9 ms·

TechStars, Lies & Videotape

234 points by PStamatiou 15y ago

garbowza 15y ago
This seems so obvious in hindsight. Despite "The Social Network"-generated interest, startups are simply too boring to make for great ratings without some manufactured drama. I feel for those who applied to TechStars NY, not knowing about the circus they were getting into. Startups are hard enough without additional, external distractions.
- jswinghammer 15y ago
  I would find a show about start-ups without drama interesting. There are reality shows that seem to be fairly drama free like "19 and counting" (so I'm told anyway). I honestly feel like the producers of the show weren't giving the audience enough credit and just made up normal reality show nonsense.
  - robryan 15y ago
    If they are targeting those interested in startups and not just the lastest trashy reality show they would be much better served doing it documentary style. It's something I would gladly pay a fair amount to watch, following the ups and downs on young startups in a level headed and unbiased way. I think another good setting for this would be a coworking space, I know techstars is essentially that but at a regular coworking space you get a heap of diversity in what people are doing which adds interest.
    - melanie_io 15y ago
      Check out The Founders series mentioned above - it is fantastic.
- DanielRibeiro 15y ago
  The original videos were really interesting. The original url is out[1], but google is your friend[2], so you can find them out[3], and even a few ones on youtube[4]. It even got an Emmy[5]! Edit: Vimeo still got them all: http://vimeo.com/13484895 http://vimeo.com/13484895 [1] http://www.techstars.com/thefounders http://www.techstars.com/thefounders [2] http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.techstars.com%20thefounders http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.techstars.com%20thef... [3] http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-episode-5-and-6/ http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-episode-5-and-6/ [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsKKNYAQpnQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsKKNYAQpnQ [5] http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-wins-a-heartland-emmy/ http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-wins-a-heartland-emmy/
jswinghammer 15y ago
This doesn't surprise me considering how it's clear they were trying to play up the drama angle in some of the other startups on the show. I honestly thought after seeing it that she was starting a Groupon like thing for fashion and found that it didn't work. That LinkedIn thing was particularly weird too. It's good that she wrote this because the show sort of made her look foolish.
- rokhayakebe 15y ago
  They do paint her as a clueless girl when in fact reading her posts suggest the very opposite.
  - epnk 15y ago
    As Melanie's co-founder for ToVieFor, it's true that they painted her in a bad light. She's super intelligent and very very good at grabbing onto a vision and propelling it forward. She may have hung on too tight to that vision at times, but I'd take that any day over a co-founder who was aimless and did not know what they wanted. We were up against a very difficult, entrenched industry, and she made as good of progress as I could expect any new entrepreneur to make. I too am a bit disappointed in Bloomberg. The fact of the matter is that you have a lot of strong, driven entrepreneurs in the same program, and while some of what you saw is accurate, Bloomberg really made an effort to polarize and make extreme the various personality types. Reece does not always talk about sports or use athlete analogies. Jason Baptiste doesn't walk around constantly saying he'll own the internet (although if you prod him for it, he'll probably say it), and Melanie is not clueless. I'm super excited for her current startup, she definitely shows more wisdom in leaner methodologies. In short, TechStars++, Bloomberg--.
    - melanie_io 15y ago
      Thank you Eric.
badclient 15y ago
This actually reflects poorly on TechStars that they gave so much access to a media source without proper negotiaion and/or enforcement. To the OP I say "what did you expect?". If you are not versed with the media and yet agree on giving them hours and hours of access, you will get some twisted final product more times than not. Also why PR firms still exist.
- melanie_io 15y ago
  You are right - this is exactly what I DID expect would happen - even though it was sold to us as a documentary on a business channel. Unfortunately, every company in our TechStars class was forced to participate. So, the decision for all of us was: drop out of TechStars or do the show.
  - dannyr 15y ago
    Melanie, Props to you for showing up at the reunion show despite how you were portrayed. I guess that last show was part of the contract too right?
