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Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

blog.bootuplabs.com

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Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#11

Post by rokhayakebe »

chegra84 wrote: post #9

Danny, Words whisper, Actions scream. In order to combat this situation, offer the cut teams tangible help. And, don't let it be something like:" If I could help in anyway!" Jesus Christ man, you already know how you could help; these guys need money. Use your connects to link them with some angel investors/ VC. After, this am sure everyone would forgive and applaud you. And the publicity and the goodwill gained goes…

But will this guys take the money now, or even trust anyone connected with them?

Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#13

Post by chegra84 »

dannyrobinson wrote: post #10
chegra84 wrote: post #9

Danny, Words whisper, Actions scream. In order to combat this situation, offer the cut teams tangible help. And, don't let it be something like:" If I could help in anyway!" Jesus Christ man, you already know how you could help; these guys need money. Use your connects to link them with some angel investors/ VC. After, this am sure everyone would forgive and applaud you. And the publicity and the goodwill gained goes…

You're right! I will continue to work with everyone involved. Another accelerator was interested in possibly taking Status.ly in for their summer program, and I let Jamie know.

Your equivocal words aren't going to help-"Possibly". And, they don't need the money couple months from now; they need it now.

Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#14

Post by chegra84 »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #11
chegra84 wrote: post #9

Danny, Words whisper, Actions scream. In order to combat this situation, offer the cut teams tangible help. And, don't let it be something like:" If I could help in anyway!" Jesus Christ man, you already know how you could help; these guys need money. Use your connects to link them with some angel investors/ VC. After, this am sure everyone would forgive and applaud you. And the publicity and the goodwill gained goes…

But will this guys take the money now, or even trust anyone connected with them?

Well, at least they can say they did their best to help. Currently, I don't think they aren't going all out to help these guys.

Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#15

Post by cookiecaper »

necrecious wrote: post #12

Anyone got a good round up of what happened? The post provided links to parts of the previous conversation but I'd rather read a good article summing everything up.

Here's the summary as I understand it.

Bootup Labs accepted 7 startups into its program this January. The proprietors of these startups agreed and finalized the paperwork and moved up to Vancouver to participate. They were told shortly after arrival that there may be some hiccups with the funding but not to worry and they'd get it all straightened out.

In the meantime, Bootup Labs paid the living expenses for at least some of the startups but the capital never materialized. In March, Bootup Labs had secured new investors, but the investment wasn't enough to keep all seven startups alive. They cut four of the seven loose just like that, with no money to help make their way back to their places of origin, no capital invested, and nothing more than a "Thanks for trying, sorry about this."

Status.ly proprietor Jamie Something wrote a post about it and the thing kind of blew up.

Again, that's the story as I understand it. All corrections are welcome.

Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#16

Post by gizmo »

twidlit wrote: post #7

He failed but he didn't fail fast. :) but the important thing is he learned a lesson and wrote about it.

Ehm, what!? The important thing isn't that he "learned a lesson". His actions had real consequences, and an apology (sincere as it may be) does not absolve him. Not in the least.

It's doubtful he's really changed, because he apparently needed advise from many people to figure out that his actions were far from honorable. For all we know he's simply in damage-control mode. Especially to sum it up as "Made a mistake. Lesson learned." (post title) strikes me as especially glib. An apology is now in his best interest, so of course he's going to apologize. It's not as if he has a choice.

That said, I do believe he feels bad about the situation, and I think the apology is sincere. But I also think that his original actions were scummy, and that his instinctive reaction (cover up / hope it blows over / attacking victim on internet) shows his character. And people don't really change overnight, so he's still that kind of guy.

So the important lesson, if there is one, is to stay away from bootuplabs.

Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#18

Post by gojomo »

dmix wrote: post #5

Bootup Lab's reputation has still been badly damaged. An entrepreneur's commitment and sacrifice to their business is very serious and they took a very nonchalant approach to handling this situation until the PR blew up. Of course Danny is sorry now. I'm sure Bootup will continue to do fine with finding new startups since entrepreneurs in need of cash are always in high supply. But competent entrepreneurs look for co…

Obviously there were screw-ups. But it's possible a major factor was someone else fell through on their investment commitment to Bootup Labs. They hinted at that, though quite rightly Bootup hasn't specifically named who fell through on them. They've taken the hit themselves. Depending on what the inside story is, some might respect them for that.

When trying to make something new happen, you almost have to express preemptive confidence, and gloss over some of the caveats applying to outlier possibilities. You say, "We have the investors all lined up", not "We have the investors all lined up, as long as the people I believe are solidly reliable remain reliable". 99 times out of 100, avoiding such pedantic qualifications helps the joint effort. Sometimes it blows up. Here it blew up, and then slow communication made it worse, but such mistakes happen among the ever-hopeful.

Re: Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

#20

Post by [deleted] »

dannyrobinson wrote: post #10
chegra84 wrote: post #9

Danny, Words whisper, Actions scream. In order to combat this situation, offer the cut teams tangible help. And, don't let it be something like:" If I could help in anyway!" Jesus Christ man, you already know how you could help; these guys need money. Use your connects to link them with some angel investors/ VC. After, this am sure everyone would forgive and applaud you. And the publicity and the goodwill gained goes…

You're right! I will continue to work with everyone involved. Another accelerator was interested in possibly taking Status.ly in for their summer program, and I let Jamie know.

[deleted]
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