
Scribd holds anniversary at investor's $22 million mansion - snowmaker
http://valleywag.com/374293/scribd-holds-anniversary-at-investors-22-million-mansion
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jgrahamc
The most instructive thing about this story is to understand how Ariba made
money and its CFO rich. Ariba was in the B2B business, specifically doing
something very boring: automating procurement inside large companies replacing
paper procedures with computer systems.

One good way to make a fortune is by solving the mundane problems of the
wealthy (by they people or companies).

~~~
alaskamiller
That or just be the first to proclaim your product works on this new fangled
thingy called the Internets and ride the ipo wave to the top while cashing out
before the crash. But your way sounds nifty too I guess.

~~~
apathy
Your description is far closer to the truth, as it happens. It's amazing how
many times that simple formula was executed in the span of about 24 months
while I was living in SF. (Then again, most attempts failed, some quite
spectacularly)

Don't forget to throw in some magic XML sauce when pitching it to the business
types.

~~~
alaskamiller
I wasn't being facetious, that's really what happened with Ariba. I remember
seeing their ipo on MarketWatch or something and everyone rejoiced because
their stock hit billions but the talking heads on tv didn't know how to
explain what it was they were doing except saying World Wide Web a lot. I
think they're worth like 9 bucks per share now.

I remember watching VA Linux's ipo as well. They profiled Larry Augustin and
the company as their ticker went to 300 bucks. They then showed him walking on
a street and asking him what he's going to do now that he's worth a billion
dollars on paper and he dropped off mail into the mailbox and said he was
going to finally pay back his credit card bills.

Oh, Dot-com Boom, how I miss you.

~~~
apathy
_I wasn't being facetious, that's really what happened with Ariba._

I know -- those guys were friends of mine in the Mission. I wasn't being
facetious either; I was there too...

~~~
alaskamiller
Let's be really serious together.

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mixmax
Looking at the pictures from the investors mansion confirms my suspicion that
Americans have no taste.

Besides - where are the chicks?

:-)

~~~
ardit33
"Besides - where are the chicks?" -- This is sillicon valley, the bigest
sausage fest ever. Smart and good looking girls are very rare. You have to go
to NYC to find smart educated girls, that are actually pretty and have good
fashion sense.

~~~
xlnt
"smart" and "has good fashion sense" pull in different directions. one
requires caring about interesting stuff, the other about pleasing people and
fitting in.

~~~
edu
The fact that you don't find it interesting does not mean it isn't nor that
_smart_ could like it.

I don't know if I'm as smart as you, but I think that fashion is quite
interesting. I don't follow it at all, (I don't like to spend money on clothes
that will be outdated in 3 months), but I like to see what the trends on the
street are, questioning them and if I like some idea taking it. Fashion is a
very dynamic, always changing, and quite unpredictable concept.

What do you demand on something to be interesting?

~~~
xlnt
studying fashion is reasonably interesting but that's different than having
fashion sense, which means taking the time to look pretty so shallow guys will
like you.

~~~
mixmax
Not only shallow guys.

I like to think of myself s not being shallow, and I have to admit that I,
often subconsciously, judge people by how they look. And I think everybody
else does as too.

If your goal is to interact with other people and get something out of it
(everything from investor meetings to dating) you need to think about your
looks to some degree. I'm not saying you should wear Armani suits, just that
you need to fit in.

Think of it as hacking - just with people instead. How do you tweak the system
to get the most out of it.

~~~
xlnt
I agree that there's a wide range of it, from very shallow to slightly
imperfect.

But what happens if you wear something that isn't pretty and people start
noticing? Some won't like you. Others will notice their reaction and
compensate for it. They will think you didn't do anything wrong, and they
shouldn't react badly, and make sure to treat you normally.

If you don't wear clothes to fit in and be pretty, you only come off (a bit)
worse with the people who aren't self-aware enough. In business, it's
important to be able to get along with flawed people; they can still be
valuable business partners. But in dating, if you are very smart, you don't
want those people who aren't self-aware enough; you only want to go out with
exceptional people.

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wallflower
In the flickr set, you see a shelf of autographed baseballs and Dot-com boom
books. Including one pretty awful, discount-rack one (which I've read) called
'Burn Rate'. I'm pretty sure it was just there to make the collection
complete.

~~~
jgrahamc
Great memorabilia. I have a collection of autographed books (mostly from
authors who spoke at Kepler's) including: TAOCP, Generation X, The Cuckoo's
Egg, American Psycho, Hackers and Painters...

