

The (One-Sided) Anatomy Of A Startup Failure - alex_c
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/07/18/the-one-sided-anatomy-of-a-startup-failure

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dennykmiu
Right after Scoble was hired, I was invited to a coming-out party organized by
Podtech (in Mountain View). That was the first time that I heard Scoble speak
in person and I remember telling myself that this had to be the beginning of
the end for Podtech. This is not meant to be a negative on Scoble or John (who
had a vision that involves Scoble). But I was thinking that if Podtech were to
be a media company (which it wasn't until hiring Scoble and other "superstar")
then not only does it need to be authentic (which Scoble certainly was and
still is) but it had to be relevant as well (to its growing population of free
subscribers and more importantly to its paid customers). I was not convinced
that Scoble was "sustainably" relevant to increase listener base beyond a
small niche (which is a big problem for a VC-backed startup since they expect
huge payback). Soon after that I decided to unsubscribe Podtech altogether
because a listener, I was confused. Podtech as a media company did not have a
unique genre and the contents were all over the place (too much talents, may
be, to put it mercifully).

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olefoo
Has there ever been a successful exit (repaid the investors) by a company that
was founded with the direct participation of a 'social media superstar'? I
can't think of any. I can think of several 'superstars' that got their launch
from successful companies, but none the other way around.

Big egos do not lead to good decisions.

~~~
dmv
Depends on how specific "successful exit" is. Otherwise:
<http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/07/nowpublic-buys.html>
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=242417>)

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menloparkbum
The commentary about PodTech reveals that everyone involved with the company
is even more clueless than they realize. The lists completely miss the point.
The reason PodTech failed is simply because they made something nobody wanted.

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jgamman
never heard of it.