    - melanie_io 15y ago
      I did not have to show up last night. But I also did not want Bloomberg to be able to guide / direct the last word on ToVieFor. In addition, Tisch and Cohen fought VERY hard to make sure the finale episode was positive, which I knew ahead of time. They felt just as disappointed and betrayed by Bloomberg as I.
      - dpe82 15y ago
        We've been working hard on our application to TS Cloud and this story gave me reason to pause. When the series started I was super excited - I hoped it would be a real look into the program we hope to go through. After the second episode it became obvious it was all about the drama. I watched the rest of the series, but by the end I was pretty confused by the whole thing. Shame on Bloomberg.
pedalpete 15y ago
Do people here think TechStars is somewhat to blame in this? they are the ones who are running the incubator and hosting the companies. Why would they bring in this sort of outside factor into an already challenging environment. If they were unaware of how the show would turn out, I suspect all they needed to do was speak to reality tv producers (other than those who produced this show), and they would have been told about the story writers, story developers, etc. etc.
- staunch 15y ago
  I'm sure YC has been asked to participate in this kind of thing and they've declined. After watching this show, it's clear that they showed good judgment. I do think there's room to do a quality documentary on YC or TechStars, but the dramatic reality show format is inherently crap.
  - awfycooper 15y ago
    This wouldn't work in the YC environment since people don't actually work at YC's offices. The startups just meet every Tuesday for a group dinner then outside of that will only appear at the YC office if they have office hours booked with one of the partners.
    - ElevenElOwl 15y ago
      I think that YC would be better for something about Startups and less about drama and entertainment. I always liked the importance of space that YC has, and that people don't work in an incubator environment. I would think you could make a quality documentary that doesn't have that reality show flare.
  - rglover 15y ago
    I agree that a documentary would be cool, but I'd be hesitant to say that it would need to be produced under the guise of a network or other professional organization. If anything, I'd love to see a glued together collection of videos from the founders, pg, and the rest of the team (sort of like pg's post not too long ago of pictures of the early days of YC). It doesn't have to be produced to be entertaining and the story wouldn't need to be written (it would simply be the YC companies going through the experience).
genieyclo 15y ago
Speaking of Bravo, they're looking for people to be in their new Silicon Valley reality TV show, I submitted a story about it a week ago: http://www.psfk.com/2011/10/bravo-seeking-young-professionals-for-silicon-valley-reality-show.html http://www.psfk.com/2011/10/bravo-seeking-young-professional...
drags 15y ago
It's possible to make "process" and "strategy" interesting without twisting facts: "The War Room" is a great example. It's unfortunate that the producers of this series weren't up to the task.
veyron 15y ago
Bloomberg in general is terrible. From the financial side, they leak information to others, so the rule of thumb is to never talk to them unless you are absolutely desperate to raise monies.
- wensing 15y ago
  I agree they messed up here, but Bloomberg in general is amazing. The terminal is invincible, the news network is the best on television (have you seen their interview with pg or their feature on Elon Musk?), their revenues are insanely great. On what evidence are you basing this "leak info" rumor?
  - veyron 15y ago
    I'm not arguing about bloomberg the terminal. I and many of my other friends in trading have had conversations with really chatty Bloomberg reps who wantonly leak information. In particular one rep mentioned by name that I was a customer when discussing smaller firms using Bloomberg :/
    - apaprocki 15y ago
      Did you complain? If you're interested, email me (profile).
      - veyron 15y ago
        I don't see an email in your profile ...
        apaprocki 15y ago
        Sorry, updated it so it is in about: now.
  - gsiener 15y ago
    I randomly saw that feature on Elon and was blown away by both his story and the piece. I thought it was great.
swanson 15y ago
I was aware that stuff was probably being edited and I think Melanie and Jason Baptiste got an unfair shake. If I am reading this blog post correctly: the production crew spliced together two unrelated bits of audio ("LinkedIn for fashion") and then played it off like it was actually said? And that it was the new pivot for the company? That's messed up.
