
CEO of Cleo resigns after it was discovered that her resume contained lies - guyhance
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2019/06/18/exclusive-investigation-how-lies-and-a-troubled-workplace-brought-down-shannon-spanhake-cleo/
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bsg75
"There was not enough hustle..."

Canned phrases from company leadership is too often a sign of cluelessness. In
practical terms is means the CxO does not know how to grow or improve the
business, and falls back on "Work more! Work harder! Forget smarter!"

Also:

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hustle](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/hustle)

2b: "to sell something to or obtain something from (someone) by energetic and
especially underhanded activity"

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greenyoda
> _One bullet point from the slideshow spelled it out: “Expect to work 50-60
> hour weeks.” Her presentation got cut short before she could get to the next
> part. The company’s work-from-home policy was being eliminated._

> _The harangue stunned some of Cleo’s employees, who felt that it flew in the
> face of the company’s mission to create a better workplace for parents. One
> employee handed in the company laptop and walked out the door, quitting that
> afternoon._

So this CEO didn't believe in her company's mission enough to apply it at her
own company?

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strikelaserclaw
Jeez, are these really the big ideas coming from SV these days? Pedestrian
applications of technology to mundane problems which deserve billion dollar
valuations?

~~~
gumby
No, but a lot of the people building tech ideas, or other big ideas, are too
busy to be in the magazines.

There are still WhatsApps, quietly building a huge customer base with nobody
paying attention except the actual users. A bunch of interesting semiconductor
work going on (various "AI" chips, too many to succeed; SiFive grinding away
slowly but surely, invisible to all but us nerds, etc); I think what my
company is working on (barely an SV company with only two in northern CA)
could change the global economy, yet we barely had time to put up a static
website.

But since "tech" has replaced car magazines, computer magazines, and some
sports writing, people show up to write about whatever looks interesting, and
what looks interesting is 1> understandable to someone not steeped in it (TBF
that's true of the readers as well) and 2> has people who will seek you out to
tell you how amazing they are. I'm fascinated that that article mentioned more
than once that their B round was a steep percentage! Oh, it didn't; it only
quoted some large-sounding numbers and let the reader do the math themselves.
Probably the reporter has no idea how it works either.

Most of the action is in the Valley, where there are fewer deals, though more
money being spent. There's much more deal flow in SF, typically for plans like
this one that need less capital in the earlier stages -- giving more to write
about in a nicer place to be walking around than down here in SV.

So don't worry, big things are happening, but the revolutions always start out
under ground.

~~~
la_barba
The other thing is tech writers have become victims of click-bait too.
Unfortunately, due to tech being integrated across such a wide variety of
industries, they can't realistically be expected to understand how the
underlying technology works, even if we assume they were super tech savvy to
begin with. They might Google a few sources or just partially regurgitate
manufacturers claims. They can't do any kind of in-depth research because it
would exceed the time allotted, and it probably doesn't matter anyway, because
more quality is very rarely rewarded with more ad-revenue unless you're an
established brand like NYT/Forbes/Guardian etc.

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charlesdm
She lied about her age and her graduation date, and then a few other things.

What's the point of lying about your age? I can't imagine a 36 year old is
less likely to be funded than a 42 year old?

~~~
lnanek2
Does it say she made herself look older? Investors generally prefer younger
AFAICT. It's assumed if someone is 42 and not successful yet, they never will
be, but someone 20 has a chance and will be more in touch with modern
technology. A lot of Y-combinator events target high schoolers, even. IBM has
also gotten in trouble a lot for unfairly eliminating old people. I would
think she would have made herself look younger.

~~~
greenyoda
The article says her actual age was 42 (according to voting records), but she
claimed to be 36.

