And the next line in the convo thread from the investor would go; “Oh, look at the time. Gotta head of to bed first. Bai!” ;)
Geoff
on 01 Apr 10
Chris’ twitter bio reads “just finished bicycling across the USA and am thinking about my next adventure.” Don’t know the guy from Adam, but he sounds a little like a Second Hander:
“Motion without brakes or motor. Power without responsibility. The second-hander acts, but the source of his actions is scattered in every other living person.”
To me it sounds like a sect guru promising the Paradise to his followers if they work hard enough…
Dan
on 01 Apr 10
Sachin is the founder and CEO of Posterous blogging service.
Jeff Vyduna
on 01 Apr 10
I know both people well. The level of thinking in the room here is typical fare for the congregation. Everything’s just an exercise in confirmation bias to support the book.
Mr/Mrs. Azeemi: Sachin already browse Rework. Sachin not agree with 100%.
Greg*: It would struggle to be an empirical datum; it’s definitely not proof
Daniel: Sacca works as hard as anyone he advises; But I recognize that your comment was just for fun, not as dumb as the others.
Geoff: Should we assign everyone Randian labels and limit our assessments to their Twitter bios? Can I be the businessman?
Hashmalech*: I’d suggest that others on this page are more accurately described as “guru” than Sacca.
Dan: We don’t do facts in here, mmkay?
Jason: I’m surprised you don’t know Sacca – he’s nowhere near your investor archetype straw man. First, he’s more concerned with founder happiness than ROI. He’s always the one to reground a founder on what really matters. Second, aren’t you aware that with the checks Sacca writes and the advice he provides, he’s acting much more as you characterize your Bezos relationship? It’s the wrong side of the spectrum to label him “investor” and let the commenters picture the $5M VC with board seat. And from below* maybe it should have been, “Founder see, investor say hang in there.” More innocent banter, less Rework smoking gun.
*Your point suggests you don’t don’t understand the ordering of the dialog. Sachin says he’s tired, and Chris encourages him. Not the reverse.
Wytze
on 01 Apr 10
You guys tell your audience to emulate drug dealers. But this tiny excerpt makes me think VC investors are the real drug dealers and not in any way you want to emulate.
JF
on 01 Apr 10
Jeff: We’re just having some fun here.
B
on 01 Apr 10
Chris is a real person too.. kind of like you.
(I’m also just having fun.)
Jeff Vyduna
on 01 Apr 10
Jason: Fair enough. Does the average SVN reader get that from your post? Given the commenter echo chamber here, I doubted it.
Geoff
on 01 Apr 10
@Jeff Vyduna: I don’t know Sacca, and it was unfair of me to lump him in with what you describe as the “investor archetype straw man.” But that the archetype exists, and elicits this kind of reaction, suggests that most are not bringing value, and are Second Handers in the exact sense that Rand intended.
Nothing personal, but somehow I don’t want to buy what Sachin built the 2nd day.
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Apr 10
@Jeff Vyduna: I’ve actually met the crew at Posterous. Everyone’s agreeing with each other here because Posterous is antithetical to the way we’d all rather be doing business.
• Their only vision is to be “bigger than Facebook”.
• Their plan for getting there is to keep adding features.
• They’re taking other people’s money to do it.
• They don’t structure their time. Here’s what their average day looks like: wake up, work from home, come to the office, keep working, go home, eat dinner, keep working, (eventually) go to sleep.
• They have very few paying customers, and they lose money on them.
• All team members are encouraged to add features for the sake of niftiness.
• Their user interface was an afterthought, and it shows.
• Signing up is easy. Canceling is impossible.
• They have no pro version to which their users can easily upgrade.
I don’t enjoy singling out Posterous. Sachin, Garry and Brett are all really nice, talented people. But they exemplify everything that’s broken in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Yes, I know Posterous is funded by Y Combinator. Yes, I know Y Combinator sees itself as an “angel” investment firm. But let’s not split hairs: Y Combinator is still giving people money to make unprofitable software in the hopes of a big payout in the end.
That’s what pisses us off. The 10-to-1 long shot. It’s as if we’re cow ropers living at a race track: we don’t want to be jockeys, but there isn’t much else to do around here.
This discussion is closed.
About Jason Fried
Jason co-founded Basecamp back in 1999. He also co-authored REWORK, the New York Times bestselling book on running a "right-sized" business. Co-founded, co-authored... Can he do anything on his own?
M. Mudassir Azeemi
on 31 Mar 10Sachin need to read ReWork for sure!
Greg Minton
on 31 Mar 10Nice empirical proof for what you guys have said repeatedly about investors influencing founders’ decisions.