- melanie_io 15y ago
  No, they literally just made it up, and paid a narrator to do a voice-over.
  - swanson 15y ago
    Yikes - that's even worse...
- jasonlbaptiste 15y ago
  the "LinkedIn for fashion" was a retarded move on bloomberg's part. I was there when Melanie was contemplating that pivot. It was more like salesforce for fashion aka a SaaS tool to help the fashion world.
chrislloyd 15y ago
This American Life's "Gossip" episode had a story from someone working on a reality TV show. TL;DR Everything is staged and drama is fabricated if it doesn't exist. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/444/gossip?act=2 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/444/g...
- hncommenter13 15y ago
  I don't doubt that you're correct overall that everything on "reality" shows is staged: my neighbor was on a dating reality show on national tv and lots of it was fake. Just for the record, though, as a huge fan of TAL, their site describes that story as based on a work of fiction.
mixmax 15y ago
Well, that's showbusiness for you. I have friends in media and showbusiness, so I've seen these things from behind the scenes, and have a good feel for the dynamics. Media is about getting customers just like any other company, and their product is stories. They try to make these stories as appealing as possible, just like any other company tries to make the product their customers want.Truth plays second fiddle to a good story. Oftentimes we think the media is engaged in a search for truth, justice and a real portrayal of how things work, but unfortunately that's not the how it is. They are there to sell you entertainment, and if the truth isn't sexy enough they'll pimp it up until it is. That's how it works. On a broader note this is a huge problem for democracy - what we believe to be a guard against lies, bad politics and corruption is in reality just entertainment created by for-profit corporations with no interest in keeping a government honest or multinational corporations on the right side of the law. It's about business. Big business.
- curiouskat 15y ago
  I wonder how much this quest for storylines has seeped into professional sports. It seems like more and more the NBA and NFL are manufacturing/assisting storylines rather than concerning themselves with the purity of competition.
  - brc 15y ago
    It's probably bottom-up driven rather than top-down. The sports players see the trappings of notoriety (endorsements, media profiles, etc) which can mean, in some cases, bigger earnings than actually winning in the sport. Being merely good enough and having a big public persona can bring very good rewards. It's all part of the current celebrity mania that has engulfed society. All you need is a hook to get into gossip magazines - once there, you can leverage yourself as much as you like, whether that is photo opportunities with orphans or passing out in front of nightclubs. I think the second-tier sports players would find that mightily attractive, because it's certainly harder to keep winning at the sport you're playing.
    - curiouskat 15y ago
zach 15y ago
Here's a cached version since the Wordpress database has gone south: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:melanie.io/&strip=1 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:melanie... Just as true here as elsewhere: if you're not a customer, you're probably the product. Being someone else's content can suck.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
redrory 15y ago
Site is down Cache : http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q8QO-LXmhBgJ:melanie.io/%3Fp%3D258+http://melanie.io/%3Fp%3D258&hl=en&gl=jm&strip=1 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q8QO-LX...
jasonlbaptiste 15y ago
Seems to be a lot of assumptions going around. Let me clarify anything you want to know. AMA.
- il 15y ago
  It seemed as if you were typecast as the villain/arrogant/guy-you-love-to-hate reality show archetype. Did you expect this during filming? Did the producers try to steer you into behaving in a certain way?
  - jasonlbaptiste 15y ago
    We knew how to handle certain questions. There was a lot of liberty with editing. In real life, I'm an aggressive, confident, and quirky person. I'm also quite nice :).
reecepacheco 15y ago
disclaimer: techstars founder here... while the finished product that Bloomberg aired is not the most amazing piece of journalism i've ever seen, i don't think TechStars is to blame for that. the TechStars ethos is to be open and encourage entrepreneurship. to this end, TechStars asked us if we were ok with putting ourselves out there to the world and we all agreed to it before the program started. at the end of the day, 10/11 companies got funded, a few are driving great revenues already and all are on track to build great companies... it's hard to argue with that. and if anyone out there learns from what we went through on the show, or is excited by startups or encouraged to go start/join a startup... then the show is a success.
