
Diary of a Corporate Sellout - rtpg
https://medium.com/message/diary-of-a-corporate-sellout-587479c215f4
======
idlewords
I worked on Upcoming briefly as a contractor in 2006, and it was a strange
thing to witness. At the time Yahoo was acquiring a bunch of small sites but
seemed to have no idea what to do with them. They just hung there suspended,
like raisins in a jello mold, waiting for something to come along and digest
them.

Eventually Yahoo solved the dillema by wrapping these projects in successive
layers of management, like a bureaucratic oyster reacting to some irritant it
doesn't understand but can't get rid of. Vast amounts of time would be spent
on things like requiring integrated login, rather then stepping back and
figuring out how to really fit Upcoming or Flickr or Delicious into a vision
of what Yahoo was for.

I'm really happy Andy got the domain back. I'm still holding out for Joshua to
reclaim Delicious!

~~~
michaelgrafl
Excuse me for being off-topic and awkward. But whenever I read something like

 _They just hung there suspended, like raisins in a jello mold, waiting for
something to come along and digest them._

I pause and take a look at who wrote this.

And almost always it was written by that Pinboard guy.

~~~
freehunter
Agreed, it was one of the best comments I've read in a long time. Well-chosen
words and imagery, great metaphors.

~~~
DigitalJack
Second metaphor about the oyster seemed perfect. Can't say I have had raisins
in jello before, but it was easy to imagine and understand what he was getting
at.

Really like the oyster pearl one though, gonna have to steal that one. I'm
sure I could use it daily at work.

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pjc50
"My hope was that I could use a social network to solve other first-world
problems"

I like this piece of self-awareness.

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mathattack
“So… Yahoo bought my website.” “I don’t think I can counteroffer that.”

That put a smile on my face. Thank you for sharing!

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brandonmenc
Here's a great podcast hosted by R.U. Sirius (of Mondo 2000) with the author,
Andy Baio, as a guest - mere months after he sold Upcoming.

Lots of discussion about his foray into copyright infringement.

[http://mondoglobo.net/neofiles/shows/neofiles-034.mp3](http://mondoglobo.net/neofiles/shows/neofiles-034.mp3)

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devnonymous
I wonder if we'll see more 'resurrections' of good ideas that were acquired
and killed simply due to bad business rather than bad ideas. Is there a list
of companies/ideas somewhere that went down the acquisition path only to be
killed ?

~~~
arthurcolle
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Yahoo)!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Facebook)

This page
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon))
doesn't exist though interestingly enough

~~~
mtmail
Amazon's list isn't long enough (yet)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Acquisitions_and_in...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Acquisitions_and_investments)

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rurounijones
I am rather shocked that people are _paying_ for it to come back.

I mean, the original was done as a side-project by the owner who did not have
the money that, I assume, said post-acquisition owner now has.

~~~
netcan
This article is a candid perspective on making things, making money, integrity
and other nuanced topics. Crying ' _You 're rich, do it out of pocket._' is
the opposite.

People donate to projects like this on kickstarter because they want a project
to go ahead exist and they want to be a part of that. The writer is getting
(reasonably modest) resources with which to make it happen, perhaps even some
compensation. He gets the support of 1000 true fans who put $40 where their
mouth is. That knits together some valuable forms of validation,
encouragement, responsibility and other small nuanced things.

Why would you inject your negativity into this mix?

~~~
waylandsmithers
So, I had a similar thought and I think there is more here than just hating on
people who supposedly have access to resources. It goes more into the question
about why people support Kickstarter projects that are more business than art.
When you contribute money to a business venture, it is reasonable to expect
either ownership in the company or interest payments plus your original
principal down the road. In this case you get neither. While a $75 t-shirt is
nice, it's probably not going to turn into a $100 t-shirt.

That being said, it looks like people have pledged over $100K so far, so as
they say, "the market has spoken."

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no_future
Anyone know how much Upcoming was originally acquired for?

~~~
Mandatum
No one involved ever released details about the acquisition, I know it was for
cash - but they likely didn't allow disclosure of the actual price.

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nowarninglabel
The author is right that no one really scratched that itch, at least up until
recently. I spent a few years building something in my spare time to try to
scratch the itch (and did a fair amount of research on the space) after
Upcoming fell into disrepair but couldn't get enough momentum on it.

That said, Sosh seems to now be finally scratching that itch, just as Upcoming
is trying to make a comeback.

~~~
dangoldin
Same. Learned a lot doing it but the events space is very difficult to grow a
business in.

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midnightmonster
This was a great story to read, and the ending hit me like a surprise twist,
so much the better for being a real event. Thanks for sharing it.

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leoncrutchley
Wow what a story!i was an avid upcoming user in London back in 2007 and
inspired my own startup back then.. Insane to learn now it was a side project!
The first refusal idea should be part of a startup code or guidelines that all
adhere to..

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yuhong
Luckily, I think even Yahoo has improved since these days, thanks to Marissa
Mayer.

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conradfr
Great post.

It seems quite similar to French
[http://www.sortiraparis.com/](http://www.sortiraparis.com/) that exists for
more than 10 years I think.

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netcan
This guy really has a shrewd mind for nuance.

I'd never heard of upcoming, but I will definitely check it out in the future.

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wodenokoto
This was back when every new websites monetization strategy was to be acquired
by Yahoo.

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coldcode
Good ideas should survive. What technology are they going to use to build the
new site?

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coob
Andy, any reason this is on Medium and not waxy.org ?

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dkarapetyan
Acqui-hire by Google in 3... 2... 1...

