and the sharing economy model. It will determine whether Uber drivers are entitled to protections like a minimum wage and benefits. A ruling in Uber's favor could expand the contractor model to other industries, while a loss could force Uber and others to reclassify many workers as employees. The case may set important legal precedents around the definition of employees and contractors. It also raises questions about the future of work as more jobs adopt flexible, on-demand models.
Cyber squatting refers to registering domain names that are identical or similar to existing trademarks with the intent of profiting from their goodwill. It became an issue in the 1990s when some individuals began registering famous company or brand names as domains in hopes of reselling them. While early squatters tried to sell domains back to trademark owners, they eventually began using domains to divert traffic to their own sites. This required new laws beyond traditional trademark protection. The US was first to pass an anti-cybersquatting law in 1999 allowing trademark owners to take legal action against bad faith registrations or uses of domains confusingly similar to their marks. Other countries addressed squatting through national laws and existing trademark directives.
The document discusses several articles about issues with corporate blogging and social media use. It describes how Walmart blogs promoting the company were actually written by a PR firm. It also discusses Sony creating a fake blog to promote a product and privacy breaches on MySpace and Xanga that revealed children's personal information. The document examines cases where snack companies and social media sites were fined for violating laws protecting kids' privacy online.
1) A study examined differences in how men and women shop online and offline through surveys, focus groups, and usability testing.
2) The study found that while offline shopping behaviors often reflected stereotypes, online behaviors have become more similar as both genders have spent more time online.
3) However, the study still found some key differences - women tended to scan websites quickly looking at many options, while men dug deeper researching specific products. Women also went on more tangents between products while men stuck more to their mission.
10 secrets wealthy people live by power presence profithao luuvan
This document discusses strategies for becoming wealthy based on the traits of billionaire entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. It recommends automating savings by dedicating a portion of income each month to an "Empire Building Fund" to invest in skills, assets, and recurring income sources. It also suggests trimming unnecessary expenses, setting clear and specific goals, and taking action on business ideas rather than just discussing them. The overall message is that the wealthiest people strategically spend, save, and take action to continuously generate new sources of value and wealth over time.
The document summarizes recent trends in digital markets and companies. It notes that the German Internet Index (GIX) grew 51% over the past year, driven by large companies like Delivery Hero, Zalando, and HelloFresh. The European Internet Index (EIX) also grew 42% on the strength of companies like Spotify, Booking, and Yandex. However, Chinese tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent underperformed due to increased regulatory scrutiny by the Chinese government. Overall, listed digital companies saw strong growth over the past year.
The document summarizes and critiques a Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi accusing Goldman Sachs of causing major economic downturns over the past century through risky and fraudulent practices. The summary argues that while Taibbi's article is entertaining, it relies on inaccurate or misleading facts and data. It proceeds to analyze several specific claims from Taibbi's article, finding that the numbers and details provided are often wrong or one-sided. For example, Goldman was not the leading underwriter in tech IPOs as claimed. Overall, the summary concludes that while valid criticisms can be made, Taibbi's "facts are adapted to theories, and not vice versa," making the article more about entertainment than informed analysis.
The Triangle to Media Success: How to Leverage your Edit, Ads and Audience to...ArabNet ME
Successful digital media properties require a convergence of three areas: editorial, revenue & audience. Over the course of this talk, you’ll learn how to marry the three to carve out where your product fits in a person’s consumption habits and how to leverage that.
Speaker: Dan Maccarone, Co-Founder & CEO, Charming Robot
Uber is facing a lawsuit that alleges it misclassifies its drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. The lawsuit could have major implications for both Uber and the sharing economy model. It will determine whether Uber drivers are entitled to protections like a minimum wage and benefits. A ruling in Uber's favor could expand the contractor model to other industries, while a loss could force Uber and others to reclassify many workers as employees. The case may set important legal precedents around the definition of employees and contractors. It also raises questions about the future of work as more jobs adopt flexible, on-demand models.
Cyber squatting refers to registering domain names that are identical or similar to existing trademarks with the intent of profiting from their goodwill. It became an issue in the 1990s when some individuals began registering famous company or brand names as domains in hopes of reselling them. While early squatters tried to sell domains back to trademark owners, they eventually began using domains to divert traffic to their own sites. This required new laws beyond traditional trademark protection. The US was first to pass an anti-cybersquatting law in 1999 allowing trademark owners to take legal action against bad faith registrations or uses of domains confusingly similar to their marks. Other countries addressed squatting through national laws and existing trademark directives.
The document discusses several articles about issues with corporate blogging and social media use. It describes how Walmart blogs promoting the company were actually written by a PR firm. It also discusses Sony creating a fake blog to promote a product and privacy breaches on MySpace and Xanga that revealed children's personal information. The document examines cases where snack companies and social media sites were fined for violating laws protecting kids' privacy online.
1) A study examined differences in how men and women shop online and offline through surveys, focus groups, and usability testing.
2) The study found that while offline shopping behaviors often reflected stereotypes, online behaviors have become more similar as both genders have spent more time online.
3) However, the study still found some key differences - women tended to scan websites quickly looking at many options, while men dug deeper researching specific products. Women also went on more tangents between products while men stuck more to their mission.
10 secrets wealthy people live by power presence profithao luuvan
This document discusses strategies for becoming wealthy based on the traits of billionaire entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. It recommends automating savings by dedicating a portion of income each month to an "Empire Building Fund" to invest in skills, assets, and recurring income sources. It also suggests trimming unnecessary expenses, setting clear and specific goals, and taking action on business ideas rather than just discussing them. The overall message is that the wealthiest people strategically spend, save, and take action to continuously generate new sources of value and wealth over time.
The document summarizes recent trends in digital markets and companies. It notes that the German Internet Index (GIX) grew 51% over the past year, driven by large companies like Delivery Hero, Zalando, and HelloFresh. The European Internet Index (EIX) also grew 42% on the strength of companies like Spotify, Booking, and Yandex. However, Chinese tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent underperformed due to increased regulatory scrutiny by the Chinese government. Overall, listed digital companies saw strong growth over the past year.
The document summarizes and critiques a Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi accusing Goldman Sachs of causing major economic downturns over the past century through risky and fraudulent practices. The summary argues that while Taibbi's article is entertaining, it relies on inaccurate or misleading facts and data. It proceeds to analyze several specific claims from Taibbi's article, finding that the numbers and details provided are often wrong or one-sided. For example, Goldman was not the leading underwriter in tech IPOs as claimed. Overall, the summary concludes that while valid criticisms can be made, Taibbi's "facts are adapted to theories, and not vice versa," making the article more about entertainment than informed analysis.
This document is a statement of attainment issued by Open Universities Australia to Mr. Rabea Salameh. It certifies that he has completed 22 accredited units through Open Universities Australia between 2011-2014. The units were undertaken at various Australian universities and cover subjects such as programming, information systems, statistics, marketing and communications. The statement provides details of each completed unit including course code, name, workload, assessing institution and result.
El documento habla sobre la discriminación y cómo tratar a todos por igual sin importar sus diferencias. Resalta que discriminar a otros solo por ser diferentes está mal y que todos somos iguales a pesar de nuestras diferencias. También define la discriminación como tratar a alguien de manera desfavorable debido a prejuicios.
This document summarizes key concepts about simple harmonic motion:
1) Simple harmonic motion occurs when the acceleration of an object is proportional to and opposite of the displacement from a central point. The force causing the motion is called a restoring force.
2) Periodic variables that describe simple harmonic motion include amplitude, period, frequency, and angular frequency. The period is the time for one complete oscillation.
