

Mark Pincus at a Startup @ Berkeley Mixer - krtl
http://www.krutal.com/mark-pincus-at-a-startup-berkeley-mixer/

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heckacopter
I remember years ago when installing RealPlayer, the current streaming media
standard at the time, the installer would sign you up for all kinds of mailing
lists if you didn't scroll down on the "Offers List". All of the offers that
were beyond the fold were selected.

Not to mention that back then, say 1999, every company would freely sell your
email address to spammers.

I'm glad we stopped putting up with that.

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allenbrunson
i'll be the third person to say it: editorializing in titles is frowned on
here. "You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous
editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it."

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

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krtl
Thanks for the heads up.

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derwiki
I was at the talk and I feel this title is misleading -- that didn't seem to
be the main point he was emphasizing in his talk.

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krtl
Ya his main point was recruiting. You need to go through the junior leagues
before you can become a professional athlete he says.

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CitizenKane
While this is certainly a behavior that should be frowned upon I'm not sure it
should be completely castigated in the way that it is. I've met quite a few
entrepreneurs and many of them have told me that early on they either bent or
broke many rules including doing things that are unethical.

I'm not sure if this is just from poor sample size, but it seems to be
somewhat necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur. For what it's worth, many of
the entrepreneurs I know became increasingly more legitimate as they got out
of startup mode. I think to some degree it's just a part of the game, the odds
are against you so you need to do everything in your power to increase your
chances of success.

I would really like to hear what other founders think. Is this commonplace or
are the people that I've talked to borderline criminals?

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gizmo
It's commonplace in my experience. I wouldn't call it borderline criminal, but
many startups cross moral lines. I find it absolutely despicable, that people
can rationalize their ethics away. "I know what I'm doing is wrong, but when
we have revenue we can afford to do the right thing.", and other the-end-
justifies-the-means rubbish.

It's easy (and perhaps even tempting) to cut corners but what good are ethics
when you throw them out the moment they become inconvenient?

So yes, the behavior is to be castigated, and I have no respect for people
who're willing to fuck their customers/users/suppliers in order to make it as
an entrepreneur.

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javery
Wait, I clicked on this link and moved all the way to the right time to hear
exactly what the title says? That could mean tons of things, but kudos for
having nothing better to do then dig through old footage to find one sentence
that could now mean something more sinister.

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krtl
Did you hear the part about the toolbar he couldn't remove?

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KWD
TechCrunch has excerpted the relevant section of the video here:
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-
pi...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-
faceboo/)

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onewland
Prostitutes do ANYTHING for revenue. Mark Pincus maybe did a few things he
didn't want to.

~~~
gizmo
At least prostitutes engage in a mutually beneficial and consensual
arrangements. Pincus' tactics were (are?) neither mutually beneficial nor
consensual.

