There are many reasons why Yahoo may have called off the deal. I doubt it was this one single comment.
I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
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Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#82I know pop culture references don't always go over well here, but this reminds me of the Kanye situation at the VMAs. He was likely drunk and attention-seeking, but he was also probably completely incensed when he saw Beyonce fail to win Best Music Video for "Single Ladies". He saw such a misunderstanding of a clearly superior talent and effort that resulted in a qualitatively better result, and he couldn't help but…
Is this art or Kanye West? Snark intended
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#83Another moral to this story that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: Don’t give unsolicited advice. Not only was this advice to buy a different company not asked for, it was presented in a vague way: “They’re better than us”. If I was the CEO of Yahoo on the receiving end of that, I’d be thinking a few things: 1) You don’t know my business well enough to be giving me unsolicited advice. 2) You’re passionate about subjectiv…
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Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#84Another moral to this story that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: Don’t give unsolicited advice. Not only was this advice to buy a different company not asked for, it was presented in a vague way: “They’re better than us”. If I was the CEO of Yahoo on the receiving end of that, I’d be thinking a few things: 1) You don’t know my business well enough to be giving me unsolicited advice. 2) You’re passionate about subjectiv…
I don't think the introspection need be so nuanced.
The instinctual "Why are you shit talking yourself? What did you just let slip that I don't know?!?" Is just as valid a red flag.
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#85> As a financially-insecure immigrant, I knew this deal would change my life. What is it with this guy and his desire for a hero narrative? First he took credit for the Like button, now this... His cousin Dara is totally insufferable in his lackluster position as CEO of Uber, but at least he’s honest about their very privileged upbringing. Is this a prelude to a political career or something?
> What is it with this guy and his desire for a hero narrative?
LOL, that's practically every SV CEO. They all want us to believe that a) they were the underdog, and b) they were the hero in their own story.
What I can never tell is which ones are doing it deliberately as part of a PR strategy and which ones simply lack the perspective to realize they're doing it at all.
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#86In sales there is a term "know when to stop selling", this story is kind of a variant of that. If you have acceptable terms worked out, stop "selling", stop trying to show or add more value to the deal. Close the deal you have, and then work on any new or additional things.
> "know when to stop selling" I disagree. Stop over-selling, maybe, but at the end of a sale, there's a buyers remorse window. And you need to make sure you're communicating with the "buyer" and strengthening their resolve so they don't get cold feet. This applies with selling, hiring (esp after the candidate signs), etc. A good way to do this is to make sure to remind them of why they bought in the first place.
Buyers remorse is real, but usually less so in B2B sales.
In most B2B sales that I have been involved in, you can summarize it down to a certain amount of budget, and a set of needs. If you can fill the needs within the budget, it's an easy sale and there is no buyers remorse. This is an oversimplification, but I think in many cases buyers remorse is rooted in the buyers realization that making a particular purchasing decision is going to reduce their overall cash reserves, and thus eliminate other potential decisions. The way most corporate budgets works is more of a "use it or lose it" scenario, where the buyers have more incentive to make actual purchases.
In regards to your last sentence, yes, nothing wrong with reinforcing the decisions that led to the purchase decision. But that is much different than introducing new factors (eg: we should buy this other company too) or altering your buyers perception (this other company or product is even better than what you agreed to purchase).
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#87Is this the same guy who recently posted about trying to bluff Steve Jobs, getting called out on it and losing a deal? I wonder how many more stories like these he has lol Edit: found the link for those interested https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826437
Yup I was about to post, it's the same guy. You'd think he'd learn his lesson about keeping his mouth shut. Not speaking sometimes is as strategic as speaking.
Not sure what impact he wants these tweet threads to have, but if all you know from him are those tweet threads, it doesn't paint a very positive light.
I'd like to replace TL;DR with TT;DR: Tweet Thread, Didn't Read.
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, exactly, honestly is just a part of it. He failed hard on the other part by saying his own team was worse then some other team. Integrity is standing up for the people you lead, it falls under the moral principles part.
If you always standup for the team you lead, then where is the moral principles and honesty? My (fill in the blanks) is always right means you have no integrity. Integrity is having a set of moral principles and evaluating against them honestly. You will see your beauty, warts and all.
I think you could consider looking out of the people under you as mouths to feed as moral.
It's impossible to calculate the moral implications of the entire world for every decision you make, but taking care of your own is a pretty easy start.
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#89Is this the same guy who recently posted about trying to bluff Steve Jobs, getting called out on it and losing a deal? I wonder how many more stories like these he has lol Edit: found the link for those interested https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826437
I’m not sure he bombed the Steve Jobs discussion. Throwing out a higher number you believe in is not destroying the deal, that’s just Jobs being a dick. His “i can’t trust you” is pure bullshit and nothing but a negotiating tactic.
Now a better approach would be to ignore Steve and negotiate with the deal team (and let them argue with Steve).
But the outcome could have been the exact same.
Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”
#90Am I the only one who reads these stories (others have linked to his Steve Jobs story - he was, um, not honest enough for Steve Jobs) as "I almost got acqui-hired twice by names you'd recognize but flunked the job interview both times" rather than as dashing tales of dealmaking derring-do?