How To Build a $30M Startup Without Spending Any of Your Money 120
SpicyBrownMustard writes "Forbes has an article that follows up on the news/hype/buzz/hysteria surrounding the acquisitions of Summly and Wavii by Yahoo and Google, respectively. It's a rather comical write up with a rather sad ring of truth to it, especially that we now know that Summly was little more than a collection of existing technologies built by others. The article says, 'Stress that you have celebrity relationships, and that your app was built by a team that has several hundred successful apps in Google Play and IOS App Store. It doesn’t matter that those aren’t your team members, it is still true.' Summarization technologies are the 'big new thing' apparently. Don't miss out — make your summarization app today and hop onboard that gravy train!"
Re:A Black Eye for Female CEOs (Score:4, Insightful)
So far, the hype around Yahoo's new CEO has been just that. So far, she's made a teenager a millionaire, turned the website and mail monochrome, and now this.
As much as I'm unimpressed by her tenure so far is "CEO brought in by floundering corporation with dysfunctional management manages dysfunctionally, flounders, N=1" really useful data on "Female CEOs"?
Re:A Black Eye for Female CEOs (Score:2, Insightful)
Yahoo seems to have done something with this purchase that they haven't been able to do in a long time: get some positive press. They couldn't have bought this kind of press coverage for the millions they've spent on this kid.
Gender has nothing to do with it. In this case it was age.
Re:What Forbes didn't mention... (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're right, I'd say these things aren't likely to happen for most people. Unless your dad just happens to be a director at a major investment bank and just happens to know some of the most wealthy people around who also just happen to have strong media platforms to hype your product from that is.
Business has always worked that way. Why do you think CEOs get paid so much? Connections, leverage, wealth, politics -- once you're bigger than a small local company, those are the real differentiators, and behind virtually every "successful" startup is a similar story. Names and details may change, but the plot is the same.
And that's not new -- it was just as true 50, 100, 200, and 2000 years ago. Wealthy Babylonian merchants got so for the same reasons, as did ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, etc ... you name it, that's how it has always worked.
Re:A Black Eye for Female CEOs (Score:5, Insightful)
Your post reminded me of this: http://xkcd.com/385/ [xkcd.com]
Re:What Forbes didn't mention... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:sick and dying (Score:4, Insightful)
But corporations are wonderful and Jesus will use capitalism and tax cuts to save us, right?
Re:A Black Eye for Female CEOs (Score:2, Insightful)
the woman decided that ALL of her teleworkers should come in and work in the office EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, after she had to work from home after pregnancy. what a crazy bitch!
Re:glorified money laundering (Score:2, Insightful)
Glorified money laundering is exactly what Yahoo's investment in this app amounts to. It's the tech world equivalent of investing millions of dollars in concept art for the purposes of avoiding tax. Like concept art (Damien Hirst et al), everyone knows it's a crock but the art world keeps the pretence up because the gravy train is too good.
Peace,
Andy.
Re:A Black Eye for Female CEOs (Score:3, Insightful)
N=3
Carly Fiorina
Meg Whitman
When Carly Fiorina left HP, it was worth half of what it was worth with she arrived.
While Meg Whitman was CEO of eBay, revenues went up by 200000%.
There is good reason to consider Carly as incompetent. I see no reason to see Meg as incompetent. They are not interchangeable just because they are both women.