I Have No Idea What This Startup Does and Nobody Will Tell Me
gawker.com
gawker.com
"Well, at the very least, it’s the most elaborate iteration of “Daddy needs a tax deduction” that I’ve ever seen."
That the pocket-square emblazoned founder of a sexy non-profit is the son of a well-heeled VC is old hat.
"Changing the world" is one of the well established paths for masters-of-the-universe in training.
But the attachment to also running his own "Venture Fund" as a 20 year old made me realize what a crazy good time to be young, in any Ivy / forward thinking school and have a pocket full of cash - just saw the official UC Berkeley House Fund (1) news last week in this vein.
As an investment thesis getting your money first in line before the next Zuck or Gates drops out of Harvard / Yale / Berk ain't a bad idea
I've since made it a bit of habit to gauge the quality of pitches a VC I talk to has gotten recently. Many of the stories I've heard make this pitch seem almost competent.
The opposite of pg's "frighteningly ambitious" is "unfrighteningly unambitious". There are too many startups out there that won't scare anyone - especially their founders.
It seems this Helena was made by some Markov chain or CNN that read too many startup and corporate prospects
Oh of course it already has a board and investors
And it's going to use synergy to empower the next level of corporate creativity or something like that
Really
One of the commenters gives a plausible idea: 'Well, at the very least, it’s the most elaborate iteration of “Daddy needs a tax deduction” that I’ve ever seen.'
His FIS profile has him as a 100 point skier (1). I was a 100 point skier, and I sucked ass, miles away from any reasonable standard of international competition.
(1) http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/athlete-biography.html?secto...
But from the look of it, it is simply an intellectually curious kid trying to keep himself busy. He also has a venture firm which backs that he has that kind of flare.
Not every 20-year-old student venture should be a Snapchat. Relax and let the guy do what makes him happy.
How does this do that?
He hired fucking Rogers & Cowan, the global PR firm and division of Interpublic, to handle media relations. That's not similar.
If he wanted to mind his own business and stay out of the press (and it's attendant judgement) he certainly had that option.
Is it really that hard to figure out this is just something to keep the kid busy (and maybe brush up against some Hollywood starlets)?
C'mon, at least mount a hostile takeover of zombo.com or something.
"Anything is possible... at zombo-com"
...and then figure out that no-one wants them to do that, and hopefully pivot to something people do want?
</cynical> ;)
To an extent, you can work by simply building a basic technology and, as William Gibson said, "The street finds its own uses for things". But doing that requires a fundamental new tech.
Likewise, you can work by simply getting a bunch of smart, powerful people in a room and seeing what happens. But at best, the street finds its own uses for things. At worst, it's a venue for networking and a free catered dinner. If you don't bring them a problem to solve in advance, they'll just do what they want, which probably won't be useful to anyone but themselves.
Looking at this, though, the one thing that does stand out from all the mush is the idea of getting different generations to work together. Which is (I say this as an old fart) stupid. A bunch of entitled college kids complaining that the old people who run the world don't listen to them or let them "innovate" solutions? Feh. All those old people were young once, too. They remember being young. They remember being absolutely certain that they understood how the world worked, and how to solve all the problems, and they remember knowing that the main impediment to saving the planet was all the old people who were running everything not listening to them. The reason the Boomer masters of the universe don't take Millenials seriously is because they've been around long enough to know just how naive kids are, and that there's no wisdom in being naive.
But I rant. Anyway, this is BS. Nobody is going to solve any problems by getting the stupid old people to listen to the brilliant young people.
Which, of course, is a parody of the late '90s tech boom and some of the useless, fluffy companies that were spawned.
[1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/inside-dond...
It doesn't seem as complicating as the article suggests.
We're a self-destructing group of selfish individuals who, more often than not, cannot see further than the tip of our nose. I'm glad there's a group who is trying to shine light on that.
it s an upvote brigade.
i see little they promise to do besides increase visibility.
its a way for people to use an influential social network as a megaphone.
Nobody knew what it did or what it was, but everyone wanted in on it... somehow.
It's hard to call something BS when they're not yet ready or publicly-launched.
PS: Gawker is bankrupt, content quality on Gizmodo is also suffering terribly.
Possibly because you're Gawker, a tabloid that's disgusting even for tabloids.
They hit the exact same roadblocks.
way to freak out Gawker.. what do they want you to do? If they are simply trolling you, then it's your job to filter the shit out, instead of freaking out and making a headline article about it...