Daniel
on 31 Mar 10And the next line in the convo thread from the investor would go; “Oh, look at the time. Gotta head of to bed first. Bai!” ;)
Geoff
on 01 Apr 10Chris’ twitter bio reads “just finished bicycling across the USA and am thinking about my next adventure.” Don’t know the guy from Adam, but he sounds a little like a Second Hander: “Motion without brakes or motor. Power without responsibility. The second-hander acts, but the source of his actions is scattered in every other living person.”
Hashmalech
on 01 Apr 10To me it sounds like a sect guru promising the Paradise to his followers if they work hard enough…
Dan
on 01 Apr 10Sachin is the founder and CEO of Posterous blogging service.
Jeff Vyduna
on 01 Apr 10I know both people well. The level of thinking in the room here is typical fare for the congregation. Everything’s just an exercise in confirmation bias to support the book.
Mr/Mrs. Azeemi: Sachin already browse Rework. Sachin not agree with 100%.
Greg*: It would struggle to be an empirical datum; it’s definitely not proof
Daniel: Sacca works as hard as anyone he advises; But I recognize that your comment was just for fun, not as dumb as the others.
Geoff: Should we assign everyone Randian labels and limit our assessments to their Twitter bios? Can I be the businessman?
Hashmalech*: I’d suggest that others on this page are more accurately described as “guru” than Sacca.
Dan: We don’t do facts in here, mmkay?
Jason: I’m surprised you don’t know Sacca – he’s nowhere near your investor archetype straw man. First, he’s more concerned with founder happiness than ROI. He’s always the one to reground a founder on what really matters. Second, aren’t you aware that with the checks Sacca writes and the advice he provides, he’s acting much more as you characterize your Bezos relationship? It’s the wrong side of the spectrum to label him “investor” and let the commenters picture the $5M VC with board seat. And from below* maybe it should have been, “Founder see, investor say hang in there.” More innocent banter, less Rework smoking gun.
*Your point suggests you don’t don’t understand the ordering of the dialog. Sachin says he’s tired, and Chris encourages him. Not the reverse.
Wytze
on 01 Apr 10You guys tell your audience to emulate drug dealers. But this tiny excerpt makes me think VC investors are the real drug dealers and not in any way you want to emulate.
JF
on 01 Apr 10Jeff: We’re just having some fun here.
B
on 01 Apr 10Chris is a real person too.. kind of like you.
(I’m also just having fun.)
Jeff Vyduna
on 01 Apr 10Jason: Fair enough. Does the average SVN reader get that from your post? Given the commenter echo chamber here, I doubted it.
Geoff
on 01 Apr 10@Jeff Vyduna: I don’t know Sacca, and it was unfair of me to lump him in with what you describe as the “investor archetype straw man.” But that the archetype exists, and elicits this kind of reaction, suggests that most are not bringing value, and are Second Handers in the exact sense that Rand intended.
The Real Josh
on 01 Apr 10I think they both need to read REWORK. Gotta love the easy money method, the people with the money usually win.
Ricardo
on 01 Apr 10:) It is true that the quality of a blog is measured by the comments it generates… this one’s great! keep it up!
Greg Minton
on 01 Apr 10Yes, I was just joking around, too…
Ettore
on 03 Apr 10Nothing personal, but somehow I don’t want to buy what Sachin built the 2nd day.
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Apr 10@Jeff Vyduna: I’ve actually met the crew at Posterous. Everyone’s agreeing with each other here because Posterous is antithetical to the way we’d all rather be doing business.
• Their only vision is to be “bigger than Facebook”.
• Their plan for getting there is to keep adding features.
• They’re taking other people’s money to do it.
• They don’t structure their time. Here’s what their average day looks like: wake up, work from home, come to the office, keep working, go home, eat dinner, keep working, (eventually) go to sleep.
• They have very few paying customers, and they lose money on them.
• All team members are encouraged to add features for the sake of niftiness.
• Their user interface was an afterthought, and it shows.
• Signing up is easy. Canceling is impossible.
• They have no pro version to which their users can easily upgrade.
I don’t enjoy singling out Posterous. Sachin, Garry and Brett are all really nice, talented people. But they exemplify everything that’s broken in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Yes, I know Posterous is funded by Y Combinator. Yes, I know Y Combinator sees itself as an “angel” investment firm. But let’s not split hairs: Y Combinator is still giving people money to make unprofitable software in the hopes of a big payout in the end.
That’s what pisses us off. The 10-to-1 long shot. It’s as if we’re cow ropers living at a race track: we don’t want to be jockeys, but there isn’t much else to do around here.
This discussion is closed.