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I helped negotiate the $22B sale to Facebook, Today, I regret it

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Re: I helped negotiate the $22B sale to Facebook, Today, I regret it

#21

Post by mrkramer »

BS;

"How WhatsApp made money was by charging users $1 to download the app.

And Facebook (said they) supported our mission & vision."

And how the hell you thought you are going to survive with that business model? You were growing like crazy with millions of new users and millions of messages being sent everyday. You thought annual subscription fee of $1 after a free first year was going to keep you up and running?! That's just hard to believe.

Regarding the mission and the vision; they probably agreed with you on a mission and vision to "make the world more open and connected" not on your vision "No mining user data", "No ads (ever)", "No cross-platform tracking".

"FB and their management agreed and we thought they believed in our mission."

You thought that Facebook a colossal public company is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on building your infrastructure, on maintaining it and on innovating(introducing new features) and at the same time earn pennies from it. Again hard to believe that you were that naive.

"Tech companies need to admit when they have done wrong.

Nobody knew in the beginning that Facebook would become a Frankenstein monster that devoured user data and spat out dirty money.

We didn’t either."

>Nobody knew in the beginning that Facebook would become a Frankenstein monster that devoured user data and spat out dirty money.

You got acquired in 2014 and already by that time Facebook was racking in billions from advertising which was made possible from gathering people's personal data and then using it to create ad solutions for advertisers >>> YOU KNEW IT.

Re: I helped negotiate the $22B sale to Facebook, Today, I regret it

#23

Post by maverickmax90 »

indecisive_user wrote: post #11
no-dr-onboard wrote: post #5

“I made a ton of money by selling out ten years ago and, after really thinking about it, I realized that I became part of the very thing I was fighting against.” Stop me if you’ve seen this before.

I agree with the sentiment, but Whatsapp had only a few dozen employees at the time. A $22B deal instantly made all of them multi millionaires. Would you have done things any differently? I'm not sure I would have.

Personal values should have taken precedence then because that's what he's claiming now. Money can be ignored if your are true to your values.

Re: I helped negotiate the $22B sale to Facebook, Today, I regret it

#24

Post by ksec »

This is going to be an unpopular, controversial opinion. But do try to explain rather than downvoting. ( Not that I care about the Karma points, I would much rather it didn't fall to the bottom of the thread )

Why is this kind of, what I would called hypocrisy, is becoming extremely common specifically in the Tech Industry. And if I might even add, American Tech Industry.

The end of the thread wasn't an apology to his wrongdoing, if there were any. It was an introduction to his own app. HalloApp.

And the Statement about Facebook in 2014. This might have worked in the mainstream media when no one ( as in public opinion ) knew about Facebook's so called tracking. ( The word tracking means different thing to different people ). But Facebook was surely one of the most hated company in the tech industry and HN. i.e You have been warned, but you ignore it. ( Pretty much like Russia and China )

Re: I helped negotiate the $22B sale to Facebook, Today, I regret it

#26

Post by rramadass »

ksec wrote: post #24

This is going to be an unpopular, controversial opinion. But do try to explain rather than downvoting. ( Not that I care about the Karma points, I would much rather it didn't fall to the bottom of the thread ) Why is this kind of, what I would called hypocrisy, is becoming extremely common specifically in the Tech Industry. And if I might even add, American Tech Industry. The end of the thread wasn't an apology to hi…

>Why is this kind of, what I would called hypocrisy, is becoming extremely common specifically in the Tech Industry. And if I might even add, American Tech Industry.

This has always been the norm except that it has now become more blatant and shameless. Morals, Ethics are for morons; Anything goes when it comes to the almighty dollar.

Re: I helped negotiate the $22B sale to Facebook, Today, I regret it

#28

Post by rubythis »

Any founders who sell out and believe what the buyers tell them are crazy.

Do you really think the buyers care about your vision? Do you really think they are going to keep their promises?

The buyer is going to do everything they can to make their $22B back and try to make an extra $900B on top of it.

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