3) Examples of simple harmonic motion include a mass on a spring, the motion of a simple pendulum, and uniform circular motion. For a mass on a spring, the acceleration is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium.
4) Other types of oscillatory motion discussed include the simple pendulum and
This document summarizes a student's career exploration project focused on social work careers. It includes summaries of two potential careers - child, family, and school social workers and substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors. It also summarizes interviews conducted with professionals in those fields, including a family practice worker. The student reflected that speaking with professionals provided valuable insight and perspective into the challenges of social work and helped solidify their interest in pursuing a career in human services.
This document outlines the criteria and rules for a chemistry course, including evaluations based on activities, exams, and attendance. It will cover topics like the definitions of chemistry and technology, as well as discussions around synthetic and natural materials. Students will be evaluated on exploratory work, acquisition of knowledge, application of concepts, metacognition, and exams, with attendance also accounting for 20% of the final grade.
SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS
Que la terre te soit légère
lecture méthodique à travers la lecture d'épitaphes et la résolution d'énigmes
Diaporamas 4e pour scénarii de lectures en 3 étapes
Objectif : lecture d’une épitaphe dédicatoire. Notion grammaticale : rôle du nominatif et du datif .
Pour la lecture dynamique, la vidéo d’élèves en situation de lecture face à un diaporama semblerait la solution la plus efficace afin de promouvoir cette démarche.
-> L’usage des TICE est alors centré sur l’utilisation de l’image mobile ou fixe.
1) essai de lecture dynamique d'un texte latin adapté
Chemistry is connected to many other sciences like biology, biochemistry, physics, agriculture, medicine, and petrochemistry. Chemistry involves the chemical analysis of living organisms, studying the structure and properties of matter, and laws of chemical interactions. It also contributes to sciences like soil science, pharmacology, and the study and production of fertilizers and oil derivatives.
Extra credit #11 page max12 pt. font1 inch marginsDouble s.docxmydrynan
Extra credit #1
1 page max
12 pt. font
1 inch margins
Double spaced
1) What makes a decision in business an “ethics” decision?
2) Regarding the UBER case, which of the actions mentioned in the article would count as an ethics
case under the definition in #1? Go over each action listed in the article (for UBER) and explain
how or how it is not an “Ethics” issue.
Ahh, Thanksgiving, the time of year to stop the daily drudgery and give thanks for what we have. To be grateful for our family, friends and health. Maybe this is also a perfect time to be thankful for all the wonderful things technology start-ups have done for society.
There’s Facebook, which has magically enabled more than 1.3 billion people to connect with one another from anywhere on the globe. There’s Google, which continues to hand out great products, such as search and mail, like free ice cream samples on a warm summer day. We can even give special thanks to Snapchat, which enables teenagers to share ephemeral pictures and videos that won’t catch up to them later.
Then, of course, there’s Uber, which has made hailing a taxi feel less like a prison sentence and more like you’re Donald Trump.
But while we’re thankful for all that these companies have done, I’m not sure how thankful these companies are for us.
While (most) start-ups have been on better behavior this year, there have been dozens of instances when they acted poorly, even unethically — sometimes playing fast and loose with our personal information, other times taking advantage of the lack of government oversight.
Let’s recap a few instances this year: Facebook thought it was perfectly O.K. to make people into unwitting guinea pigs when it manipulated over a half-million people’s news feeds to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw as part of a psychological study.
Snapchat seemed fine not fixing a privacy breach that compromised the phone numbers and user names of as many as 4.6 million accounts. (The company also refused to take any responsibility for the breach, even though it knew about the problem in advance.) Google continued to treat privacy like it was a just a silly thing, when the company updated its privacy policy to scan people’s emails.
And then (you know where this is going) there’s Uber, which took unethical corporate behavior to a new level.
Uber tried to eviscerate its rival, Lyft, by aggressively poaching drivers, sabotaging its fund-raising and ordering and canceling more than 5,000 fake rides. Then last week, a media storm was set off when an Uber executive had discussed the idea of trying to dig up dirt on journalists who wrote negative things about it. And, the cherry on top, the company admitted it could geo-track any Uber consumer with an internal tool called “God View.”
Yikes!
Uber is “the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley,” said an investor in Lyft, the PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel, in an interview with CNN Money.
While every industry has it ...
The Practice of Public Relations, 12 th edition., Fraser P. Seitel.docxoreo10
The Practice of Public Relations, 12 th edition., Fraser P. Seitel, Chapter 5
Case Study Uber Success Brings Uber Public Relations Problems
Behold the phenomenon that is Uber. The 21st century personal taxi cab service, headquartered in San Francisco, is worth approximately $50 billion and isn’t even public. It is a staple in 300 cities in 58 countries, employs 300,000 drivers and generates annual revenues of $10 billion.
Uber Impactful
Uber was founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp as a transportation network company that uses an app to allow consumer to submit a trip request then routed to Uber’s nexus of drivers. Uber lore suggests that Kalanick and Camp hatched the idea one snowy night in Paris when they couldn’t find a cab. Almost immediately, the concept disrupted taxi companies and governments around the world. Meanwhile, private investors piled on to finance the upstart company, assuring it of one of history’s most monumental public offerings—if and when it decides to go public. Uber’s impactful growth appeared unstoppable. In the summer of 2015, CEO Kalanick announced plans to invest $1 billion in China, increasing to 65 the number of Chinese cities served by Uber. Despite challenges from entrenched taxi companies and the Chinese government, Kalanick predicted that China might turn out to be a more important market for Uber even than the U.S.
Uber Arrogant
Despite Uber’s roaring success, it suffered public relations problems from its start. One primary reason was its not-yet-40-year-old CEO Kalanick. While any Silicon Valley “disruptor” must be a feisty competitor by nature, the Uber founder found himself in more hot water virtually every time he opened his mouth. On the long-standing industry he wished to dethrone, CEO Kalanick immediately enraged taxi drivers and local governments when he declared, “It’s not Pinterest where people are putting up pins. You’re changing the way cities work, and that’s fundamentally a third rail. We’re in a political campaign, and the candidate is Uber and the opponent is an a—hole named Taxi.” On the upstart competitor Lyft raising money to challenge Uber, Kalanick made a veiled threat to investors, “Just so you know, we’re going to be fund-raising after this, so before you decide whether you want to invest in them, just make sure you know that we are going to be fund-raising immediately after.” When asked by an interviewer about his skyrocketing “desirability” as young CEO of a multi-billion company, he responded, “Yeah, we call that ‘Boob-er.’” And if that didn’t reflect enough public relations tone deafness, Kalanick followed the comment up by blaming the media for reporting a claim by a political organizer that she was choked by an Uber driver; dismissing the accusation that Uber was somehow liable “for these incidents that aren’t even real in the first place.” Unfortunately for the CEO and his company, Uber’s public relations “incidents” kept on coming.
Uber Crises
Kalan ...
From Being Fired to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Fintech StartupAltar.io
From the number of actionable tips and insights in this interview; it’s easy to see why serial entrepreneur, Yaron Samid’s company BillGuard became one of the most popular fintech startups in the world.
This article discusses fraud on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter. It profiles Dawn Sole, the owner of Pluck N' File, who was a victim of fraud when someone copied her campaign word-for-word on Kickstarter. Though Kickstarter removed the fraudulent campaign, Dawn feels government agencies and Kickstarter have not done enough to address the problem or protect victims. The article argues fraud is a growing issue as crowdfunding becomes more popular and accessible to criminals seeking to exploit the system.
