4 ms·

The more of these kinds of comments I read, the more I feel sick. The first time I met one of the founders of Bootup Labs, this was when I was fairly new to Va

by fnid2 17y ago

The more of these kinds of comments I read, the more I feel sick. The first time I met one of the founders of Bootup Labs, this was when I was fairly new to Vancouver, I got a deep upsetting feeling in my stomach. I felt the same kind of energy from others involved in meetups they put together. They used to hang around workspace as well. Someone introduced me to a bootup labs person and within just a few sentences I knew these characters were to be avoided. It is difficult for me to rationalize these feelings in ways that can help stop the bad future I see that makes me have these feelings. I don't want to share the feelings, because they are just feelings. I try to only share opinions I can rationalize, because I don't want to be wrong about a negative feeling if the person is actually good and I'm wrong in my assessment. It's like when I interacted with them, I saw how the compounding negativity of their influence was going to affect the startup community in Vancouver. My feeling made me want to stay far, far away from anyone involved in bootup labs or involved with them or their "groups". I want a good group to be seen as the leader in Vancouver, but it's almost like the stage has been set there and it was designed by bootup labs. I don't know where the impressions like these come from. I don't know why I have them or how exactly I knew bootup labs was going to turn out badly. In Texas, there is a saying, "All hat and no cattle." I don't know if there is a similar expression in BC or not, but it's like I can tell that what they were saying was intended to "sell" those who simply didn't know enough to steer clear of them. The bootup labs people are great at sales and giving the impression of power, certainty, and success -- but I never saw any of it. I want to help people steer clear of individuals like this, but people who say negative stuff about others are often themselves looked down upon. Moms say, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." Well, sometimes, keeping your mouth shut can itself have negative repercussions. As someone who is still struggling with how to properly behave in social situations, how am I to react when I am confronted by a situation like this?

api 17y ago
I feel your pain, man. I was involved years ago with a group of individuals in a different industry. We were working on some advanced machine learning stuff. It was really cool, and the tech was going somewhere. We were getting market interest too from some big players. I ended up cutting and walking away. Basically I burned several years of work in the process (I designed almost all the tech), and was left with debts that I'm just now getting rid of. Getting away from the folks I was working with was worth more to me than any of the possibilities that were on the horizon. I also had a strong feeling that if it was a success that I would see none of it, so there was a bit of plain old self-interest too. "All hat and no cattle" is pretty good. The one guy running the whole thing was, I think, a pure psychopath. I was actually afraid of him for a while, thinking that he might come some night and kill me and my family. He was charismatic as hell and really, really good at projecting an aura of limitless success and at getting people interested, but nothing ever panned out. He was surrounded by slimy opportunists and clueless followers. I was one of the latter for a while. He had a way of stroking your ego and making you feel powerful, when really you were just being used. Since then, I now have a real sense for such people and such arrangements and can sort of smell them. Like you, I can't really describe it. It's a bit of too-good-to-be-true and a bit of too-slick and a bit of... some ancient animal threat response. I've never been to Vancouver or met any of the principals involved in this story, so I really can't comment directly. But your "sense" may indeed be accurate. I sure know that smell now. Unfortunately, the startup world and the larger tech industry is absolutely crawling with these reptiles. My advice? Just steer clear. You can't really do much else. You can't go around badmouthing people, as it just makes you sound like a jerk and could also attract legal harassment. Surround yourself with people who aren't slimy, and avoid even those who are unfortunate enough to be in the orbit of slimeballs. All you can really do for people like them (and like I was years ago!) is to wait and hope they come to their senses. If they are your friends, you might be able to tell them or hint at them... but it's really just as bad as when someone you know is dating someone awful.

by fnid2 17y ago

api 17y ago

I feel your pain, man. I was involved years ago with a group of individuals in a different industry. We were working on some advanced machine learning stuff. It was really cool, and the tech was going somewhere. We were getting market interest too from some big players. I ended up cutting and walking away. Basically I burned several years of work in the process (I designed almost all the tech), and was left with debts that I'm just now getting rid of. Getting away from the folks I was working with was worth more to me than any of the possibilities that were on the horizon. I also had a strong feeling that if it was a success that I would see none of it, so there was a bit of plain old self-interest too. "All hat and no cattle" is pretty good. The one guy running the whole thing was, I think, a pure psychopath. I was actually afraid of him for a while, thinking that he might come some night and kill me and my family. He was charismatic as hell and really, really good at projecting an aura of limitless success and at getting people interested, but nothing ever panned out. He was surrounded by slimy opportunists and clueless followers. I was one of the latter for a while. He had a way of stroking your ego and making you feel powerful, when really you were just being used. Since then, I now have a real sense for such people and such arrangements and can sort of smell them. Like you, I can't really describe it. It's a bit of too-good-to-be-true and a bit of too-slick and a bit of... some ancient animal threat response. I've never been to Vancouver or met any of the principals involved in this story, so I really can't comment directly. But your "sense" may indeed be accurate. I sure know that smell now. Unfortunately, the startup world and the larger tech industry is absolutely crawling with these reptiles. My advice? Just steer clear. You can't really do much else. You can't go around badmouthing people, as it just makes you sound like a jerk and could also attract legal harassment. Surround yourself with people who aren't slimy, and avoid even those who are unfortunate enough to be in the orbit of slimeballs. All you can really do for people like them (and like I was years ago!) is to wait and hope they come to their senses. If they are your friends, you might be able to tell them or hint at them... but it's really just as bad as when someone you know is dating someone awful.