

Mike Arrington: Turning the drama down on Y Combinator v. Google Ventures - kloncks
http://uncrunched.com/2012/09/07/turning-the-drama-down-on-y-combinator-v-google-ventures/

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CurtHagenlocher
There's something ironic about combination of "Mike Arrington" and "turning
the drama down".

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batgaijin
After being on this site for 5 years, I am still surprised to not see a
blacklist solely for techcrunch submissions.

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notatoad
I wish this could happen, if only so their stupid splash screen stops breaking
my iPad. I doubt it will ever happen though, YC and techcrunch seem to enjoy a
very symbiotic relationship

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buro9
They should disclose it. It's clearly there, every YC company gets a
TechCrunch splash, and assuming Mike was involved in setting up such an
arrangement, then Mike is looking after both his past and future interests.

Read like that, Mike's post is then clearly just a little bit of politics.
It's not turning the drama down, it's looking after someone that looked after
him at some point and may do in future.

Viewed from outside the valley, whenever I see stuff like this I wish we had
journalistic standards rather than blogger opinions. Declare your interests,
state any arrangements you've got in place. Then I'll read the opinion without
feeling I am being duped. Without that you just get noise chambers.

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nikcub
> I also think VentureBeat should fully disclose any other issues they have
> that might be affecting their judgement about Y Combinator, but I’ll leave
> it at that.

Strong hint that there is more to this.

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gojomo
My outsider guess: VB is unhappy YC companies seem to favor other outlets with
their announcements.

I can't see how opining that YC is 'predatory' will help VB/O'Dell here. (Such
a derogatory allegation would seem to require some on- or off- record
aggrieved sources, rather than just an appeal to "acknowledge the obvious"...
at least in the non-Marxist business press.)

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autophil
"Turning the drama down..." Mike says with a nudge and a wink.

Mike knows how to stir the pot in more ways than Rachael Ray.

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rhizome
...while positioning himself as the adult.

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kimmiller
Yep, there seems to be a theme in tech world at the moment. Semi-fashionable
bloggers jumping on hot topics and taking the high-road. I won't name names,
but there are a few name brand VC's who are just writing columns for the sake
of getting their name out there, adding no value what so ever and then
doubling down on Twitter.

Tiresome at best, misleading at worst.

To note, I'm not talking about Arrington here.

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mikeleeorg
_An aside – Most stuff like this from Y Combinator doesn’t leak. The fact that
this did leak is the most interesting part of all this for me. It may be
because there are so many companies coming out of YC now that there isn’t the
same sense of loyalty to the program. Or it may be a sign of stress because
some of the startups may be finding it much more difficult to raise funding
than previous classes._

This is the second time I recall seeing any kind of leak from a pg email. The
first being the "warning of bad times" email in regards to Facebook's IPO.

Anyone know if there's any credence to Arrington's theory?

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fourstar
Ha! He's just perpetuating it by giving it more attention.

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beshrkayali
This feels like one of those eonline stories.

The fact that pg actually took the time to explain himself on HN (even though
he didn't have to) is enough explanation i think. VB wrote the article, it was
inaccurate, but everyone went on with their lives. Now mike comes back to stir
the pot again.

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ig1
Mike Arrington is a limited partner of SV Angel.

SV Angel (along with Yuri Miller) is the fund that offers the 150k convertible
note to all YC startups.

Mike Arrington has a clear undisclosed conflict of interest here.

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delinka
I had no idea there was "drama" to turn down. I saw a headline, I read some
comments, I moved on. Did I forget to come back after more comments had been
posted? I seriously don't get it.

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jcampbell1
I don't have much to add, but pg clearly made a mistake by not cc'ing Google
Ventures on the original email. GV got sucker punched by the press because of
that mistake and now the drama is playing out publicly. If pg had the
foresight to cc Google Ventures, then he likely would have edited out the
'm.o.' in the original email.

That being said, what is more interesting is that pg will now have to be more
reserved about communicating with his people. That is sad, because honest and
unfiltered communication is a hallmark of startups. Has YC grown too big for
unfiltered communication?

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irahul
> I don't have much to add, but pg clearly made a mistake by not cc'ing Google
> Ventures on the original email.

Why would he do that? He is advising the startups which has sought his/firm's
mentorship that taking gv's investment will irk existing investors and will
make people think you are deep down in the drains as you are devaluing
yourself. This wasn't a negotiation with GV.

> If pg had the foresight to cc Google Ventures,

I don't see how gv would have appreciated this foresight. GV is in talks with
X, pg comes in and asks X not to take the investment and cc'c GV. GV won't
like it and now X which might or might need GV's money is in difficult
position.

Also, the foresight he should have is mails can be leaked(even those addressed
to people he personally knows), and write mails as if they are public.

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dakrisht
The combination of Tech Crunch and Mike Arrington is deadlier than the plague.