This document is a statement of attainment issued by Open Universities Australia to Mr. Rabea Salameh. It certifies that he has completed 22 accredited units through Open Universities Australia between 2011-2014. The units were undertaken at various Australian universities and cover subjects such as programming, information systems, statistics, marketing and communications. The statement provides details of each completed unit including course code, name, workload, assessing institution and result.
El documento habla sobre la discriminación y cómo tratar a todos por igual sin importar sus diferencias. Resalta que discriminar a otros solo por ser diferentes está mal y que todos somos iguales a pesar de nuestras diferencias. También define la discriminación como tratar a alguien de manera desfavorable debido a prejuicios.
This document summarizes key concepts about simple harmonic motion:
1) Simple harmonic motion occurs when the acceleration of an object is proportional to and opposite of the displacement from a central point. The force causing the motion is called a restoring force.
2) Periodic variables that describe simple harmonic motion include amplitude, period, frequency, and angular frequency. The period is the time for one complete oscillation.
3) Examples of simple harmonic motion include a mass on a spring, the motion of a simple pendulum, and uniform circular motion. For a mass on a spring, the acceleration is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium.
4) Other types of oscillatory motion discussed include the simple pendulum and
This document summarizes a student's career exploration project focused on social work careers. It includes summaries of two potential careers - child, family, and school social workers and substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors. It also summarizes interviews conducted with professionals in those fields, including a family practice worker. The student reflected that speaking with professionals provided valuable insight and perspective into the challenges of social work and helped solidify their interest in pursuing a career in human services.
This document outlines the criteria and rules for a chemistry course, including evaluations based on activities, exams, and attendance. It will cover topics like the definitions of chemistry and technology, as well as discussions around synthetic and natural materials. Students will be evaluated on exploratory work, acquisition of knowledge, application of concepts, metacognition, and exams, with attendance also accounting for 20% of the final grade.
SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS
Que la terre te soit légère
lecture méthodique à travers la lecture d'épitaphes et la résolution d'énigmes
Diaporamas 4e pour scénarii de lectures en 3 étapes
Objectif : lecture d’une épitaphe dédicatoire. Notion grammaticale : rôle du nominatif et du datif .
Pour la lecture dynamique, la vidéo d’élèves en situation de lecture face à un diaporama semblerait la solution la plus efficace afin de promouvoir cette démarche.
-> L’usage des TICE est alors centré sur l’utilisation de l’image mobile ou fixe.
1) essai de lecture dynamique d'un texte latin adapté
Chemistry is connected to many other sciences like biology, biochemistry, physics, agriculture, medicine, and petrochemistry. Chemistry involves the chemical analysis of living organisms, studying the structure and properties of matter, and laws of chemical interactions. It also contributes to sciences like soil science, pharmacology, and the study and production of fertilizers and oil derivatives.
Extra credit #11 page max12 pt. font1 inch marginsDouble s.docxmydrynan
Extra credit #1
1 page max
12 pt. font
1 inch margins
Double spaced
1) What makes a decision in business an “ethics” decision?
2) Regarding the UBER case, which of the actions mentioned in the article would count as an ethics
case under the definition in #1? Go over each action listed in the article (for UBER) and explain
how or how it is not an “Ethics” issue.
Ahh, Thanksgiving, the time of year to stop the daily drudgery and give thanks for what we have. To be grateful for our family, friends and health. Maybe this is also a perfect time to be thankful for all the wonderful things technology start-ups have done for society.
There’s Facebook, which has magically enabled more than 1.3 billion people to connect with one another from anywhere on the globe. There’s Google, which continues to hand out great products, such as search and mail, like free ice cream samples on a warm summer day. We can even give special thanks to Snapchat, which enables teenagers to share ephemeral pictures and videos that won’t catch up to them later.
Then, of course, there’s Uber, which has made hailing a taxi feel less like a prison sentence and more like you’re Donald Trump.
But while we’re thankful for all that these companies have done, I’m not sure how thankful these companies are for us.
While (most) start-ups have been on better behavior this year, there have been dozens of instances when they acted poorly, even unethically — sometimes playing fast and loose with our personal information, other times taking advantage of the lack of government oversight.
Let’s recap a few instances this year: Facebook thought it was perfectly O.K. to make people into unwitting guinea pigs when it manipulated over a half-million people’s news feeds to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw as part of a psychological study.
Snapchat seemed fine not fixing a privacy breach that compromised the phone numbers and user names of as many as 4.6 million accounts. (The company also refused to take any responsibility for the breach, even though it knew about the problem in advance.) Google continued to treat privacy like it was a just a silly thing, when the company updated its privacy policy to scan people’s emails.
And then (you know where this is going) there’s Uber, which took unethical corporate behavior to a new level.
Uber tried to eviscerate its rival, Lyft, by aggressively poaching drivers, sabotaging its fund-raising and ordering and canceling more than 5,000 fake rides. Then last week, a media storm was set off when an Uber executive had discussed the idea of trying to dig up dirt on journalists who wrote negative things about it. And, the cherry on top, the company admitted it could geo-track any Uber consumer with an internal tool called “God View.”
Yikes!
Uber is “the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley,” said an investor in Lyft, the PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel, in an interview with CNN Money.
While every industry has it ...
The Practice of Public Relations, 12 th edition., Fraser P. Seitel.docxoreo10
The Practice of Public Relations, 12 th edition., Fraser P. Seitel, Chapter 5
Case Study Uber Success Brings Uber Public Relations Problems
Behold the phenomenon that is Uber. The 21st century personal taxi cab service, headquartered in San Francisco, is worth approximately $50 billion and isn’t even public. It is a staple in 300 cities in 58 countries, employs 300,000 drivers and generates annual revenues of $10 billion.
Uber Impactful
Uber was founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp as a transportation network company that uses an app to allow consumer to submit a trip request then routed to Uber’s nexus of drivers. Uber lore suggests that Kalanick and Camp hatched the idea one snowy night in Paris when they couldn’t find a cab. Almost immediately, the concept disrupted taxi companies and governments around the world. Meanwhile, private investors piled on to finance the upstart company, assuring it of one of history’s most monumental public offerings—if and when it decides to go public. Uber’s impactful growth appeared unstoppable. In the summer of 2015, CEO Kalanick announced plans to invest $1 billion in China, increasing to 65 the number of Chinese cities served by Uber. Despite challenges from entrenched taxi companies and the Chinese government, Kalanick predicted that China might turn out to be a more important market for Uber even than the U.S.
Uber Arrogant
Despite Uber’s roaring success, it suffered public relations problems from its start. One primary reason was its not-yet-40-year-old CEO Kalanick. While any Silicon Valley “disruptor” must be a feisty competitor by nature, the Uber founder found himself in more hot water virtually every time he opened his mouth. On the long-standing industry he wished to dethrone, CEO Kalanick immediately enraged taxi drivers and local governments when he declared, “It’s not Pinterest where people are putting up pins. You’re changing the way cities work, and that’s fundamentally a third rail. We’re in a political campaign, and the candidate is Uber and the opponent is an a—hole named Taxi.” On the upstart competitor Lyft raising money to challenge Uber, Kalanick made a veiled threat to investors, “Just so you know, we’re going to be fund-raising after this, so before you decide whether you want to invest in them, just make sure you know that we are going to be fund-raising immediately after.” When asked by an interviewer about his skyrocketing “desirability” as young CEO of a multi-billion company, he responded, “Yeah, we call that ‘Boob-er.’” And if that didn’t reflect enough public relations tone deafness, Kalanick followed the comment up by blaming the media for reporting a claim by a political organizer that she was choked by an Uber driver; dismissing the accusation that Uber was somehow liable “for these incidents that aren’t even real in the first place.” Unfortunately for the CEO and his company, Uber’s public relations “incidents” kept on coming.
