3 ms·

The (original) leadership team is notoriously horrible. Here's a lot of more examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7801084 https://news.ycombinator.c

The (original) leadership team is notoriously horrible. Here's a lot of more examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7801084 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7801084 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7801028 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7801028 https://www.businessinsider.com/rap-genius-cofounder-moghadam-says-he-steals-from-whole-foods-2014-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/rap-genius-cofounder-moghada...

stingrae 5y ago
This video from techcrunch disrupt kind of showed why the original leadership may have had issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo
- rl3 5y ago
  Every time this comes up, people fail to realize that it was a shtick designed to generate hype. Their platform at the time (Rap Genius) primarily catered to annotation of rap and hip-hop lyrics, so (imho) the shtick fit. I dare say was even funny at times, especially when contrast to the tone of most startups back then espousing generic faux-humble feel-good bullshit vibes.
  - stingrae 5y ago
    It was clearly more than a performance given the things that led up to several of the founders getting fired.
rl3 5y ago
I try not to judge the guy too hard, considering: https://www.fastcompany.com/3021564/how-a-brain-tumor-made-the-cofounder-of-rap-genius-rethink-business https://www.fastcompany.com/3021564/how-a-brain-tumor-made-t... https://jewishjournal.com/culture/health/240270/how-a-second-brain-tumor-inspired-mahbod-moghadam-to-change-his-corporate-philosophy/ https://jewishjournal.com/culture/health/240270/how-a-second...
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  > Moghadam says his brain tumor has given a renewed vigor to his community building efforts. “I think this is going to be the ‘Facebook of Cryptocurrency’ – our President Sam Kazemian is known as the ‘Persian Zuck’ – he’s going to make the internet better by giving everyone a cryptocurrency stake.” > Moghadam believes in God and says his two brain tumors give his companies their Jewish, philosophical roots. “Sam (Kazemian) is actually one-sixteenth Jewish and 15/16ths Muslim – he is a special Persian breed. I think knowledge projects and social networks are a lot like the Talmud – we are all using the internet to make people smarter.” Wait... what?
  - rl3 5y ago
    As you can see, he doesn’t take himself seriously—most of the time. What’s more puzzling really is his appearance on Who is America?[0] Everyone of course delighted in portraying Mahbod as a douchebag tech bro who was easily fooled, proceeding vilify him further. At the time that was filmed, he was likely already experiencing his second brain tumor that would require surgical removal just weeks after the air date of the episode. I’ve always been a fan of Sacha, but you’d think they would’ve dug into the dude’s past a bit more before deciding to crucify him. [0] https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a22709637/sacha-baron-cohen-genius-founder-mahbod-moghadam/ https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a22709637/sacha-bar...

stingrae 5y ago

This video from techcrunch disrupt kind of showed why the original leadership may have had issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo

rl3 5y ago
Every time this comes up, people fail to realize that it was a shtick designed to generate hype. Their platform at the time (Rap Genius) primarily catered to annotation of rap and hip-hop lyrics, so (imho) the shtick fit. I dare say was even funny at times, especially when contrast to the tone of most startups back then espousing generic faux-humble feel-good bullshit vibes.
- stingrae 5y ago
  It was clearly more than a performance given the things that led up to several of the founders getting fired.

rl3 5y ago

I try not to judge the guy too hard, considering: https://www.fastcompany.com/3021564/how-a-brain-tumor-made-the-cofounder-of-rap-genius-rethink-business https://www.fastcompany.com/3021564/how-a-brain-tumor-made-t... https://jewishjournal.com/culture/health/240270/how-a-second-brain-tumor-inspired-mahbod-moghadam-to-change-his-corporate-philosophy/ https://jewishjournal.com/culture/health/240270/how-a-second...

jrochkind1 5y ago
> Moghadam says his brain tumor has given a renewed vigor to his community building efforts. “I think this is going to be the ‘Facebook of Cryptocurrency’ – our President Sam Kazemian is known as the ‘Persian Zuck’ – he’s going to make the internet better by giving everyone a cryptocurrency stake.” > Moghadam believes in God and says his two brain tumors give his companies their Jewish, philosophical roots. “Sam (Kazemian) is actually one-sixteenth Jewish and 15/16ths Muslim – he is a special Persian breed. I think knowledge projects and social networks are a lot like the Talmud – we are all using the internet to make people smarter.” Wait... what?
- rl3 5y ago
  As you can see, he doesn’t take himself seriously—most of the time. What’s more puzzling really is his appearance on Who is America?[0] Everyone of course delighted in portraying Mahbod as a douchebag tech bro who was easily fooled, proceeding vilify him further. At the time that was filmed, he was likely already experiencing his second brain tumor that would require surgical removal just weeks after the air date of the episode. I’ve always been a fan of Sacha, but you’d think they would’ve dug into the dude’s past a bit more before deciding to crucify him. [0] https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a22709637/sacha-baron-cohen-genius-founder-mahbod-moghadam/ https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a22709637/sacha-bar...