I talk to Jason Calacanis about Groupon, bubbles, Apple, innovation, Yahoo, remote work, sustainable companies and lifestyles, and so much more in the hour-and-a-half This Week In Startups show. (Interview itself starts 7:30 min into the video)
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Tom Ordonez
on 27 Mar 13DHH I think you should start wearing a Groupon Tshirt to interviews. That would be like Shawn Fanning’s rebellion. Looking forward to read the Remote book
AC
on 28 Mar 13I love irony how one 37signal partner (DHH) hates Groupon and continually bashes them publicly.
And the other 37signal partner (Jason Fried) use to be a Board of Director at Groupon.
EH
on 28 Mar 13I think Calcanis has finally found his environment in vblogging, but he still needs an Adderall ‘scrip. “Here, let me interrupt you and instantly lose my train of thought. Calcanis::Base.namedrop()”
For those not around in 1998, this is what the Zuckerbergs of the first dotcom era sounded like.
AC
on 28 Mar 13@EH
Can you explain more. (e.g. who sounds like that? what are “they” saying that doesn’t sound right to you, etc).
Genuinely curious.
DHH
on 28 Mar 13AC, your definition of irony is a curious one. Jason and I disagree all the time. If that serves the label of irony every time, we’d wear it out. Although, when it came down to the numbers that eventually formed the base of Groupon’s IPO, we’re in pretty good agreement that they sucked.
AC
on 28 Mar 13@DHH
I’m assume it’s that same logic that made you write the blog post as to why Facebook isn’t worth $33 Billion (just prior to the IPO) ... and as of today, Facebook is worth nearly double that ($64 Billioin)
In life, there are though how earn a good living (like you) because they think small – and those you get rich by thinking big (like Zuck).
DHH
on 28 Mar 13Zuckerberg might have gotten rich, but investors who bought at the IPO all took a dive. A smaller dive than investors in Zynga or Groupon - both companies that “bet big” and made founders a lot of money, but crushed their investors - but a dive none the less. So if the goal is just to take the money and run, well, clap, clap.
Anthony Barone
on 28 Mar 13DHH… great interview. I believe a lot of people lose site or are not even aware of the goal of a company.
Maximize Owner’s Wealth.
It’s fascinating to study owner wealth functions. Thanks for taking five minutes to share yours.
Phil
on 28 Mar 13Slightly less interesting then the first one since Jason seemed to basically agree with you. I guess you win? :)
Cesc
on 28 Mar 13“Let’s take the money and run”.
I think this summarizes quite well why the economy has crashed.
Leonel
on 28 Mar 13Jason keeps on interrupting David. We want to hear what DAVID has to say.
Adam Butler
on 28 Mar 13David, Just finished “Rework” which brought me to your blog. Couldn’t agree more on Groupon, wrote this about it last year –
Adam Butler
on 28 Mar 13http://fearlessrevolution.com/blog/is-groupon-a-strip-mining-operation.html
GeeIWonder
on 28 Mar 13When you say ‘take a dive’
do you mean they are deliberately and illegitimately undercutting the value?
or is this more of a ‘take a bath’ type thing that’s getting lost in translation?
There are pretty serious implications to the meaning, which is why I ask. Were you deliberately implying and emphasizing fraudulence?
DHH
on 29 Mar 13Gee, in the case of Groupon, I do mean to imply mischief. See the SEC forcing them to amend the S1 due to accounting shenanigans. For Facebook it’s more a case that hype had its limits (people were calling for the $100B market cap like it was a given).
Kim Peterson
on 29 Mar 13Brilliant discussion. Thanks for being brutally honest, going against the herd and being successful with what you love. Inspiring.
Ron Pereira
on 29 Mar 13OK, so I nearly spit my wine out at 39:07… “Or you just don’t know what the f*ck is going on!” CLASSIC!
Great interview. We’re Highrise & Basecamp junkies (especially HR) and I love everything about 37 Signals… keep kicking ass guys!
Brodawg
on 29 Mar 13@AC the “big thinker” argument is bullshit. Zuckerberg may have gotten rich by thinking big, but there’s an utterly massive amount of entrepreneurs that have not. Many of them are probably busy burning through their seed rounds right about now with no future in sight.
It’s comical seeing the critics of 37signals’ approach/advice point to one or two “successes” like Facebook in the face of tens of thousands of failures.
Derek
on 29 Mar 13Android, is much better than you give it credit for.
Trevor
on 29 Mar 13@DHH
Just admit when you’re wrong for once in your life.
FB did in fact have a market cap > $100B about 8 months ago on Nasdaq.
https://www.google.com/m/finance#search/NASDAQ%3AFB
DHH
on 29 Mar 13Trevor, Groupon also had a market cap of $28B. Zynga had one at $13B. Short term bubbles do not sustainable value create.
Xavier
on 29 Mar 13+1 AC & Trevor
Derek
on 29 Mar 13+1 DHH Totaly right.
EH
on 29 Mar 13AC: The whole self-centered namedropping thing. “Listening is a word that means waiting to talk again.” It’s apparent that JC thinks he’s the one who should be getting interviewed.
Count the number of times this happens:
JC: Question?
DHH: Half a sentence…
JC: Interrupt and attempt to finish sentence for him
Jacob
on 30 Mar 13+2 AC, Trevor, and Xavier
This discussion is closed.