Uber Crises
Kalan ...
From Being Fired to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Fintech StartupAltar.io
From the number of actionable tips and insights in this interview; it’s easy to see why serial entrepreneur, Yaron Samid’s company BillGuard became one of the most popular fintech startups in the world.
This article discusses fraud on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter. It profiles Dawn Sole, the owner of Pluck N' File, who was a victim of fraud when someone copied her campaign word-for-word on Kickstarter. Though Kickstarter removed the fraudulent campaign, Dawn feels government agencies and Kickstarter have not done enough to address the problem or protect victims. The article argues fraud is a growing issue as crowdfunding becomes more popular and accessible to criminals seeking to exploit the system.
Essay On Economic Crisis In Usa. Online assignment writing service.Kari Lowry
The novel White Tiger by Aravind Adiga captures modern India, showing the struggles of class and caste. Through the protagonist Balram Halwai, it illustrates the transitioning social hierarchy in India as the country undergoes rapid modernization. Some characters believe the caste system is outdated, while others feel caste lines remain rigid. Balram represents social mobility as he breaks free from the shackles of his low-caste status.
Virtual reality is developing rapidly and will fundamentally change reality through convincing VR experiences. Early VR and 360 video campaigns have been creative in promoting brands through interactive videos. Major companies are starting to use VR in advertising to capitalize on growing excitement around the technology, though it remains to be seen if VR will have lasting impact. Connecting competitors through peace offerings like the McWhopper campaign between McDonald's and Burger King shows how out-of-the-box thinking can bring people together.
AIRBNB/UBER ... was yesterday - PlatformCooperativism ... will be tomorrowThomas Doennebrink
Where the Sharing Economy meets PlatformCooperativism the Collaborative Economy 3.0 begins.
Cooperativism in general & cooperative banking associations in particular have the potential to give the rapidly changing economy and society an URGENTLY needed and
in the meantime by more and more people wished turn, as they have two aces up their sleeves which are strongly needed by platform cooperatives and can give them leverage, and would help to co-create the necessary and supportive ecosystem: millions of members and billions of capital. What is still lacking is the knowledge, willingness and the action.
How To Write A Scholarship Essay Introduction 7Angela Tyger
This document provides instructions for writing a scholarship essay in 5 steps:
1. Create an account on the HelpWriting.net site and provide registration information.
2. Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, deadline, and attach a sample work.
3. Review bids from writers on the site and choose one based on qualifications to start the assignment.
4. Review the completed paper and authorize payment if satisfied, or request free revisions.
5. Choose HelpWriting.net confidently knowing your needs will be met, and you can request revisions.
This document provides a summary of news and current events across various topics including social media, PR/media relations, digital/mobile technology, and general current events. Key updates include Saudi women using social media to fight for the right to drive, the Oslo bombing being caught on video and shared online, and consumers now spending more time on mobile apps than the web.
Tim Sanders argues that love, defined as intelligently sharing knowledge, networks, and compassion without expectation of return, is the most powerful force in business. He details his experience helping Victoria's Secret successfully broadcast a fashion show online in 1999 by sharing ideas from a book on virtual communities and facilitating cooperation between competitors to ensure a positive user experience, establishing long-term trust and goodwill as a result of his generous approach. Sanders believes choice and connectivity in today's world mean that unethical businesses cannot survive while those operated with love and care for others will prosper.
SOCIAL MEDIAS NEW MAD MEN by JEFF BERCOVICIThe Cannes Lions a.docxjensgosney
SOCIAL MEDIA'S NEW MAD MEN by JEFF BERCOVICI
The Cannes Lions advertising festival has become as big among the Madison Avenue crowd as the Riviera town's iconic film event is for Hollywood. So as Steve Stoute nursed a drink with a friend at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the balmy June evening that opened this year's boozing and schmoozing, the Cannes Lions veteran braced himself for an onslaught of media and technology executives. Stoute's ad agency, Translation LLC, has clients like Anheuser-Busch, State Farm and McDonald's—the kinds of whales that would have him fending off supplicants left and right.
But the roles of supplicant and master reversed when Stoute spotted Ben Silbermann walking into the bar. The soft-spoken Pinterest CEO was attending Cannes for the first time. Silbermann, 32, had just checked into his hotel and was planning to have a quick drink with his team before turning in to prep for his keynote speech the following morning. A few weeks earlier his social media service, especially popular with women and hobbyists, began experimenting with selling ads to show to its 70 million users. With more demand than it could satisfy, Pinterest had limited its test to a mere dozen sponsors, wringing commitments of more than $1 million from each.
Stoute was desperate to get his newest client, discount shoe store chain DSW, into the program (fashion is the third-most-popular type of content on Pinterest). "I didn't want this thing to go by without us getting in front of it," he says. Fortunately he had an in: Stoute's drinking buddy that night was Ben Horowitz, whose venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, had just participated in the $200 million funding round that had propelled Pinterest's on-paper valuation to $5 billion. Horowitz called Silbermann over, and Stoute ordered rosé for everyone, raised his glass toward his new acquaintance and offered up a paean of praise and blessings: Rise above, be great, stay great.
After accepting Stoute's flattery, Silbermann agreed to take his money, too. An hour into his Riviera debut, the new prince of Cannes had already bagged his first deal, just by showing up.
That's pretty much how things have been going for Pinterest lately. A visual social network where people create and share image collections of recipes, hairstyles, baby furniture and just about anything else on their phones or computers, Pinterest isn't yet five years old, but among women, who make up over 80% of its users, it's already more popular than Twitter, which has a market capitalization of more than $30 billion. Pinterest's U.S. user base is projected to top 40 million this year, putting it in a league with both Twitter and Instagram domestically, and it's moving fast to catch up with them overseas, opening offices in London, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo over the past year. International users now make up nearly half of new sign-ups, according to the research firm Semiocast. Pinterest even doubled the number of active male u.
The document discusses Starbucks' impact on the world coffee industry. It notes that Starbucks is popular due to its friendly environment and accommodating staff. Starbucks has succeeded financially even during hard economic times due to its strong business structure and status as a global brand. While coffee prices have risen, the industry continues growing, driven by Starbucks' success.
The document provides a summary of current events and trends in social media, PR/media relations, digital/mobile technology, and general news from July 15, 2011. Key topics included Saudi women using social media to fight for the right to drive, the Oslo bombing being caught on video and shared online, and location-based apps providing customized local information to users. Confidence in traditional news sources like newspapers and TV was rising according to a poll. The space shuttle Atlantis completed its final mission and non-stop high-speed trains were proposed as an innovative new form of transportation.
COPYWRITING SECRETS OF THE MASTERS - Brian ClarkSadiyya Patel
Brian Clark is the founder of the popular marketing blog Copyblogger.com. He has been recognized as one of the most influential online marketers and bloggers. Clark teaches proven content marketing strategies at seminars. Building traffic and links to a blog takes persistence through creating valuable content such as lists, how-to articles, and tutorials. Gaining attention from other bloggers can help content spread virally.
This document provides a summary of news and current events across various topics including social media, digital/mobile technology, PR/media relations, and general current events. Key updates include Saudi women using social media to fight for the right to drive, the bombing in Oslo being caught on YouTube and Twitter, and location-based apps providing customized recommendations to users based on their geographic location. It also mentions the launch of the last space shuttle mission and a potential breakthrough in clean energy creation.
