10 comments

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  Yesdi

  5 months ago

  Your point that funding != good idea is correct. But that does not imply that "depending on funding" => bad idea. Neither does building on other platforms" => bad idea. Google the histories of Adobe, Intuit, Oracle, Google. The recruiter's logic was screwed up, and so is yours. What makes a successful startup is all about the size of market opportunity, traction in that market, market risks, and execution ability.
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  Kyle Brady

  5 months ago

  Yesdi,
  
  Did I ever mention that being dependent on funding, if you have a real product, is a bad thing? No. It takes time to get off the ground and running, and anyone who's ever done any programming knows that. It's when you have alot of funding for something that is not very complex, and you're giving it away for free without any idea of "where's the business side?"... that's what I'm arguing against.
  
  And being dependent on "platforms" is not a bad thing either... but it depends on (a) what platforms they are, and (b) what you're defining "platforms" as. Facebook, MySpace, Bebo = not good business platform choices.
  
  As for what makes a startup "successful"... you're partially right. You seemed to have missed the "isn't just a random toy" with a side of "has some way to be potentially self sustaining, if not profitable".
  
  Startups aren't charity, they're businesses, and it's time people realize that.
  
  --Kyle
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  Jeremy Liew

  5 months ago

  IMPORTANT NOTE:
  I was called (the old fashioned way, by phone) by Jeremy Liew... he apparently didn't write these, and asked that I mark them as such. The weird part? The email address given is the correct one, and he found out about all this when I emailed him directly about some more thoughts...
  
  ------------------
  
  Kyle: I think you made a poor decision that you will one day regret deeply.
  
  I have been a venture capitalist for many years (I got my start in the early days of venture capital back in 2006) and in all these years have seen few companies with as much potential as RockYou.
  
  Rockyou has achieved very real adoption from users and we really like the two founders, Lance Tokuda and Jia Shen.
  
  We have been very happy with our investment in RockYou. It has only continued to grow since we invested - it now serves well over 100 million widget views everyday.
  
  We're still not sure what the final business model for turning those widget views into cash will be, but the opportunities are endless. I came up with 3 this morning alone.
  
  Sequoia Capital, which backed Google, invested in RockYou alongside us and if that doesn't convince you that RockYou has a bright future as a legitimate business, I guess you'd have been one of those people who had the opportunity to work at a great startup like Google, Webvan, Amazon or Pets.com before they went public and would be regretting that decision to this day.
  
  You might want to reconsider your decision. RockYou has a very dynamic and fast-paced environment, great salary, superb benefits and the lucrative stock options everyone loves.
  
  I'll be on the West Coast next week and if you're interested, I'd be happy to show you around the RockYou offices in Redwood City. We can lunch with Lance and Jia. They're really pretty cool guys.
  
  Mahalo,
  
  Jeremy Liew
  Managing Partner
  Lightspeed Venture Partners
  "Investing at the Speed of Light"
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• 

  Jeffrey McManus

  5 months ago

  You may or may not regret the decision to take the job, but if you think that you can possibly live your life without building on one platform or another, you're hopelessly naive. Nearly everything you do in technology is built on some platform that's controlled by someone other than you -- and that goes for "open" platforms as well.
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• 

  Kyle Brady

  5 months ago

  Jeffery: look at my reply to Yesdi. Unstable platforms that don't have any uptime guarantees, or really any sort of control over the process what-so-ever, are bad. If you're building on a platform that's stable (or at least semi-stable), then great. I'm not saying platforms are bad, and in fact (like you said) alot of software runs on top of some type of platform... but the decision to do so needs to be made carefully, with respect to it's credentials (of which these currently have none).
  
  Jeremy: adoption rates and "potential" are great, but how does something like a "widget" translate into "real world value"? Widgets that serve some sort of purpose are fine (like a Google Docs widget that drives traffic to Google's office software), but when you're basing your entire display method and user experience on a small widget on some random social network... that's where I lose faith.
  
  --Kyle
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• 

  Jeremy Liew

  5 months ago

  IMPORTANT NOTE:
  I was called (the old fashioned way, by phone) by Jeremy Liew... he apparently didn't write these, and asked that I mark them as such. The weird part? The email address given is the correct one, and he found out about all this when I emailed him directly about some more thoughts...
  
  ------------------
  
  Kyle: what do you mean by "real world value"? RockYou's widgets are really fun and entertaining. That's why tens of millions of people are using them every day.
  
  Widgets could turn out to be the replacement for network television. We simply don't know yet.
  
  But what I do know is that I'm very pleased with our investment in RockYou and I'm confident that RockYou has a bright future for every RockYou employee who holds pre-IPO stock options.
  
  You're young so I will give you some advice: the sooner you get in on these things, the better. You get more stock options, a beter strike price and you get to be a part of a revolution at the same time.
  
  What's not to like about that?
  
  Sleep on it tonight and tomorrow give that recruiter a call back. Tell him Jeremy Liew referred you.
  
  You'll thank me for it some day soon. I guarantee it.
  
  Mahalo,
  
  Jeremy Liew
  Managing Partner
  Lightspeed Venture Partners
  “Investing at the Speed of Light”
  
  *** Sent from my iPhone 3G ***
  reply
• 

  seriously?

  5 months ago

  I have been a venture capitalist for many years (I got my start in the early days of venture capital back in 2006) and in all these years have seen few companies with as much potential as RockYou.
  
  is this a joke?
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• 

  kris

  5 months ago

  Heh I like the way you think...
  
  On the other side of things, it wouldn't be so bad to work there for a year or two, get the experience and wisdom, and then get out (seeing as how the average lifespan of a job at one company in the tech industry is pretty low, this would be pretty normal).
  BUT if you have other offers (which it sounds like you do) with other companies that have their own physical product/actual service and that's what you prefer than go for that.
  I would say it's also just a matter of doing something that you will enjoy and that you actually back or beleive in the company that you work for.
  
  also as a side note 2 years in a profession is not that many years if you think about it.
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  Kyle Brady

  5 months ago

  seriously?: I think it is... but I left it alone.
  
  kris: thanks. I do have other options, but honestly... even if I was starving on a street corner I wouldn't take that job. I just don't agree with everything they do, from the ground up, and there's no way I could work there without being really pissed all the time or fired quickly.
  
  Jeremy: companies/business/products come out of innovation, out of a need to do something or fill a niche. Amazon.com was a good online shopping experience, Google was a search that worked, Facebook was a better centralized way to communicate with friends and family. RockYou fills no public need. Even the video game industry fills a niche, by providing entertainment... but it's an actual product for retail. "But it's dependent on the Operating System!" ... yeah. At least they have something that couldn't be created in a few hours of caffeine fueled programming.
  
  --Kyle
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• 

  Kyle Brady

  5 months ago

  I just got a call from Jeremy Liew saying that those comments aren't from him. After looking at it, they're from two different IP's, one with a hidden hostmask... he only found out about all this when I emailed him directly with some other thoughts. Ironically enough, whoever was pretending to be him used his real email address...
  
  I've marked them as "not him", but left them here so the context of the conversation remains, as Jeremy requested.
  
  --Kyle
  reply