7 ms·

Seriously, Jason Calacanis has not done anything considered smart since he sold Weblogs, Inc. to AOL. Other than that he's not a graceful entrepreneur and an a

by 37prime 16y ago

Seriously, Jason Calacanis has not done anything considered smart since he sold Weblogs, Inc. to AOL. Other than that he's not a graceful entrepreneur and an attention seeker (I refrain myself from using a harsher term).

jasonmcalacanis 16y ago
1. Mahalo is a top 200 site, over 10M uniques and operationally profitable. 2. Open Angel Forum has been hosting in five cities in the first four months of 2010. 3. I've done seven angel investments including gdgt.com, gowalla.com and blippy.com. 4. TechCrunch50 has made millions of dollars, but more importantly launched amazing startups like Mint.com, Powerset and yammer. 5. This Week in Startups about to have it's one-year anniversary and advertising has been sold out for two years. Also, ThisWeekIn.com is closing a small angel round and have almost 10 shows. 6. ON the board of Savings.com, GDGT and another company not yet announced. I'd list ten more things... but it would start to get a little silly. I'm getting a lot done these days, but you are correct I'm far from graceful. I'm blunt and to the point... sometimes I say things in private, or public, that I shouldn't. A private thing that should have stayed private is now public. Yawn. There is more to the story, but I'm not going to comment HR issues publicly--that would not be professional. Part of me would love to unload however. best j
- mrkurt 16y ago
  You already have been commenting on HR issues publicly. Why stop now?
- tbrooks 16y ago
  "A private thing that should have stayed private is now public." Funny... Sam Odio thought the same thing. http://sam.bluwiki.com/blog/2010/03/confession-i-was-one-who-came-forward.php http://sam.bluwiki.com/blog/2010/03/confession-i-was-one-who...
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Touché, I'd completely forgotten about that little gem.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  1. you could be #3, I couldn't care less, mahalo does not exactly contribute, it just rehashes. 2. good for you 3. The only one I've heard of is 'blippy', and that's only because of some fairly sloppy coding there. 4. great. I'm fairly sure they would have made it without your personal contribution though, you can't possibly take personal credit for that, just like Paul Graham doesn't take personal credit for dropbox or any one of the other YC investments. And so on. The list would indeed be silly if you continued. You're one hell of an entrepreneur, I'll give you that but you're way out of line in how you treat people and the basic business model of mahalo simply sucks. Do you really believe that even if such email should stay private that that absolves you of what you wrote there? I used to look up to you, that has changed dramatically in the last 18 months or so.
  - wdewind 16y ago
    And to bring the point further: no one cares what you accomplish if you act like a total asshat while doing it. Mussolini and some trains come to mind.
    - hugh3 16y ago
      Isn't that being a little harsh? I don't really know anything about this Calcianis guy (until now I thought Mahalo was a brand of shoes), but has he done anything to inspire your ire apart from writing one jerkish email?
      - _delirium 16y ago
        > has he done anything to inspire your ire apart from writing one jerkish email? It's been an ongoing thing, mostly related to his company being pretty spammy, but there are other episodes mixed in as well: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+calacanis http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+cal...
    - _pius 16y ago
      Mussolini and some trains come to mind. ... and we've reached the Godwin point! (considering Fascism as a proxy for Nazism)
- Andys 16y ago
  No, to be professional would mean not sending that private email in the first place. It actually makes me wonder how you treat your customers if they piss you off.
- marilyn 16y ago
  Way to toot your own horn. 37prime is clearly quite right about the attention seeking part too.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    I think he's allowed to toot his own horn in response to a comment suggesting that he hasn't done anything worthwhile in a decade.
    - marilyn 16y ago
      When the work speaks for itself, no tooting is required.
      - AlexBlom 16y ago
        Whether you support the guy or not you can't put him in a Catch-22. 'You have done nothing' 'I did XYZ' 'Stop promoting yourself. The work should speak for itself' ...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Blippy? Isn't that the incompetents that just lost of customer credit card numbers and then blew it off like it was no big deal? There's something to be proud of.....
- iuguy 16y ago
  I'm sure there's more to the story, but you gain nothing by being an arsehole to someone who's put their time and effort into one of your businesses. Even if someone's a grade A walking disaster area, there's more to lose than gain by being shitty with them. Still, your business, your rules.
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Regardless of what you may have accomplished, your handling if this guys resignation was incredibly immature. You sounded like a petulant 3 year old.

