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Awesome collection! One thing that strikes me is that there are quite a few CEOs who try to blame others for the failure. You read things like: * "my competito

Awesome collection! One thing that strikes me is that there are quite a few CEOs who try to blame others for the failure. You read things like: * "my competitor ... is infamous for its anti-competitive behaviour", * "every time we have any meaningful growth, it's coupled with the immediate attention of the record labels" Taking responsibility should be the first thing for any CEO to be good at.

fapjacks 11y ago
Yeah, but I appreciate the things they say instead of some kind of stock "It was my fault, plain and simple". It's an interesting perspective. And I think that some fault lays at their feet is kinda built into it being a postmortem discussion about their failed business.
xivzgrev 11y ago
I agree. Some of these post mortems are insightful but some are lame like prism. "Welp we built a cool product, learned content distribution is tough, and failed to achieve growth. The end" But why is it tough? What it sounds like was that prism didn't provide a useful enough experience for enough people to change their old habits of consumption. Also there was a hotel top 10 one that was odd. They couldn't grow because they were priced out by large competitors. But any ranking / aggregator site should crush end providers in seo. I work for a financial services companies and lead aggregators dominate seo because it's inherently more beneficial for a consumer to see a bunch of choices than one provider. I imagine its a similar story for hotels.
- rcarrigan87 11y ago
  Where a lot of aggregator startups go wrong is thinking SEO (and marketing in general) is easy. Marketing is hard no matter what you do.
- tim333 11y ago
  There's a lot of competition in SEO as well. Googling "best London hotels" the list is dominated by Tripadvisor, the Telegraph, Time Out, Expedia etc. All long established, well known and in Tripadvisor's case (3 of the top 4) very good in my opinion.
autotune 11y ago
Music startups have a pretty valid point when it comes to fighting an uphill battle.
devonkim 11y ago
As much as I agree with you, successful CEOs tend to be very good at never accepting responsibility for any failure and accepting credit for everything good that happens. Jeffrey Pfeffer's "Leadership Bullshit" expands on this sobering reality in more detail. As much as I like to believe that righteousness, honesty, and integrity matter for leaders, the realities of modern business do not reward the most honest people as reliably as those that know how to work systems and crowds.

fapjacks 11y ago

Yeah, but I appreciate the things they say instead of some kind of stock "It was my fault, plain and simple". It's an interesting perspective. And I think that some fault lays at their feet is kinda built into it being a postmortem discussion about their failed business.

xivzgrev 11y ago

I agree. Some of these post mortems are insightful but some are lame like prism. "Welp we built a cool product, learned content distribution is tough, and failed to achieve growth. The end" But why is it tough? What it sounds like was that prism didn't provide a useful enough experience for enough people to change their old habits of consumption. Also there was a hotel top 10 one that was odd. They couldn't grow because they were priced out by large competitors. But any ranking / aggregator site should crush end providers in seo. I work for a financial services companies and lead aggregators dominate seo because it's inherently more beneficial for a consumer to see a bunch of choices than one provider. I imagine its a similar story for hotels.

rcarrigan87 11y ago
Where a lot of aggregator startups go wrong is thinking SEO (and marketing in general) is easy. Marketing is hard no matter what you do.
tim333 11y ago
There's a lot of competition in SEO as well. Googling "best London hotels" the list is dominated by Tripadvisor, the Telegraph, Time Out, Expedia etc. All long established, well known and in Tripadvisor's case (3 of the top 4) very good in my opinion.

autotune 11y ago

Music startups have a pretty valid point when it comes to fighting an uphill battle.

devonkim 11y ago

As much as I agree with you, successful CEOs tend to be very good at never accepting responsibility for any failure and accepting credit for everything good that happens. Jeffrey Pfeffer's "Leadership Bullshit" expands on this sobering reality in more detail. As much as I like to believe that righteousness, honesty, and integrity matter for leaders, the realities of modern business do not reward the most honest people as reliably as those that know how to work systems and crowds.