- deepkut 15y ago
  So, you believe the ends justify the means, and I couldn't disagree more. TS is respectable, but this show is a bastardization and misrepresentation of startups and more importantly, those behind them. However, this comes at no surprise... 'Reality shows' tend to screw everyone's perception of true 'reality.' Ironic.
  - reecepacheco 15y ago
    never said 'the ends justify the means' while i agree that the show is not all-inclusive of the complexity of startups, i think it's funny how much noise is made about the show itself, when the good news is people are excited about startups enough to 1. make a show and 2. to watch it some of us are going to succeed and some of us are going to fail... some publicly, some not so publicly TechStars chose, and we agreed, to doing this in the public eye
- 0x12 15y ago
  Techstars founder? You mean 'founder of a business that is funded by techstars' I presume?
  - reecepacheco 15y ago
    yes. sorry
TWSS 15y ago
Holy shit. I'm in a tech incubator now (http://www.piepdx.com http://www.piepdx.com) and this sounds nightmarish to me. To be frank, I hadn't been following the show all that closely, but I can't even imagine the added stress of having cameras around filming me with my co-founders. Melanie, I'm really glad you called bullshit. Keep rocking.
nl 15y ago
If it is any consolation, I've enjoyed the series. I can understand how her portrayal would upset Melanie, but I thought she came across as enthusiastic and polished. Also, ToVieFor is a great name!
- geedot 15y ago
  +1 I actually found the shows entertaining. Then again I feel I'm competent enough to understand the difference between the bits that were added for drama and the bits covering the real startup process. Speaking of which, chracterisations aside, I feel the show did a good job of explaining the highs and lows of the startup process to non-startup people I.e. it's not all about ripping an idea off a couple of brothers, building a site in a night, serendipitously running into a former tech startup superstar who helps you rip off your friends before creating a multi-billion dollar business, all while wearing a hoodie with secret symbols sewn into the lining and wearing flip flops. Just sayin...
joshfraser 15y ago
As a TechStars alum, I can say that this show painted a very distorted view of the real TechStars program. The drama was fabricated by Bloomberg because that's what makes good TV. Don't let this show ruin your view of TechStars. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up regretting doing this show, but of course, hindsight is 20/20. It would have been hard for me to turn down that amount of national exposure too.
- melanie_io 15y ago
  I agree. I think TechStars had nothing but the best of intentions, and they were sold a bill of goods from Bloomberg that the show would be a documentary. I think this is why they were so adamant about each company participating: because they honestly believed the exposure would be good for our companies.
  - abbasmehdi 15y ago
    But still, forcing companies to do something or drop out? That is not how an accelerator should treat its companies, like they were your bosses. The only boss a startup should have is its customers, and now TS, due to its poor judgement has done the opposite of what it was meant to do. Not only do they make poor calls, but they also bulley founders?
peteforde 15y ago
While I'm empathetic towards the founders who got the short sticks on this episode, I just watched episode three (having not been aware of the show before reading this post) and it was exactly what I'd expect a show like this to be. If an incubator gave me an ultimatum like "reality documentary or hit the curb" I'd run the other way as quickly as possible. Melanie might be strong and brilliant, but there's real live footage here of her being unrealistic, ineloquent and covering for a weak business model (in which she appears to have zero unfair advantage) by hiding behind a claim that "developers just don't get fashion". This show might be trash but her responses to medium-hard questions about her business model don't suggest CEO DNA. I've never met a competent CEO that says "like" constantly and says what they think VCs want to hear.
- ysilver 15y ago
  This isn't a fair criticism in my opinion. Anybody who has a camera in their face all day can be made to look stupid. That even goes for the most practiced politicians. Even the best first time start-up CEO's require hundreds of run-throughs to get their story polished. TechStars exists in large part to give entrepreneurs this opportunity to practice.
  - ohashi 15y ago
    It just seems unfortunate that the practice which they are supposed to be doing is filmed, edited and put in front of people in perhaps the worst light possible to tell the story someone else wants to tell.
