The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
blog.asmartbear.com
The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
1–10 of 134 posts
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#2This is diplomatic and charitable. When I see a repeat pattern of GroupOn and Zynga type companies I see someone who knows how to pump and dump. It's not quite fraud but it's getting close, given how loose these sorts of people typically play the truth.
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#3I think this is actually related to a larger (sea) change currently occuring in Internet culture: a transition to mass media; like TV, the music industry and Hollywood before it.
The internet was very different a few years ago - a source for information and creativity, but easy access and growing acceptance (no doubt related to the rise of mobile platforms), have changed all this.
Some startups today are just like pop acts or Hollywood productions: 1 out of 10 makes a killing, the others fail spectacularly. That's the mass media (gambling) busines, not a "bubble".
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#4This is diplomatic and charitable. When I see a repeat pattern of GroupOn and Zynga type companies I see someone who knows how to pump and dump. It's not quite fraud but it's getting close, given how loose these sorts of people typically play the truth.
Agree on GroupOn and Zynga, and there are still plenty of popular services which are far from being economically sustainable and yet everybody says what a "great company" that is, when in reality all it is is a "great product/service" with no revenue proposition (still, kudos for building it). See Path, Foursquare, Turntable.fm, Tumblr, etc.
If the liquidity from large companies such as FB, Google, AOL, Yahoo, etc. disappears, the value of the above mentioned startups will collapse. A big part of the startup ecosystem is a house of cards, unfortunately many first time entrepreneurs did not experience the .com rise and bust to understand what a downturn really looks like.
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#5What I am about to type is not an excuse for some of these companies, but rather an observation about all companies.
Sustainability is relative. Very few companies "last forever", so the real questions are... What is an acceptable pattern of growth and what is driving the shorter lives of these companies?
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#6Finally someone is talking about this! I've always felt that the "new" tech companies bring very little value to consumers and are thus not profitable long term (but of course the early investors and founders already made their money) The incentives of many VCs and "angels" are at opposite ends with sustainability, consumer value and long term success.
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#7This is diplomatic and charitable. When I see a repeat pattern of GroupOn and Zynga type companies I see someone who knows how to pump and dump. It's not quite fraud but it's getting close, given how loose these sorts of people typically play the truth.
I have to strongly disagree with comparing Groupon to any of the OP's failed examples. Groupon may well run into the ground, but consider that:
a) It was the first big success in its space b) at its peak, hired dozens (hundreds?) of actual employees, even copywriters from journalistic institutions. c) Had a huge, huge base of customers
Groupon's leaders should be faulted for the various strategies and actions that have put the company where it is. But Groupon did create a vibrant service out of something that seemed quite pedestrian (can't you just get coupons from the weekend newspaper?)...and a lot if its downfall comes from how easy it is to copycat it.
Color, in contrast, had none of the above.
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#8It seems to me that there is nothing inherently wrong with these talented pitch men, people that get everyone excited about some venture even if there is no clear path to long term growth.
If you could marry these people with others who have a proven track record of creating sustainable businesses maybe you would have some unstoppable force?
But then again, maybe in order to pump and dump, you have to make certain decisions that are bad for building a company and good for raising funds.
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#9I think this is actually related to a larger (sea) change currently occuring in Internet culture: a transition to mass media; like TV, the music industry and Hollywood before it. The internet was very different a few years ago - a source for information and creativity, but easy access and growing acceptance (no doubt related to the rise of mobile platforms), have changed all this. Some startups today are just like po…
When I look at personal websites pre-Facebook, I see a different world. People seemed to be freer to be different. Maybe that's just nostalgia, and maybe that's just the effect of popularization.
Re: The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company
#10I think this is actually related to a larger (sea) change currently occuring in Internet culture: a transition to mass media; like TV, the music industry and Hollywood before it. The internet was very different a few years ago - a source for information and creativity, but easy access and growing acceptance (no doubt related to the rise of mobile platforms), have changed all this. Some startups today are just like po…
I don't think it's like that at all. A startup that gets a lot of hype and carries that far enough to get acquired or IPO before crashing means that someone else is left holding the bag. TV, movies, games and music are invested in by the company that stands to make the money from them; they're seen through to the end.