by 37prime 16y ago

jasonmcalacanis 16y ago

1. Mahalo is a top 200 site, over 10M uniques and operationally profitable. 2. Open Angel Forum has been hosting in five cities in the first four months of 2010. 3. I've done seven angel investments including gdgt.com, gowalla.com and blippy.com. 4. TechCrunch50 has made millions of dollars, but more importantly launched amazing startups like Mint.com, Powerset and yammer. 5. This Week in Startups about to have it's one-year anniversary and advertising has been sold out for two years. Also, ThisWeekIn.com is closing a small angel round and have almost 10 shows. 6. ON the board of Savings.com, GDGT and another company not yet announced. I'd list ten more things... but it would start to get a little silly. I'm getting a lot done these days, but you are correct I'm far from graceful. I'm blunt and to the point... sometimes I say things in private, or public, that I shouldn't. A private thing that should have stayed private is now public. Yawn. There is more to the story, but I'm not going to comment HR issues publicly--that would not be professional. Part of me would love to unload however. best j

mrkurt 16y ago
You already have been commenting on HR issues publicly. Why stop now?
tbrooks 16y ago
"A private thing that should have stayed private is now public." Funny... Sam Odio thought the same thing. http://sam.bluwiki.com/blog/2010/03/confession-i-was-one-who-came-forward.php http://sam.bluwiki.com/blog/2010/03/confession-i-was-one-who...
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Touché, I'd completely forgotten about that little gem.
jacquesm 16y ago
1. you could be #3, I couldn't care less, mahalo does not exactly contribute, it just rehashes. 2. good for you 3. The only one I've heard of is 'blippy', and that's only because of some fairly sloppy coding there. 4. great. I'm fairly sure they would have made it without your personal contribution though, you can't possibly take personal credit for that, just like Paul Graham doesn't take personal credit for dropbox or any one of the other YC investments. And so on. The list would indeed be silly if you continued. You're one hell of an entrepreneur, I'll give you that but you're way out of line in how you treat people and the basic business model of mahalo simply sucks. Do you really believe that even if such email should stay private that that absolves you of what you wrote there? I used to look up to you, that has changed dramatically in the last 18 months or so.
- wdewind 16y ago
  And to bring the point further: no one cares what you accomplish if you act like a total asshat while doing it. Mussolini and some trains come to mind.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Isn't that being a little harsh? I don't really know anything about this Calcianis guy (until now I thought Mahalo was a brand of shoes), but has he done anything to inspire your ire apart from writing one jerkish email?
    - _delirium 16y ago
      > has he done anything to inspire your ire apart from writing one jerkish email? It's been an ongoing thing, mostly related to his company being pretty spammy, but there are other episodes mixed in as well: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+calacanis http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+cal...
  - _pius 16y ago
    Mussolini and some trains come to mind. ... and we've reached the Godwin point! (considering Fascism as a proxy for Nazism)
Andys 16y ago
No, to be professional would mean not sending that private email in the first place. It actually makes me wonder how you treat your customers if they piss you off.
marilyn 16y ago
Way to toot your own horn. 37prime is clearly quite right about the attention seeking part too.
- hugh3 16y ago
  I think he's allowed to toot his own horn in response to a comment suggesting that he hasn't done anything worthwhile in a decade.
  - marilyn 16y ago
    When the work speaks for itself, no tooting is required.
    - AlexBlom 16y ago
      Whether you support the guy or not you can't put him in a Catch-22. 'You have done nothing' 'I did XYZ' 'Stop promoting yourself. The work should speak for itself' ...
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
theBobMcCormick 16y ago
Blippy? Isn't that the incompetents that just lost of customer credit card numbers and then blew it off like it was no big deal? There's something to be proud of.....
iuguy 16y ago
I'm sure there's more to the story, but you gain nothing by being an arsehole to someone who's put their time and effort into one of your businesses. Even if someone's a grade A walking disaster area, there's more to lose than gain by being shitty with them. Still, your business, your rules.
theBobMcCormick 16y ago
Regardless of what you may have accomplished, your handling if this guys resignation was incredibly immature. You sounded like a petulant 3 year old.