[deleted]
The Real History of TechCrunch
71–80 of 96 posts
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#72[deleted]
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#73> Ultimately Keith knew I could just walk away from it all and TechCrunch would lose all its value, so he relented and I agreed to pay Keith 10% of any value I received in the company eventually to avoid litigation.
I know and have done business with Mike.
That said the above sounds like Mike may have been using resources [1] of Edgeio and so essentially to avoid litigation Mike had to give Keith a cut of the action. So as a stretch Keith could claim that w/o those resources (pay, reimbursement, guidance and so on) Mike would never have been able to start Techcrunch. That doesn't make Keith a founder for sure. But then again (taking Keith's side of this not that I have any reason to do so at all) it doesn't seem entirely unjust that he got 10% of Techcrunch. He could probably rework the 'techcrunch' connection creatively to reflect this.
Also nobody gives up 10% of a company in this circumstance (remember Arrington went to law school) unless they feel the other party has a leg to stand on and they stand to loose more. Generally of course.
[1] "He asked me to work with him on Edgeio and possibly other companies he was to start. I agreed and began working with him.".."At the time I was working with Keith Teare on another project called Edgeio, a company that he founded"
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 20-hour days are not actually worked, not even by slave labor. Then you've never been there. Yes, they are. Have done it many times.
I've been a lot of places, and I have some experience with sleep deprivation. One ought not assume too much. If you're regularly working 20-hour days, as opposed to the occasional all-nighter, then you're not doing anyone any favors -- not your company, not your friends/spouses/children, not yourself. But anyway I was alluding to the tendency to boast about how little one sleeps...
I wish companies understood this. Part of my boring non-startup job consists of occasional weeklong sprees of 20+ hours/day, staying on the jobsite the entire week, with no additional compensation.
I'm definitely dead inside by the weekend, and noticeably affected after the first day. The logistics of what I do probably really does make it somewhat of a necessity, but I wish there was at least provisions for comp time afterwards or at least some kind of bonus pay.
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exact same pattern that gets repeated everywhere: Winklevoss hires Zuckerberg to do some sort of campus meetup site. While working on this, Zuckerberg crystalizes related idea of profiles and messaging among students - but only shared among friends. Winklevoss does not participate in vision, engineering or anything else but claim the credit for Facebook anyway. I can understand that in early days it would be…
That's a pretty pro-Zuck view you have there. I think the courts are in a better position to decide and they found for the Winklevoss twins. Yes, they didn't get a lot of money but they got what they asked for.
Source? According to everything I've read, the money they got was from a settlement, not a court ruling in their favor. When they sued for more after the settlement, they got slapped down by the courts. e.g.,
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-w...
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also a profile of Arrington in Wired from 2007 [0]. It also gives the impression that Techcrunch grew out of his personal research for new business models whilst he was working with "Arrington's longtime associate and mentor, Keith Teare." Just in case anyone thinks this was perhaps written without Arrington's knowledge, his blog post would suggest otherwise. [1] [0] https://www.wired.com/2007/06/ff-arrington…
The phrases like "grew out of ..." is interesting. The thing is that you can use this phrase to steal someone's work as long as both of you were working on something that is even remotely related. I have to add this phrase in my Credit Stealer's Handbook I'm writing :).
i think you mean the handbook i’m writing
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the same true of Musk who was an A round investor in a company already founded by Eberhard and Tarpenning?
While not one of the original co-founders, Musk has devoted enormous amounts of time, money and energy into Tesla since nearly the beginning, which I think makes him close enough to a co-founder. If you read Arrington’s post, he even says the same about Heather —- not technically a co-founder but one in practice given the amount of work she put in. The guy he is calling out is alleged to have put zero time or money i…
I had no idea until this thread that Elon Musk hadn't been with Tesla from the beginning. I presume reasonable people can disagree, but, no, I don't think leading someone's A round, even if you take an operational role at some point afterwards, makes you a "cofounder".
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#78This is a very important lesson for Michael Arrington and many people reading this can learn from it without losing too much emotions or money themselves: Someone, who claims this to be a cofounder of your business even once, is not your friend! Don't support their claims, don't pity them. They try to exploit you. This kind of person is really good at keeping you emotionally hooked, and therefore even let you find ex…
Is the same true of Musk who was an A round investor in a company already founded by Eberhard and Tarpenning?
I thought Tesla was Musk's company until now. Apparently they actually reached a settlement with Eberhard to officially call Musk (and another two people) "founders" even though they actually weren't. https://www.cnet.com/news/tesla-motors-founders-now-there-ar...
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't disagree with you, but I call BS on the OP: 1. 20-hour days are not actually worked, not even by slave labor. 2. Sacrificing your personal life for your employer is pathological, not heroic.
> Sacrificing your personal life for your employer is pathological, not heroic This isn't an article about heroism. Keith Teare claims he co-founded TechCrunch. Arrington says "no" and then details why. One part of the "why" is about value-adding output. Arrington "could never get [Teare] to write anything, or help pay any bills." Co-founders add value; Keith didn't do that. The second part of the "why" is about inpu…
The first 80 hours of a work week seem the hardest... the next 60 fly by in a daze of mania. It's hard to remember how to sleep and not think about work all the time, but your productivity is constantly falling. It works best for projects you can literally do in your sleep and anything requiring decision making, detail, or creativity should be done in the first day. If mistakes aren't very obvious when assembling the final blocks at the end, you'll miss them. Camaraderie is important too!
Re: The Real History of TechCrunch
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the same true of Musk who was an A round investor in a company already founded by Eberhard and Tarpenning?
I thought Tesla was Musk's company until now. Apparently they actually reached a settlement with Eberhard to officially call Musk (and another two people) "founders" even though they actually weren't. https://www.cnet.com/news/tesla-motors-founders-now-there-ar...
Yes, it's often the case that "founder" is a label which a company might agree to add or subtract from various people.
As an example, there are tons of startups where not everyone who was there on day 0 is called "founder".