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Color Labs Chief Product Officer DJ Patil Resigns

35 points by bjonathan 15y ago

pwthornton 15y ago
Is anyone here surprised? I downloaded the app -- like a fool -- and tried it for a day. It wasn't clear at first that my photos were public to everyone. Beyond that, no one had photos within my geographic area. It was the worst social networking experience of my life. Once I realized that it was just a scam to take as much of my personal information as possible without giving me anything of value back, I deleted the app.
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  What personal information?
  - waterside81 15y ago
    I believe their idea was to take as much info as possible from the image's metadata to construct a profile of who you are and then presumably target ads to you? Not sure what the rest was.
- sp332 15y ago
  I never had a chance to use it for its intended purpose, but abusing it seems like more fun. On Android, you can change the settings to allow "mock locations", then use a location spoofer app to put yourself "at" Times Square, then see all the photos from people using Color there. Trolling would be really easy as well, but I haven't tried that yet :)
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  "Is anyone here surprised?" Yes, somewhat. You have to believe really hard in something to do it as a startup. There are way more haters than their are believers in the usual case. So I would expect the executive ranks to be 'fanatics' in the sense that they have to believe hard enough to execute through to the complete vision. Once you've gotten there and the world decides they were right and you were wrong, then you go and try something else. So having someone as senior as the chief product officer step out at this point is surprising to me. That being said, Color may be the latest example of the adage 'Don't take too much money.' Brief digression. I once had an employee that wanted a promotion. I asked them (as I do anyone who asks me this question), what aspect of the promotion were they seeking? Was it more money? more responsibility? more influence over the decisions? And usually, yes, its one or all of those things. Then I ask if they are ready to be judged based on how well the project is going, or whether or not the right decision was made, or when the project had an unexpected side effect? That's really the rub isn't it? When a project turns out to be a turd, you fire the person who is 'running' it. So if you're willing to operate at that level then it makes sense to be promoted. Startups are kind of the same way, in that money is the arbiter of impact/change. You take a $1M investment, create a product and are aquired for $50M that is a huge "win", but take $41M in investment and get acquired for $50M and you're a 'loser'. A good rule of thumb is "can I create 10x the value with this investment?" if not then someone is going to be disappointed down the road. Color took a huge gamble when they took $41M in funding. That puts a lot of pressure on the founding team to develop clear value in the $300 - $500M range. Doing that is a really hard problem. If it were easy we'd all be bazillionaires.
  - VladRussian 15y ago
    > You take a $1M investment, create a product and are aquired for $50M that is a huge "win", if we consider that "take $41M in investment" as a win, it may explain the high-level departures (depends on the treatment their stock/options get on departure)
    - ChuckMcM 15y ago
      I'm not sure I follow you Vlad. If the senior execs have stock and leave, and it becomes worthless they lose. If the senior execs got part of that $41M funding round and left with it, then that's at least unethical. I don't think that was the case.[1] So being able to raise $41M is a tremendous vote of confidence and it brings with it really high expectations. [1] Anytime management pockets some of the funding round it gets a lot of press. See the GroupOn later rounds. There was also another startup reported here where the founders chose to take a 'liquidity event' as part of the funding and were roundly criticized, but I can't find it now.
      - VladRussian 15y ago
        >If the senior execs have stock and leave, and it becomes worthless they lose. it doesn't necessary become worthless. It is just may be not liquid [enough], ie. may be sold only back to company or the other owners. The valuation it may be sold back at may be of Skype-type, ie. no profit, or at the current valuation.
  - protomyth 15y ago
    > That being said, Color may be the latest example of the adage 'Don't take too much money.' I am really not sure it is the money with Color. It really seems like they got this idea for a service that actually only makes sense in a very limited part of life. Maybe the money will allow them to hold on to get their intended biz model off the ground, but it just seems like they picked a set of rules that make it of limited use.
palish 15y ago
Color should just cut their losses and build something completely different.
aaronbrethorst 15y ago
I opened up Color on my iPhone just now for the first time since April...only to discover that there were literally no new photos since the last time I had opened it. And this is in the most densely-populated neighborhood in Seattle. I'm sure most areas of the country still have nothing in them.
Aloisius 15y ago
I've been wondering when their investors will ask them to return what money they haven't spent...