This document is a thesis submitted by Janelle Molin to Woodbury University examining the ridesharing companies Lyft and Uber. It explores Lyft as the underdog competitor to the giant Uber. Through research on consumer behavior and ridesharing analytics, the thesis evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each company. It also provides a marketing plan with specific ideas to help Lyft strengthen its brand without being overtaken by Uber. Key points analyzed include the companies' slogans, Uber's recent rebranding, leveraging Uber's weaknesses as opportunities for Lyft, and the vision of Lyft's CEO Logan Green. The goal is to find ways for Lyft to compete against the dominant Uber in the growing sharing economy.
Re-imagining capitalism - UBER-Predators & UNDER-Dogs Thomas Doennebrink
In the context of an interesting joint one-week seminar by the Universities of St. Gallen & Copenhagen held 30 min input on platform capitalism and platform coops with special focus on UBER as it was the main subject of the day. Very lively discussion with well informed students asking good and the right questions followed in the remaining 45 min.
The document discusses the evolution of media from 30 years ago to today. It notes the rise of internet and mobile usage, with people now spending much more time online. It also discusses how consumers now trust peer recommendations more than brands and marketing. The document advocates for brands to engage consumers in open and transparent conversations online rather than one-way advertising messages. It provides some examples of both brands getting social media wrong and right.
Venture capital and the great big Silicon Valley asshole game
1. Venture capital and the great big Silicon Valley asshole
game
Venture capital and the great big Silicon Valley asshole game | PandoDaily
By Sarah Lacy
On October 6, 2014
[We're discussing this live on our new call-in show PandoLIVE. Listen here!]
This piece originally appeared on PandoQuarterly, issue three.
Silicon Valley has an asshole problem, and it's high time we owned up to it.
Let me be clear what I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about "brogrammers." I'm not talking
about Google buses, or the evils of libertarianism. I'm not even talking about greed, or at least not in
2. that Gordon Gekko sense.
Nothing that follows is about the fringe behaviors that crop up whenever a hot ecosystem like
Silicon Valley is observed from the safe and judgmental perch of East Coast media, and wildly
extrapolated to apply to everyone who has ever run a startup.
Also, when I say "Silicon Valley" I really mean the tech startup ecosystem that's centered here but
stretches to New York, LA, and beyond. This article is a little about misogyny, but it's principally
about hypocrisy. That's the real sin here.
That's the problem.
I've covered the tech industry too close for too long to think of anyone as a purely a hero or villain. I
don't expect that all great entrepreneurs are also people you'd want to set up on a blind date with
your best friend, and I don't expect that a VC's job is to invest in the nice guy. The world just doesn't
work that way.
And thank God. If it did we wouldn't have relational databases, iPhones, or any other manner of
innovations that have improved our daily lives. And frankly, other industries like film, finance, or
politics aren't held to that sort of "good guy" standard. Why should high tech be? Just because we
moralize about changing the world and doing no evil? (Yeah, we should probably stop that too, but
that's another article.)
Here's the problem. Every venture capitalist, in every interview they've ever done will tell you the
same casual lie: That they invest in people first and ideas second. They'll tell you they invest only in
people they'd want to work with. They'll tell you that they have the luxury to say no to companies
that don't do things in line with the way they like to work, the way they like to treat people.
You don't have to look too far into this year's frenzied pace of dealmaking, and at the price tags of
those deals to know that's complete bullshit. In all too many cases, what venture capitalists are
investing in is assholes.
It's weighing on those who've been in the business for decades, and I've been having conversations
about it all summer. A senior partner at a top firm recounted a partner meeting at breakfast
recently.
"Why are we backing this guy?" he said to a younger rainmaker at the firm. "He's an asshole."
His partner replied: "Hey, you gotta get over it. It's no longer about whether someone is an asshole
it's about can he make money."
That conversation happened a year ago. Said this multi-decade veteran of the business: "It didn't use
to be that way."
As an industry we need to think about what that means. Think about what the line is--either in terms
of bad behavior or opportunity. Decide when an asshole is a functional asshole or just an asshole.
Own it even. But most of all we need to stop lying to ourselves: This is an ecosystem with many
successful nice guys, but they didn't get funded by being nice.
Asshole rollcall
3. Let's name some of the biggest perpetrators of what I'm talking about.
Snapchat. There's been plenty of intrigue and rumors about the behavior and ethics of CEO founder
Evan Spiegel around venture circles. He's never been considered a warm and fuzzy guy, but the
truly horrifying glimpse into his soul came from a batch of leaked college emails where he told his
fraternity brothers to "have some girl put your large kappa sigma dick down her throat." And that
wasn't even the worst. Spiegel has apologized, and the emails weren't written while he was running
Snapchat, but nor were they written that long before. More worryingly, unlike a lot of examples on
this list, there appear to have been zero repercussions. Snapchat is rumored to be raising a round at
a heady $10 billion valuation--including participation by the well-heeled Kleiner Perkins.
Uber. Where to begin with Uber? It's a company that prides itself on playing rough and aiming to
break laws. It has a self-described "war room" inside its new hard-edged headquarters. It's played
fast and loose with background checks on drivers and with the truth. A Pando investigation earlier
this year showed that a driver accused of assault whom the company blindly defended had a criminal
record that should have been caught in Uber's background checks. More recently, it's hired a
campaign manager to shape the company's narrative. This is an area CEO Travis Kalanick already
knows plenty about, if we understand 'shaping the company's narrative' to mean slinging mud and
misleading the public in an image war between Uber and taxi companies.
Not only has Uber vilified riders accusing their drivers of rape, assault or general bad behavior,
they've also betrayed all their drivers; Kalanick has said he can't wait to replace them all with self-driving
cars. Time and again, he's shown he is loyal to little more than his growing bank account and
to the all-mighty free market. The Verge recently exposed a campaign called SLOG, publishing
internal documents that detail a plan for agents to pose as passengers to recruit drivers from
competitor Lyft and vie to tie up their cars so they couldn't pick up passengers.
Oh. And in a recent interview Kalanick bragged about how many ladies he could get with the success
of the company referring to it as "boob-er."
Uber has raised a jaw-dropping $1.5 billion, with its most recent $1.2 billion round coming at a
rumored $17 billion valuation. No one doubts egomaniacal stories like the one where Kalanick
publicly offered a job to a well-heeled investor at the elite Goldman Sachs conference who asked an
astute question of the CEO. Still, he's widely considered one of the best entrepreneurs of our age.
Secret. Most of the companies on this list and in this article do some good in the world, despite
asshole-ish behavior on the part of the founders. You could even argue that the same qualities that
make Kalanick and Spiegel such assholes are also what make them so incredibly effective as CEOs.
Spiegel would need something a bit "wrong" with him to turn down $3.5 billion from Mark
Zuckerberg, and Kalanick is just the kind of guy to think he can overturn the world's most powerful
transportation lobby city-by-city. Perhaps nice guys simply couldn't do those things. But Secret is the
lone exception to any of that, and hence, for my money, the worst one on this list.
The company exists for the sole purpose of writing things without accountability, and when Pando
wrote about the concern for bullying and potential suicides, founder David Byttow replied on Twitter
that we didn't drive enough traffic to the site to address our concerns. This wasn't really too much of
a hypothetical. The app store ratings showed people actually boasting the service was a bully's
dream.
Astoundingly, his head of PR Tweeted that it was hard when people wrote things about her or her
company without any accountability. Hey, at least we used our names. Only after a subsequent story
4. was picked up widely, on the front page of the Huffington Post and in Fortune, did Byttow change
his tune. Weeks later, the company grudgingly admitted there was no context in which you
anonymously write nice things about someone. He did what we recommended and blocked any posts
with specific names attached. Secret has raised $36 million--including a $6 million cash out for the
founders.
