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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."

#51

Post by cperciva »

jacquesm wrote: post #43
cperciva wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting an investment from a company that is second rate immediately qualifies a startup as second rate [...] Interesting -- so really it's just a signaling exercise. That makes sense, given how poor investors are at directly measuring quality. Thanks for the explanation! One of the things I appreciate most about HN is the willingness of experienced people to provide this sort of insight to us newbies. :-)

I detect a note of cynicism there. Some investors are much better than others at judging the quality of the companies they are looking at, but plenty of them are looking at being the 'second' firm to invest after a 'name' is on board, since that dramatically increases the chances of success of that company. Of course every VC dreams of discovering that unknown nugget, but sadly there are plenty that are not able to s…

you'll see a slew of 'copycat' companies getting investment if a company in a certain league grows big

This is why I'm a cynic -- you don't even need a company to get big, you just need the field to be "hot". Back in 2000 I was cold-called by two VCs wanting to invest in my work on distributed computing (I had recently announced the computation of the quadrillionth bit of Pi).

They were interested for no reason beyond the fact that everybody else was interested in the field. I told them that there was no workable business model and that I wouldn't take their money under such conditions -- so they went and gave their money to someone who was willing to ignore reality in order to justify taking the money.

About $100M went into that field in 2000, and none of it came back out. Such a horrible waste.

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

#52

Post by jacquesm »

cperciva wrote: post #51
jacquesm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I detect a note of cynicism there. Some investors are much better than others at judging the quality of the companies they are looking at, but plenty of them are looking at being the 'second' firm to invest after a 'name' is on board, since that dramatically increases the chances of success of that company. Of course every VC dreams of discovering that unknown nugget, but sadly there are plenty that are not able to s…

you'll see a slew of 'copycat' companies getting investment if a company in a certain league grows big This is why I'm a cynic -- you don't even need a company to get big, you just need the field to be "hot". Back in 2000 I was cold-called by two VCs wanting to invest in my work on distributed computing (I had recently announced the computation of the quadrillionth bit of Pi). They were interested for no reason beyon…

It happens all the time.

Ideally venture capital (and especially angels) is a force that helps creative people realize their dreams in return for a realistic premium associated with the risks.

They should help with guidance and their expertise to maximize the chances of those dreams becoming a reality, and should use their portfolio to balance the risks between existing money making (and thus now lower risk) ventures and newer high risk early stage ventures.

In practice venture capital all too often distorts the market, creates unrealistic expectations (both for founders, the public and partners alike) and is 'penny wise and pound foolish' when it comes to evaluating new ideas.

Our host is - unfortunately - in this respect, imo not that much different than the rest, even if they do get the mentoring and assistance factor (far) better than most, there is not a single investment in the current batch that I would call worthy of the 'V' in VC, they're pretty safe bets, if they fail they'll fail quickly and if they're going to take off they won't fly too far. The scope of most of those projects is simply far too limited.

It's all about the batting averages, and that's essentially what these small funds are all trying to do, to show a good track record of managing their portfolio in the hopes of landing one that hits it out of the park, more likely than not due to a pivot.

By increasing the dealflow they're playing 'scratch lottery' instead of a strategy game in the casino, statistically speaking if you keep at this long enough sooner or later you recoup your losses with a healthy profit margin and you can continue to play until you score big.

The one nightmare I have is being unfunded, healthy and growing and suddenly getting a copycat me-too project with VC backing and a bunch of inexperienced cowboys in the same space.

That can really ruin your day, and possibly much more than that.

Back in 1997 or so, the real beginning of the .com bubble there was this great cartoon in a newspaper here, it pictured a train with tons of guys in suits, pockets bulging with money trying to get on board. The train was clearly labeled 'Internet', and a reporter was asking one of the guys the question where they were going. The answer: "No idea, but we really don't want to miss this train".

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

#53

Post by cperciva »

jacquesm wrote: post #52
cperciva wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you'll see a slew of 'copycat' companies getting investment if a company in a certain league grows big This is why I'm a cynic -- you don't even need a company to get big, you just need the field to be "hot". Back in 2000 I was cold-called by two VCs wanting to invest in my work on distributed computing (I had recently announced the computation of the quadrillionth bit of Pi). They were interested for no reason beyon…

It happens all the time. Ideally venture capital (and especially angels) is a force that helps creative people realize their dreams in return for a realistic premium associated with the risks. They should help with guidance and their expertise to maximize the chances of those dreams becoming a reality, and should use their portfolio to balance the risks between existing money making (and thus now lower risk) ventures…

The one nightmare I have is being unfunded, healthy and growing and suddenly getting a copycat me-too project with VC backing and a bunch of inexperienced cowboys in the same space.

I had that nightmare too, until I realized something: Online backup is hard to do right. If you don't know what you're doing, you fail spectacularly.

