No, no you don't. In business relationships are critical. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably one of the people you don't want to do business with. There's a name for people who will do anything for money and those are usually one off transactions. You've had a month of everyone telling this guy he's dumb to trust a 3rd party with your platform and now the 2cynical4u people are saying shut up and be a whore.
So let me get this straight. This guy is fronting the money on his credit cards, can't do any of the work, and gets people to do things for him by "Being very fucking cool with" them?
Yeah. Keep your money. Fuck your business cards. You sound like sales guys scum trying to leverage the real makers in this project.
No, I disagree two times on "relationship with target X is strong" and on "They don't feel like they can vouch for you". This may be the case be but must not necessarily, the motivation for such a behavior comes from my experience usually from somewhere else:
If one replies as I posted it's rather a strong sign that this person wants to control the relationship and the process as long as possible in order to particiipate—usually by getting some "advisory shares". We know that those shares should be given to people who made key intros (it's an unwritten law) but still it's cumbersome to deal with this kind of intromakers because they instantly show distrust to you (and more and more are getting like this)
Discussion can certainly proceed without knowing every last bit of nuance of my commentary because my key point is clear: the guy's off the rails and his business partners apparently tolerated this as long as he was making them money.
Naturally, you're entitled to your opinion of it, which differs from mine. Hence, we agree to disagree.
Well I am still in the same company I was back when you call my industry scum (while you were selling links to shady casinos). As far as I am concerned your opportunistic jumps between companies are all part of the same general trend / strategy. You still have not changed as a person.
I'll probably get voted down for this, but I think you're crossing a line here. I agree with some of your opinions, but these kind of rants against a person in particular and some kind of personal dislike you have for them really hurts your case. It's just petty bullshit and it reveals personal bias that really clouds the issue.
Definitely, I agree with you. I tried reasoning with the person and at no point he expressed any sentiment of doing something wrong, to the contrary, he said he doubled down on the fact that he was being generous by offering me a chance to become the "cofounder" of his project. But I didn't decide to come public just because of that, that's only one example among many of ill intent and just not caring.
I long ago stopped replying to posts and comments that anger me for their negativity and bullshit, but none has made me as furious as this one.
Disclaimer: After reaching out to him cold, Jeff Miller was an informal advisor to me for over a year providing valuable insights and advice, not to mention moral support, as we built our company. He did this for no reason other than his dedication to helping a fellow entrepreneur. Over dozens of email exchanges and in-person get togethers, he proved hands down, to be one of the most helpful, friendly, altruistic people I've met in the valley. After a year building up this friendship and trust, he invested in our company, and he is consistently one of the first people I reach out to when I have real founder issues to discuss.
The OP has literally ZERO idea what reasons Jeff has for his decisions about the data on his site, not the least of which could be legal restrictions of the acquisition. They provided, what looks like, ZERO background on why they wanted to talk to someone who was incredibly busy transitioning a startup into the hands of a new parent company. Jeff was as polite as he needed to be when he responded to a completely context-less request for a call with, "I'm sorry I can't right now." The OP does not know, beyond building a startup worth acquiring, and transitioning it, what else someone might have on their plate that would prevent them from having time to chat with someone who failed to provide any reason for their request. Then, when Jeff asked point blank whether the OP was scraping data from his site, they responded with an ambiguous, "not trying to do anything uncool. Still super eager to talk more. Happy to do so anytime."
The OP apparently does not have to try to do something uncool. This entire situation is unbelievably uncool, from the beginning of the communication, to their actions in between, to this post. The only thing more shocking than the sense of entitlement displayed here, is that they, or anybody here, thinks this post documents anything other than a pure display of arrogance and entitlement by the OP. They approached this whole situation with such a stark lack of professionalism that it would be laughable if they hadn't also decided to smear one of the nicest people I know in the process.
This post reflects an attitude that is a shining example of so many things wrong in the startup community, from the sense of entitlement, to the lack of common courtesy, to the manipulation of a situation for personal gain at the expense of others. It is so unreal how easily people seek to tear down others, and worse, how quickly smart people jump on the bullshit bandwagon.
This post is a joke. Nobody owes you anything because they built a site you enjoyed. If anybody owes anybody anything, the OP owes Jeff Miller an apology for this time wasting bullshit.
lmao imagine being threatened by some dude's hobby project that he's not monetizing - how weak is your business and especially ego if that is the case.
We share technical and strategic internet marketing information/software, and info about what is and isn't currently working marketing-wise. The stuff about the specific campaigns he's running came up only after more than a year of such exchanges. Also he isn't giving me his landing pages, his advertiser contact info, etc., and he knows I'd never touch something as legally questionable as a tech support scam anyway. But of course at some point when talking to others, after long enough, you talk about what you are working on. I've never paid or been asked for a dime.
Do you understand your comments are focused on making judgements about _personalities_, not business decisions? Do you see how they assume others are too?
Since you've indulged, please, allow me:
Your comments are aggro and focused on personalities and people. I don't find them useful or interesting.
Yes, I know my stance on this isn't the common one. I have been taking it for a few days on several forums.
I've obviously seen a bunch of people who were happy to dismiss everything I said. Your replies stand out as the only ones that were wildly off-topic and myopic. You are strangely focused on social dynamics and stack-ranking strangers that will never meet, and assume the strangers are doing the same.
Oh come on, you honestly believe that someone who has sacrificed their time, friends and family to get an idea off the ground isn't vulnerable to being taking advantage of by investors?
This isn't a super out there PC statement that is being made. It's simply saying that this is a professional event and the expectation is for the relationships to be kept professional. You know, how it should always be.
That's not tumblr craziness, that is just basic respect and professionalism.
And who are you to slander a named person and publicly question his reputation, for selling his own business that he created to somebody else? Your behaviour is not proportional to what has happened. It is an icon utility.
I don't understand why it's a 'shitty move on his part'. You started a fight and called the guy out by name. Why wouldn't you expect him to react?
How would you feel if instead of offering to partner, I borrowed the concept of your business (after you had spent a few years proving the model) and started a competitor while only crediting you for the inspiration?
It s very funny to see your reactions.
"do we really need a business guy?"
Do you know what business guys say about techno/hacker/super ego hacker guys?
They ll always find a dumb one that will do the job for them for few dollars.
It s interesting how you return the situation with so much pretention in a tentative to build yourself a legitimity.
You re just a tool.You re just missing the context.
keep dreaming about the 20 successful heros of your tribe that could make it by themselves.
Tell me about ego fishes that discuss about freedom inside their glass..
I do not understand how you find this "bad mouthing", since my ex co-founder did not put in any work. I am just stating the truth of his work ethic and contribution. Also I left my co-founder anonymous, so that his image would not be tarnished.
I don't disagree with asking for a email in exchange for a trial product, but I do disagree with his overall mentality. This person never cared about his users. He cared how they made him feel, that's a huge difference. Nothing about this leads me to believe that he wanted them to succeed, or to help them in any way. He wanted his ego stroked and his bank account increased.
You're just being an unconstructive critic.
And you have no evidence it's temporary.
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