121–130 of 194 posts
"Porter admitted that the he was harsh in his language describing Pierce. “Yes it was, but my point is that it wasn’t about Shay. It was about the 41 other people who made it happen,” Porter wrote. “Those are the people I would throw myself in front of the train for and those are the people I want to celebrate.”
I'm glad this happened in such a public way. I once heard him speak at a VC event about his firing practices with the same sort of attitude. I won't get into the details, but I was shocked that such an individual could be so championed, but he's quite business savvy and very personable... I guess as long as you're on his good side. Very good fit for Zynga.
Then I figured out adblock was showing me cats for april fools day, and I was a bit disappointed.
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they just got lucky That's what unsuccessful people say when someone becomes successful. I think there are two reasons for the typical "he just got lucky" insult. 1) When you tear down a successful person, you get to transfer a little of their success to you. (aka "player hatin'") 2) Level playing field. It's nice to imagine that everyone has the same amount of "luck," and therefore the same chance of being successfu…
I agree with you. Hard work drastically improves your chances. But there are indeed times when people hit the silicon valley lottery. I suspect marc andreessen's secretary's peers were just as hard working as she was. Maybe he is indeed an exceptional CEO. If you rank CEO's by quality, I suspect the top half of the list has better things to do than fumble around on twitter Saturday afternoon.
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"Very green" is a bit of a misnomer here—Porter's been the CEO of OMGPOP since 2009, and was a SVP at Richard Branson's Virgin Group before that. "Moment of weakness" maybe, but not from an inexperienced guy.
Porter's been the CEO of OMGPOP since 2009, and was a SVP at Richard Branson's Virgin Group before that. "SVP" of "Virgin USA", which was an absolutely minuscule offshoot. He has been a CEO of a tiny company for two years, prior to that acting essentially as a glorified salesperson. That is absolutely green.
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Out of all the ways I can think of to describe Pierce's article, "incredibly polite and graceful" is probably at the bottom of the list. Pierce branded a potential employer "evil" because of a minor detail in his contract (granted, a minor detail he had every right to turn the contract down for). Zynga isn't exactly well known for having the most integrity as a company, but it's certainly neither polite nor graceful…
Being able to keep legal ownership of what you have done in your spare time in the past is not really a minor detail. I think it's important.
For my part, I'll stick to working for employers with reasonable terms of employment.
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There is already a well deserved Anti Zynga sentiment and that article made his fellow employees look as if they were traitors to the forces of good. How would holding off on the article change the contents? It wouldn't. Timing matters, he struck while the iron was hot. There is no reason he should self-censor himself for the benefit of a company that looks like it's run by a bit of an ass.
I'm not talking about for the benefit of the company. I am talking about for the benefit of his fellow employees who took the deal. His article does not put them in the best light.
I'm glad this happened in such a public way. I once heard him speak at a VC event about his firing practices with the same sort of attitude. I won't get into the details, but I was shocked that such an individual could be so championed, but he's quite business savvy and very personable... I guess as long as you're on his good side. Very good fit for Zynga.