Rap Genius. One of the most bizarre examples, in terms of a company engaging in bad behavior
without suffering immediate repercussions, was Rap Genius, now called simply Genius. Co-founder
Mahbod Moghadam was involved in a series of startling incidents before finally being forced out.
These included shady practices that got the site penalized by Google and an annotation of the
manifesto of Elliot Roger, who stabbed three people and shot three others outside of UC-Santa
Barbara. Moghadam noted it was "beautifully written" and speculated the killer's sister might be
"smokin' hot." The annotation was finally enough to have him pushed out of the company. However,
a string of errors and abuses prior to this should have served as a warning of what was to come. And
sadly, if Genius was doing as well as Snapchat or Uber, and he was the sole founder, he probably
wouldn't have been fired. The company has raised a whopping $56.8 million from some of the largest
investors in the world.
Tinder. Tinder's CMO Justin Mateen was accused by former VP of Marketing Whitney Wolfe of
sexual harassment. She further accused the company, its CEO and its parent company IAC-owned
Match.com of knowingly letting these abuses occur and wrongfully terminating Wolfe when she
called the behavior into question.Mateen was suspended when the case came out. There are many
unknown details of what actually occurred here and even more conflicting accounts in the press.
But, as we wrote at the time, the news was unlikely to have any business repercussions for Tinder
since it's not an ad-based business model, and it's already full owned by IAC and hence not open to
the whims of venture investors. Further, it's an app whose principle selling point is about making
snap judgements based on someone's appearance and keeping them or discarding them. Not exactly
a "pearl clutching" crowd when it comes to this type of behavior.
Crunchfund. Many in the industry were agog when it was reported that Crunchfund had raised a
second fund. Its controversial founder Michael Arrington (who is a Pando investor and was fired
from our board two years ago) was accused by an ex-girlfriend of rape and abuse, a scandal that was
widely reported and even written up in a large Vanity Fair profile back in December 2013. The
claims were retracted after Arrington sued his accuser but following the claims, several other
figures in the tech industry came forward to accuse Arrington of a pattern of abusive, bullying
behavior to both men and women. But that didn't matter. Even before the initial claims were
retracted, investors had committed to a second fund.
And more to the point: Crunchfund wasn't exactly killing it. The biggest hits had been investments in
companies like Yammer and Tumblr which just got over the $1 billion Mendoza line. Even in those
"hits" Crunchfund's partners invested too little, too late for it to return the fund. Other early bets
like Mailbox generated excitement but were acquired very early on.
A lot of this has to do with the bizarre co-dependent relationship between Arrington and AOL. AOL--
which bought TechCrunch--took the majority of the fund both times, never mind this was a company
that publicly and unceremoniously fired Arrington before sheepishly hiring him back because it
needed someone to interview big name founders at its conferences.
These may be some of the more public examples, but they aren't the only ones. And behind each of
these are more reports of fucked over partners, promises made and then broken, and a general
attitude that there are no repercussions for bad behavior. In fact, if you look at the valuations of
5. Snapchat and Uber, it appears to be rewarded these days at higher and higher prices.
Sure, there are always assholes in entrepreneurship, partnerships, and life. But let's compare
today's crop of mega-startups to the three biggest social hits of the early Web 2.0 wave: Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn.
People have debated the character of Mark Zuckerberg, but the people who know him best rarely
call him an "asshole." Driven, intense, arrogant? Sure. But he's also assiduously calculating and
controlled about the impact of his actions.
Every venture capitalist will tell you the same casual lie: That they invest in people first and ideas
second.
Meanwhile neither of Twitter's founders Jack Dorsey or Evan Williams are known as assholes--even
though they effectively ousted each other and aren't particularly close to one another today.
Williams even personally bought investors out of Odeo--his previous company-- because it didn't turn
out the way he'd hoped. He's a rare example of a nice guy who finished first. His biggest flaw is his
avoidance of confrontation.
And LinkedIn? Well founder Reid Hoffman could make Mother Theresa look like a jerk. The biggest
investors in the early wave are much the same story. Peter Thiel is considered cold and even
eccentric, but is known to be intensely loyal and principled. (Whether you agree with his libertarian
principles or not.) Ditto Marc Andreessen. And Greylock's David Sze is considered about as mean as
Reid Hoffman.
There's no denying that in less than ten years the caricature of consumer Web startup success has
noticeably shifted.
"The truth is a lot of really successful entrepreneurs aren't [humble, high integrity] people."
For months, I've talked to more than a dozen top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley about this wild
hypocrisy in continually saying they only back good guys in the face of the obvious and mounting
evidence to the contrary. None has argued with the premise--even when they are guilty of it. But
none wanted to go on the record. The stakes are just too great. Well, almost none. There was one
guy who'd just joined the VC ranks and couldn't help but be honest: Eric Vishrai.
When top Silicon Valley venture firm, Benchmark, named Vishrai as its latest general partner, I was
shocked. Not because he wasn't deserving but because at a point in the cycle when everyone is
obsessed with big names, big logos, big mouths, and big brands, Vishrai is none of those.
With Vishrai, they went for substance not flash. He'd cut his teeth at the least sexy of Marc
Andreessen's companies, Opsware, and his previous company, Rockmelt, ultimately failed, selling to
Yahoo in a face-saving, comfortable landing for the team. Vishrai isn't a guy who drives headlines,
but one whose level-headed judgment would matter tremendously in the board rooms of actual
companies. I wrote as much at the time.
Here's what I didn't write then: Vishrai's answer to my question of what baggage he'll need to get
over to become a successful VC at the legendary firm that's backed eBay, OpenTable, Twitter, Yelp
and, in more recent years, Uber and Snapchat. When I'd last seen Vishrai, it was just after he sold
Rockmelt. He looked exhausted and beaten. Around the same time, Andreessen told him he was
"Valley depressed" and he'd know he was over it when he couldn't have a single conversation
6. without mentioning what could have been, but ultimately wasn't.
I was expecting him to answer my question about what baggage he had to get over with something
about this heartbreak. Instead, what he said caught me off guard:
"I like working with a certain kind of person. I like working with people who are very smart, who
have a little introspection, who have some humility, and high integrity. People that have some kind
of honorableness about them. That's how I attempt to carry myself. The truth is a lot of really
successful entrepreneurs aren't those kind of people. I think that's something I have to watch out
for. The models that work are not always created by those kind of people, and I want to be able to
invest in them. That's the biggest thing."
Wow. Essentially, Vishrai is admitting that investing with high integrity founders is no longer a
luxury the venture world can afford. Particularly telling as two of his firm's biggest hits are Uber and
Snapchat. In fifteen years of covering this industry, I've never heard anyone be quite so honest on
the record about this topic.
You can only lose your money once
For many I've spoken to, it's hard to pinpoint when this new wave of assholes and our acceptance of
them began. Part of it may be the changing face of what the "tech industry" is and hence what a
7. "product guy" is. Kevin Rose of Digg--not known as an asshole--was one of the first high-profile
examples of a "product founder" who advised on look and feel and design and usability and
experience but couldn't actually write a line of usable code. He hired an outsourced freelancer to do
so in the early days of Digg.
Since then, with the advent of mobile apps designing something and shoving it out the door has
gotten only more turn-key. Whether it's the open source stack all this stuff runs on, platforms like
Facebook or the app store for distributing it, the rise of services like oDesk and eLance, or hosting it
all on Amazon Web Services, the "tech" part of a tech company has become commoditized--at least
compared to the days when Silicon Valley actually made Silicon.
