

Postmates Has Raised $5 Million to Expand Into Seattle And Beyond - shibboleth
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/19/postmates-5m-founders-fund/

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hornd
I think it would be nice if TC disclosed Arrington's involvement with SoftTech
VC, which has invested in Postmates.

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itsprofitbaron
Michael Arrington is a Limited Partner in SoftTech VC meaning that, he's an
investor in the VC firm. He doesn't make the decisions on what they invest in
that's down to their team who you can find at: <http://softtechvc.com/team/>.
In otherwords a disclosure isn't necessary as he has no influence and/or
potentially even knowledge on what SoftTech VC have invested in (some VC firms
don't list all of their investments on their portfolio pages).

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shuzchen
Yes but in this case, they (TC) know that Arrington is a partner at SoftTech
VC, and they also know that SoftTech VC is investing in this particular
startup being covered (They mention them specifically in the article) so the
ignorance argument is invalid.

Since someone within TC stands to profit from the company they are writing
about, isn't a disclosure a good idea? I agree that it's not entirely clear-
cut what to do here, but IMO to build any sort of journalistic integrity a
media outlet should err on the side of disclosure.

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itsprofitbaron
TechCrunch generally disclose when Crunchfund invest (albeit they didn't do so
effectively with Orchestra/Mailbox). Having said that I don't feel that they
need to disclose that a former founder & now part-time Writer, has an
investment in a VC firm - which he has no control over - and they have made an
investment in a startup which, he may not even be aware about.

Micheal Arrington is an LP in a16z, Benchmark, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel as
well as being a General Partner at Crunchfund[1]. I think the disclosure of
Crunchfund is enough otherwise, on every post there will be a disclosure
stating Michael Arrington has directly/indirectly invested in a startup they
are covering with/without his own knowledge. Don't forget this is the same,
Michael Arrington who stopped investing when he founded TechCrunch and the
ones he had invested in - there was a clear disclosure and he never personally
covered them.

[1] <http://www.crunchbase.com/person/michael-arrington>