I don't worry about the inexperienced cowboys any more. They'll fail sooner or later.

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

#54

Post by jacquesm »

cperciva wrote: post #53
jacquesm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens all the time. Ideally venture capital (and especially angels) is a force that helps creative people realize their dreams in return for a realistic premium associated with the risks. They should help with guidance and their expertise to maximize the chances of those dreams becoming a reality, and should use their portfolio to balance the risks between existing money making (and thus now lower risk) ventures…

The one nightmare I have is being unfunded, healthy and growing and suddenly getting a copycat me-too project with VC backing and a bunch of inexperienced cowboys in the same space. I had that nightmare too, until I realized something: Online backup is hard to do right. If you don't know what you're doing, you fail spectacularly. I don't worry about the inexperienced cowboys any more. They'll fail sooner or later.

And that's indeed exactly what happened at some point in my past, only not with online backup.

The investors in the competitor were actually very gracious about it and did a lot to make up for the damage they caused me, which they really were not obliged to do. Interesting how that played out, we still exchange Christmas cards 12 years later.

Focus on the hard stuff, let the cowboys fail and just keep plodding away and you'll be successful somehow. But they can destroy your market for you by giving the whole field a bad name and they can mess up the timing to the point that you miss out on something substantially bigger.

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

#55

Post by cookiecaper »

jacquesm wrote: post #45
dannyrobinson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So, how about you pull your checkbook and compensate those guys for ripping their lives up on your promise? That seems to be the least you should do, given that you've 'seen the light' and realize how badly you f'd up.

Seriously. I have a hard time believing that anyone who can found a startup incubator can't afford to give at least a couple grand to each of the founders that got nixed. It's the least you could do; compensate for airfare home and give them something to use for housing, food, and other necessities while they try to figure out how to support themselves going forward.

I don't know what the contracts said and I'm sure they were very one-sided, as usual, but this should serve as a lesson to startups that they shouldn't get on without proper legal protections in place.

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

#57

Post by stretchwithme »

jacquesm wrote: post #44
pavs wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a tricky situation. Lets say for the sake of argument that they honestly handled the situation _unbelievably_ wrong as opposed to being deliberately shady. They realized, right before the blog post, they needed to communicate better with everyone. How differently should they have handled it other than what they wrote in the blog post? I should acknowledge that my knowledge about the situation is only…

For starters they could offer to compensate those wrongfully booted out because of their failure for costs incurred. That would go a long way to showing they really care about them, instead of just about their own reputation. I see this as a salvaging operation, probably at the instigation of the new investor they've found, a way to use the fact that they are in the spotlight to do a cheap 'mea culpa' while getting a…

I think sometimes people put on a show that they have resources that they do not have and think playing fast and loose with other people's careers is alright as it is only business.

This is irresponsible. And once discovered, we'd do well to not deal with such people.

I would not be overly strict about that, though. It would be ok, for example, to have them make license plates for you.

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

#58

Post by alexro »

gojomo wrote: post #40
alexro wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the first thing they said was : "you must be grateful for all we did to you". Screw them

Jamie Martin: "I just wanted to add that I have no hard feelings for Bootup Labs, for Danny, Boris, or anybody we met, I don’t think it’s anything intentional they did. But there are lessons to be learned from what happened from our situation." Funny and sad that the commenter lynch mob has a lot more righteous anger -- "Screw them" -- than the people actually involved.

While it might be looking funny to you I truly feel for the Status.ly founders (and others screwed). Having burn myself all my savings in the past I know what it takes to start over again. And hearing how these guys at bootuplabs have first helped it happen and then made this sound like it isn't a big deal makes me want to scream.

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

#59

Post by Mr_Donut »

I think it's pretty easy to take shots from the sidelines. It's fairly obvious that the vast majority of you guys know very little about the start-up environment in Vancouver. We need guys like Danny and Bootup to take some risks in order to develop our ecosystem.

In this case, an error resulted. They didn't want that to happen, but it happened. Crucifying these guys after the fact helps no one.

If there's value in Status.ly, either someone else will step in and fund it or someone will buy it.

Entrepreneurial risk takes many forms.

As for the "slick PR messaging", you guys obviously don't know Danny.

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

#60

Post by Josh2010 »

Mr_Donut wrote: post #59

I think it's pretty easy to take shots from the sidelines. It's fairly obvious that the vast majority of you guys know very little about the start-up environment in Vancouver. We need guys like Danny and Bootup to take some risks in order to develop our ecosystem. In this case, an error resulted. They didn't want that to happen, but it happened. Crucifying these guys after the fact helps no one. If there's value in S…

Help like this entrepreneurs don't need!

The facts are BootOut FU'd up big time and anyone who recommends them is either a buddy, a rookie, a groupie or a government wanker wannabe.

Stay clear of these #Fail douches!

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