And because these founders need less money, they have fewer reasons to answer to anyone. Said
differently: The assholes of the past may have lacked the freedom to let their asshole flags fly.
Not only has Uber vilified riders accusing their drivers of rape, assault or general bad behavior,
they've also betrayed all their drivers
At a recent PandoMonthly LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner noted that being an asshole was way easier
than putting in the work and showing the compassion required to be a good leader. If no one is
challenging them, many will simply take the easier road. It may also be the sheer scale of the Valley
startup machine these days. We should remember that plenty of "nice guys" are also getting
handsomely rewarded. Drew Houston of Dropbox is hardly known for his bad behavior, nor is Brian
Chesky of Airbnb, and yet they are the two most highly valued companies to ever come out of Y-Combinator.
The venture game itself has also had to change, along with these changes in scale and scope of the
type of companies and founders funded. If you look at it across decades, the venture world moves
more in fashions more than it does absolutes. When I moved here, in the dot-com era, it was the
norm to replace a founder with a "grown up" more sales-oriented CEO. The pendulum has swung
aggressively in the other direction: Founders are gods within the four walls of their companies.
"They have no respect for the fact that they are taking other people's money--and it's not my money,
it's pension and endowment money," said one prominent VC who has struggled with the shift, but
didn't want to be identified for fear of getting a bad name with the new entrepreneur establishment.
"The attitude is 'You gave me the money now go away.' Sorry, but that's not my job. My job isn't to
run the company, but it's also not to just go away."
At some point this business became about funding a founder, not a company. This has coincided with
three other theories of venture capital portfolio management that have become prevalent of late.
The first is an obsession with a VC's "social game"--to steal the parlance of reality TV. Since 75% of
venturebacked startups are destined to fail, VCs today assume they'll do less damage overall by
writing off a bad performer than doing the hard work to fix it. Even if they oust an ineffective
founder, a company may be too damaged to salvage, meantime, the VC has ruined his rep of being
"entrepreneur friendly" for nothing.
The second theory is the new valuation math: Given basic liquidation preferences and soft landings
at bigger Valley companies, the risk to losing all your money is somewhat protected. Likewise,
companies like Facebook and Google have thrown traditional valuation math out the window too,
caring only if someone might disrupt them in another ten years.
So the only thing anyone cares about is the upside. VCs--in this point in the cycle--are smart to worry
8. less about erring on the side of paying up too much for a deal than erring on balking at a seemingly
high valuation. Especially when the next day Mark Zuckerberg could rewrite every rule by paying $2
billion for a hardware company that doesn't even have a product on the market. As Bill Gurley of
Benchmark says, "You can only lose your money once" if you invest. If you don't, you can effectively
lose that would-be appreciation many times over.
Without assholeswe wouldn't have relational databases, iPhones, or any other manner of innovations
that have improved our daily lives.
Is it the mantra of a bubble? Maybe. But it's the mantra you need to adhere to if you wanna get in
any deals right now.
The third change that rules venture decision making is an acceptance that no one has any clue of
what works.
Is Snapchat all sexting? Apparently not.
Is Yo even a thing? Maybe?
Is Secret morally bankrupt? Who the hell knows! Just write the damn check and let's figure it out
later!
The determiners of success in the Valley are no longer CIOs deciding on huge iron boxes that cost
millions a pop. It's not even whether geeky early adopters will like Twitter or FriendFeed more. It's
what teens around the world want to do on their phones. A hot mobile app has more in common with
a movie premiere than a classic Silicon Valley tech company. And increasingly, VCs know they have
no clue what's a good idea and what's a bad idea. Better to back all the apps showing "hockey stick
growth" on college campuses. Any VC would be happy to write off a dozen LikeALittle's for one
Snapchat.
Why do you think Mark Zuckerberg has Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger all operating
as independent apps slugging it out with one another for supremacy on the same campus? He knows
to some degree this is all a crap shoot. And an insanely binary one that can end with pennies on the
dollar or a $19 billion exit in a few years.
Funding an asshole? Sure, OK. It may also break the stated venture capital playbook of investing in
good people, but what is even left of that playbook these days?
The Sean Parker effect
Others pinpoint the trend to the release of "The Social Network" as a turning point in what was
considered acceptable startup behavior. One of the reasons that the outrageously fictional film was
concerning to Valley insiders is that it glorified a story that wasn't true--and one dotted with crazy
misogyny, backstabbing, and bad behavior. While Facebook's founders and early team are hardly
saints, the portrayal was wildly off and celebrated the "brogrammer" culture that has become so
reviled.
At the time, VC Shervin Pishevar expressed concern that he heard young founders worshipping this
kind of behavior. Ironically, he's most known for his investment and close involvement with Uber, a
company that would come to define the trend for many in the Valley.
9. For me, it all started with the resurgence of Sean Parker. I first met Parker when he was doing his
press tour for the launch of Plaxo. A very early pre-Friendster prototype of the social network, Plaxo
was seen as a ballsy bet by Sequoia's Mike Moritz, because the mood had shifted heavily away from
consumer Internet companies in the wake of the bust and Parker's previous company, Napster, had
no shortage of scandal.
The bullishness faded quickly. The next time I heard about Plaxo, Moritz (not exactly known as a
nice guy himself) was running Parker out of the company and there was a full-court press to sully his
reputation by characterizing him as a drug-addled, unreliable womanizer. When he resurfaced as
Facebook's president, the Valley still wasn't paying much attention to consumers, and the move
didn't get a lot of press, nor did his departure at the time. But when he joined Peter Thiel's venture
firm Founders Fund, the Valley establishment went wild.
I was writing a profile on Parker for Fortune at the time, and it was one of the worst professional
experiences of my career. Part of that was the frustration of spending that much time with Parker.
While a genius and charismatic, he's also known to be unreliable and manipulative. But far worse
was the full-court press Fortune and I got from the Valley establishment to outright kill the story. I
was told by some of the Valley's biggest names that no good would come of it: That Parker was so
toxic and so damaging that elevating him as a respectable VC would hurt the industry. Around the
same time Sequoia actually pressured its LPs at an annual meeting not to invest in Founder's Fund,
because of Parker's involvement.
Thiel--ever the contrarian--saw things more simply: Parker brought him Facebook, and when he got
in personal trouble, he stepped down without a fight. Thiel hired him for two reasons: loyalty and the
off chance that Parker may bring him another Facebook. Shit, even a half-Facebook would make the
gamble worthwhile. I've always admired Thiel for such personal loyalty in the face of what was an
ugly smear campaign--albeit one that wasn't altogether false.
But something strange happened between Justin Timberlake playing Parker in a movie and the
launch of Airtime: Almost all those investors who'd tried to convince me there was nothing
redeeming about Parker started salivating to invest in Airtime. The narrative suddenly became that
Parker had a "Midas Touch"--never mind his own companies had never had huge success, nor that
he'd been ushered out of Facebook before it hit the big time. Literally nothing about his track record
changed between the exact same people telling me I'd be blackballed in the Valley if I wrote a story
giving Parker any credit for anything good and them writing him a huge check. The only thing that
had changed was the Valley's way of doing business.
When I asked people privately about this change of heart, they
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oafishdete470/1/1407744636/tpod.html shrugged. He
had, after all, discovered Facebook. He was a savant about the way the consumer Web works and
what users want. It was worth the gamble that he could be right.
We all know what happened: Airtime flopped hard. Amid early struggles, there were conversations
about whether or not Sand Hill Road should demand the money back. Many of the investment firms
would have no part of such a plot. Their reluctance was due less to any great confidence that Airtime
would find its footing and more to wariness and the memory of how Sequoia had previously been
punished for pulling its support of Parker. It simply wasn't worth getting a few million bucks back to
risk the reputation as being "non-founder friendly" in today's Silicon Valley.