35 points by bjonathan 15y ago

Is anyone here surprised? I downloaded the app -- like a fool -- and tried it for a day. It wasn't clear at first that my photos were public to everyone. Beyond that, no one had photos within my geographic area. It was the worst social networking experience of my life. Once I realized that it was just a scam to take as much of my personal information as possible without giving me anything of value back, I deleted the app.

ry0ohki 15y ago
What personal information?
- waterside81 15y ago
  I believe their idea was to take as much info as possible from the image's metadata to construct a profile of who you are and then presumably target ads to you? Not sure what the rest was.
sp332 15y ago
I never had a chance to use it for its intended purpose, but abusing it seems like more fun. On Android, you can change the settings to allow "mock locations", then use a location spoofer app to put yourself "at" Times Square, then see all the photos from people using Color there. Trolling would be really easy as well, but I haven't tried that yet :)
ChuckMcM 15y ago
"Is anyone here surprised?" Yes, somewhat. You have to believe really hard in something to do it as a startup. There are way more haters than their are believers in the usual case. So I would expect the executive ranks to be 'fanatics' in the sense that they have to believe hard enough to execute through to the complete vision. Once you've gotten there and the world decides they were right and you were wrong, then you go and try something else. So having someone as senior as the chief product officer step out at this point is surprising to me. That being said, Color may be the latest example of the adage 'Don't take too much money.' Brief digression. I once had an employee that wanted a promotion. I asked them (as I do anyone who asks me this question), what aspect of the promotion were they seeking? Was it more money? more responsibility? more influence over the decisions? And usually, yes, its one or all of those things. Then I ask if they are ready to be judged based on how well the project is going, or whether or not the right decision was made, or when the project had an unexpected side effect? That's really the rub isn't it? When a project turns out to be a turd, you fire the person who is 'running' it. So if you're willing to operate at that level then it makes sense to be promoted. Startups are kind of the same way, in that money is the arbiter of impact/change. You take a $1M investment, create a product and are aquired for $50M that is a huge "win", but take $41M in investment and get acquired for $50M and you're a 'loser'. A good rule of thumb is "can I create 10x the value with this investment?" if not then someone is going to be disappointed down the road. Color took a huge gamble when they took $41M in funding. That puts a lot of pressure on the founding team to develop clear value in the $300 - $500M range. Doing that is a really hard problem. If it were easy we'd all be bazillionaires.
- VladRussian 15y ago
  > You take a $1M investment, create a product and are aquired for $50M that is a huge "win", if we consider that "take $41M in investment" as a win, it may explain the high-level departures (depends on the treatment their stock/options get on departure)
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    I'm not sure I follow you Vlad. If the senior execs have stock and leave, and it becomes worthless they lose. If the senior execs got part of that $41M funding round and left with it, then that's at least unethical. I don't think that was the case.[1] So being able to raise $41M is a tremendous vote of confidence and it brings with it really high expectations. [1] Anytime management pockets some of the funding round it gets a lot of press. See the GroupOn later rounds. There was also another startup reported here where the founders chose to take a 'liquidity event' as part of the funding and were roundly criticized, but I can't find it now.
    - VladRussian 15y ago
      >If the senior execs have stock and leave, and it becomes worthless they lose. it doesn't necessary become worthless. It is just may be not liquid [enough], ie. may be sold only back to company or the other owners. The valuation it may be sold back at may be of Skype-type, ie. no profit, or at the current valuation.
- protomyth 15y ago
  > That being said, Color may be the latest example of the adage 'Don't take too much money.' I am really not sure it is the money with Color. It really seems like they got this idea for a service that actually only makes sense in a very limited part of life. Maybe the money will allow them to hold on to get their intended biz model off the ground, but it just seems like they picked a set of rules that make it of limited use.

palish 15y ago

Color should just cut their losses and build something completely different.

aaronbrethorst 15y ago

I opened up Color on my iPhone just now for the first time since April...only to discover that there were literally no new photos since the last time I had opened it. And this is in the most densely-populated neighborhood in Seattle. I'm sure most areas of the country still have nothing in them.

Aloisius 15y ago

I've been wondering when their investors will ask them to return what money they haven't spent...