    - ysilver 15y ago
      I just saw this comment. Very well stated!
  - eavc 15y ago
    With a commitment to deceptive editing, even award-winning films and famous, eloquent speeches can be made to seem stupid.
revorad 15y ago
It's nice that the startup founders are defending Techstars, but as a potential applicant, this whole thing does raise red flags for me. Doing a startup is hard enough with your personal emotional ups and downs. To add a reality tv show to that just seems like the worst idea ever. Maybe it's good for media startups to get as much press as possible, good or bad. But this blog post seems to suggest otherwise. If the people running Techstars really got fooled by Bloomberg, then how can I trust these people about giving good startup advice? The title of this blog post doesn't help. Why isn't it Bloomberg, lies and videotape?
JonnieCache 15y ago
Not wishing to be rude to any of the participants, but what were you expecting? You have seen television, right? If you're clever enough to run a startup then the editing tricks and other manipulation should be pretty transparant. I suppose in that situation the publicity is very hard to turn down. Hopefully lessons have been learned.
robjohnson 15y ago
This is the worst kind of marketing for tech stars. I wonder how many people who held them high esteem are seriously questioning any motivations of attending.
megamark16 15y ago
When they showed the scene where that one guy admitted to embezzlement I thought "wow, that's intense." Now I know that the participants were told that none of the audio from their private mentor meetings would be used. They thought they were having a private discussion about a team members hardships. Talk about lost trust, sheesh.
leemhoffman 15y ago
Hey we were in the TechStars NYC class and in the TV show (Veri). I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but TechStars was the best thing to ever happen to us. We came in with a prototype and in three months had a product, traction, funding, and a great network of mentors to help us. We couldn't have done this without them. Regardless of how people feel about the idea of a TV show, I'm very grateful to TechStars for everything they've done and I think any TechStars CEO would say the same. - Lee Hoffman (CEO, VERI)
- bomatson 15y ago
  Sounds like a press release from a corporate CEO. Either way - Dope pivot w/ Veri, Lee
  - leemhoffman 15y ago
    Thanks Bobby (re: pivot), TechStars has been amazing for us, just thought people should know.
- shanedanger 15y ago
  We're a TechStars NYC class this year (Contently), and the program has been an amazing experience. Harvard has good and bad students; YC turns out great companies and duds alike (though not very often, for sure!). I'm sad that Melanie had a bad experience, but TBH it wasn't for lack of support in the program, or for lack of amazing mentors and networking experiences. Reality TV is a pretty bogus misrepresentation of actual reality, anyway. I'm glad they didn't film our class!
  - melanie_io 15y ago
    TechStars is an absolutely amazing program, and we had a fantastic experience. I could not be more complementary of the program itself. My post was only commenting on the TV show, and trying to clear up some events that were portrayed by Bloomberg.
- reecepacheco 15y ago
  i wrote this on another thread last night: disclaimer: TechStar alum from NYC Winter '11 here... while the finished product that Bloomberg aired is not the most amazing piece of journalism i've ever seen, i don't think TechStars is to blame for that. the TechStars ethos is to be open and encourage entrepreneurship. to this end, TechStars asked us if we were ok with putting ourselves out there to the world and we all agreed to it before the program started. at the end of the day, 10/11 companies got funded, a few are driving great revenues already and all are on track to build great companies... it's hard to argue with that. and if anyone out there learns from what we went through on the show, or is excited by startups or encouraged to go start/join a startup... then the show is a success.
softwaregravy 15y ago
We were in that class of TechStars (ThinkNear). Not featured in the show -- though in retrospect it makes sense given what they were going for. They had a lot of footage they left on the cutting room floor, and I guess we were just too heads down to be very interesting. My cofounder and I also get along quite well, so we had very little drama to bring to the table. I recommend the TechStars program to anyone, without any reservation whatsoever. It was really awesome for us. We started basically at zero, along with Lee (Veri), and another team not featured (who's now FourSquareAndSevenYearsAgo). We came out much stronger at the end than we could have been without TechStars with an awesome network, some great mentors, and were able to raise a bit over $1.6. Tisch and Cohen are awesome. Seriously, don't let the show sour you at all on the program. Some companies will have drama early on, and the show really played it up.
