There are a lot of people who come across as assholes in the blogosphere, but could be quite the opposite in person. I think just having a reputation of being

There are a lot of people who come across as assholes in the blogosphere, but could be quite the opposite in person. I think just having a reputation of being an asshole is enough to hurt your chances of working with some companies or people to some degree. Hopefully that is countered by a degree of tenacity and ambition "assholes" tend to have. A good example would be Jason Calcanis. I've never met him in person (though I did come within 5 feet of his office when I interviewed at Mahalo). He comes across as someone I would never want to have dealings with, business or otherwise. Good thing for him I'm just a small fish. But I would probably feel the same way if I were the CEO of a big company looking to buy Mahalo. But I bet Mr. Calcanis wouldn't want to be bought out anyway.