It's a sunk cost--move on and bet again.
10. In defense of the assholes...
The story of Sean Parker's bizarre transformation in the eyes of VCs demonstrates how the venture
game has changed. And frankly, those investors weren't necessarily wrong to bet on him. This is a
complex topic with no real "right" or "wrong."
You have to consider what the job of a VC is. It's not to give inner city kids a helping hand; it's not to
make mom-and-pop dreams a reality; it's not to help nice guys. It's to maximize returns and fund
companies that have an outsized chance of creating billion-dollar plus outcomes in a decade or less.
There is a certain personality type that frequently builds these companies--a mix of outsized
arrogance, steel-eyed determination, and even some element of delusion. Rational thinkers don't
usually think they can upend whole industries. People who get impacted by social pressure will be
talked out of an idea long before it comes to fruition. And overly empathetic founders will struggle to
make hard decisions and fire the people closest to them when they need to. If you don't come into
founding a startup as an asshole, frequently the journey can make you one.
Further, even assholes can have an outsized positive impact on the world. It's hard to argue there's
anything positive in the case of Secret, but Uber certainly has done good. Thousands of drivers are
making better incomes and are in control of their own businesses in ways they haven't been before,
and I believe Uber will reduce drunk driving as it grows and ripples through high schools and
colleges. I'd happily prefund an Uber account for my kids in their teenage years instead of buying
them a car.
These companies also create thousands of jobs, make thousands of people into millionaires, and
provide high growth stocks that help increase pension and mutual fund wealth around the globe.
Horrible people can actually do great things. At some point, doesn't the good of an entire new
market outweigh the bad of one person who got rich off of it?
This isn't entirely new. Read any biography of Steve Jobs, Jim Clark, or Larry Ellison. They weren't
exactly the two-dimensional villains they are sometimes depicted as, but they weren't what you'd
describe as nice guys either. Clark--one of only two entrepreneurs in the history of the Valley to co-found
three $1 billion plus exits--was said to make underlings shake nervously in his presence.
Ellison's mantra was reportedly, "It's not enough that I win, everyone else must lose."
There's also the inherent subjectivity what makes someone an asshole. In working on this story,
several people named people like Mark Zuckerberg or Mark Pincus or even Nextdoor's Nirav Tolia
as "assholes." I know all three decently well, and while hardcharging, competitive entrepreneurs
who've made mistakes or run roughshod over others at times, I wouldn't necessarily put them in
quite the same camp as a David Byttow or a Travis Kalanick.
But I say that as an industry insider who knows most of these people, their friends, investors and in
some cases their families. And I surely have my own personal biases. Whether we boycott an
organization or not as consumers shouldn't hinge on everyone getting to know them. On the other
hand, it's all too easy to get into witchhunt territory, particularly when it comes to something like
parsing college emails.
Let's face it: The press (or, occasionally, filmmakers like Aaron Sorkin) frequently shapes and
distorts these public figures into heroes or villains that will drive page views (or box office sales).
One of the great things about Silicon Valley, to me, is that your track record speaks louder than
Gawker or whatever Internet mob-du-jour is after you this week. These things, if inaccurate,
11. typically don't stick, and don't have a huge impact beyond emotional distress.
Case in point: Bustle. Bryan Goldberg wrote a somewhat hamfisted story about the launch of the
women's site that got wildly twisted and distorted by an Internet mob. It even caused Google
Ventures to agree to let Goldberg buy out their share rather than keep supporting him--a bit rich
given the investment in Secret.
But most of Bustle's readers weren't in that microcosm, and didn't read the subsequent New Yorker
profile on Goldberg which referenced it. They just love the site. Fast-forward to August when Salon
was asking how a "bro" managed to build a women's site. Well, for one thing, because he was never
the person the media depicted. He wasn't trying to "mansplain" anything to anyone. He saw a hole in
the market and hired incredibly smart female editors to build a great product while he does what he
does best: build a media business around it. The outrage over Bustle has turned from "mansplaining"
to "how dare he not be the stereotype we tried to make him into?"
Ultimately--my disgust at some of the behavior in the Valley aside--I don't want to live in a world
where some preachy Internet mob is the arbiter of whether someone is an asshole or not, taking
people's jobs and the potential for a great company. That said, there have to be times where it
crosses a line.
The disturbing thing about many of the recent cases of bad behavior is how much misogyny keeps
popping up, just as women are starting to make significant inroads into the startup world. When it
comes to race, for instance, some behavior simply isn't acceptable no matter when you wrote it,
whether you were running a company at the time, or what the context was.
Donald Sterling was forced to sell an NBA team based on remarks. Paula Deen lost a TV show. Their
context didn't matter. So how is it cool that people so blithely chalk up the misogynist emails of
Spiegel or the allegations against Arrington as simply boys-being-boys?
"No Longer a Gentleman's Game"
It's a clich? in business to talk about the twin forces of greed and fear driving everything but when it
comes to venture capital, it's slightly different. It's less greed and fear than greed and regret. And
mostly, regret.
It's a subtle difference. This was another thing Vishrai shared with me as talked about beginning his
career as a VC. When I asked if he went into venture capital because he wanted something "easier"
than starting another company he said--like many VCs-- that venture is a harder job than it gets
credit for. But he added that it was a "different kind of stress."
"It's not as acute, but it's longlived," he said. "The best VCs, when you talk to them, they feel regret.
I notice this time and time again, and it's only the best ones. They all are thinking about the ones
they missed. 'We passed on that' or 'We didn't hustle hard enough.' Every one of them has a story.
It's really eye-opening when you are thinking about going into this field."
He's right. It's a standard question we ask VCs on stage: What is the big company you passed on?
What was the one that got away? And the problem is the truly big regrets can't be forgotten because
they seem to get bigger and bigger. Passing on Google seemed embarrassing in 2000. It made you
want to punch yourself in 2005. And today as Google's market cap hovers at $392.5 billion it's
horrifying. Ditto Facebook. David Sze of Greylock was mocked for investing at a "crazy" $500 million
valuation. Today it's valued at $201.45 billion. The regrets of the Valley continually mock you and
12. laugh in your face. And even one homerun can make a fund. Some 95% of the returns in venture
capital come from 5% of the deals. Few people's jobs are that binary.
Venture capital simply moves too fast, has too much competition with too little inefficiency and
friction, and the stakes are too binary for this to remain the gentleman's game it once was. But
sacrificed in that very real reality of what is necessary to keep the lifeblood of this industry pumping
are two sad realities. One is that founders sometimes need to be kicked out of their companies--even
Steve Jobs did for himself and Apple and Pixar to ultimately reach their full potential. When
companies get big enough, it shouldn't just be about the founders. It should be about the teams, the
users, the customers, and even some service paid to the product and idea itself. Should all of those
forces be sacrificed to one person's ego and the fear that they could damage an investor's street
cred?
The other sad reality is the continual erosion of what Silicon Valley--as a place--stands for, if
anything. This used to be a place of misfits and changing the world. Even the legendary assholes had
a cause beyond themselves and checks and balances on their board. It just may take another
economic collapse to get back to that.
Art by Brad Jonas for Pando
13. Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google+Share on LinkedIn Sarah
LacySarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily.She is an award winning journalist
and author of two critically acclaimed books, "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of
Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0" (Gotham Books, May 2008) and "Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How
the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos" (Wiley, February 2011).She has been
covering technology news for over 15 years, most recently as a senior editor for TechCrunch.