They wanted to show the middle finger to the old way of doing things and create a new way.
Is that spirit too alive in the new generation of entrepreneurs?
Or are they just playing the VC game now which now seems to be the old way of doing things.
Are there any companies which are breaking the status quo and being naughty?
Probably the only company I know (at least in the AI space) that took little capital and is now profitable is comma [0] and other bootstrapped companies.
[0] https://comma.ai
Nowadays, almost every opportunity out there has either been tried and proven not to be viable or monopolized by a big player that can sell at a loss thanks to VC subsidies. Skill alone won't get you anywhere, now you need lots of capital to try and break through and you get that capital from VCs which means you need to play by their rules - in general, "rocking the boat" is not a good strategy.
In addition, the amount of capital slushing around and burning holes in VCs' pockets means opened a new "market" where building a business that solves a real problem and makes money off it is no longer the priority, instead you could merely convince VCs to give you money and enjoy the "startup founder" life regardless if the business ends up successful. That's a much easier and less risky strategy (until today), so we ended up with a lot of startups that don't actually create any value and just leech off VCs.
New generation entrepreneurs have been conditioned by the investors to be "predictable" so that the investors have a better handle on the outcome of their gamble. The ones who are predictable gets the cheque.
Nowadays, every tech-related biz is striving to be the next FAANG company, and the clients are just numbers to get to the next funding round. There are occasional client-focused businesses, but I think they are the exception instead of the rule. When your biz is always under the microscope for the newest funding pitch, I think it makes it harder to "be naughty" as you put it. Much more emphasis put on the hockey stick.
I watched "Pistols", a bio drama about the punk rock band Sex Pistols, over the last couple days
Been trying to merge the concepts of business and punk somehow since. I'm sure something will pop out soon haha
E: Popping back to actually answer your question, having your finances and other aggregate data out in the open is a style of operating I like. Usually refer to themselves as "open startups" if you want to look into it more. For example https://nomadlist.com/open
I feel like the concept of punk would want to beat the concept of business with a tire iron, set it on fire and toss it out of a window, but good luck.
Not many of us become rich or famous, but this was always the case.
it's weird to think someone treats these as normal
Which was interesting because the commentator put the two communities together without thinking twice.
Open source is dead.
But the 90s and 2000s irreverence is out there. Even larger in size. You just have to look.
North Korea's cyber crime capabilities have been expanding at a phenomenal rate. Someone is helping them.... The 3D printed guns in Myanmar were very advanced. Not sure what/who was going on there. There's a few Russian web based facial recognition companies, which Google started but backed down on.
One of the biggest software changing the world apps I've seen in the past 5 years was a generic framework for Uber. I couldn't pin down who made it. But many countries bought the framework where Grab and Uber were not based and did their own thing. It gave consist work to moto and rickshaw drivers and I assume broke a lot of local mafias.
Maybe it's just left the English speaking world?
(When coolwulf posted about their project fighting cancer on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31308259), no one cared until it got written up baby style for them, not sure you'll find either cutting edge or much irreverence on HN)