asignorini 15y ago
Hello everyone, this is Alessio Signorini (@a_signorini), CTO and co-founder of Immersive Labs, which was one of the companies on the show. At our final interviews to get into the program, they told us that we were accepted before telling us about the show. They actually asked us "would you mind being part of a documentary on your experience filmed by Bloomberg?". We didn't mind. I did not feel it was forced on us. They asked politely, and we agreed enthusiastically. We really wanted to be in TechStars. TechStars was a great experience for me. I lived/worked for 4 months, 20 hours a day, shoulder-to-shoulder with 40 among the brightest people you can find in the US which now become my closest friend. It did not matter what we were doing or where, we were all helping each other succeed, sharing experiences, contacts, reviewing pitches, etc. And even now, 6 months later, we still speak often and have tons of fun every time we see each other. It's a family. But that's not all, TechStars allowed us to meet and bond with dozens of the greatest and smartest investors and CEOs of the United States. They helped us, coached us, and pushed us to the our best at all time. And even now that the show is over, they are reaching out, helping out, and creating connections for us. It is great. Simply great. We really all feel part of a big group which I am sure will last forever. Having the cameras around during the program was actually fun, at least for me. The crews became friends and it was normal to have them around. They did not change a bit what we were doing and how: they did not tell us what to say, they did not create drama, they did not ask gotcha-questions. Of course, compressing 5000 hours of video in less than 2 hours of show forced them to do some liberal editing. And I am sure that lots of things changed at Bloomberg between January and last Tuesday. They had to focus on 6 companies instead of 11, pick some characters instead of the teams, and reduce hours of meetings into a few seconds. Melanie is great and is already running with a new idea. The show did not portray her that way. Too bad. Same thing for the meeting with my co-founder, they should have skipped the money troubles of Jason, it did not help anybody. But that's show-business I guess, and since everything during the program went so smooth and it was so positive, they probably had to focus on those two moments to create a bit of drama, which, given the amount of "reality" on TV nowadays, seem to be necessary. I highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly... :) recommend submitting your application to TechStars and do your best to be accepted into the program. It may just be the best thing you do after coming up with the idea for your company.

234 points by PStamatiou 15y ago

This seems so obvious in hindsight. Despite "The Social Network"-generated interest, startups are simply too boring to make for great ratings without some manufactured drama. I feel for those who applied to TechStars NY, not knowing about the circus they were getting into. Startups are hard enough without additional, external distractions.

jswinghammer 15y ago
I would find a show about start-ups without drama interesting. There are reality shows that seem to be fairly drama free like "19 and counting" (so I'm told anyway). I honestly feel like the producers of the show weren't giving the audience enough credit and just made up normal reality show nonsense.
- robryan 15y ago
  If they are targeting those interested in startups and not just the lastest trashy reality show they would be much better served doing it documentary style. It's something I would gladly pay a fair amount to watch, following the ups and downs on young startups in a level headed and unbiased way. I think another good setting for this would be a coworking space, I know techstars is essentially that but at a regular coworking space you get a heap of diversity in what people are doing which adds interest.
  - melanie_io 15y ago
    Check out The Founders series mentioned above - it is fantastic.
DanielRibeiro 15y ago
The original videos were really interesting. The original url is out[1], but google is your friend[2], so you can find them out[3], and even a few ones on youtube[4]. It even got an Emmy[5]! Edit: Vimeo still got them all: http://vimeo.com/13484895 http://vimeo.com/13484895 [1] http://www.techstars.com/thefounders http://www.techstars.com/thefounders [2] http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.techstars.com%20thefounders http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.techstars.com%20thef... [3] http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-episode-5-and-6/ http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-episode-5-and-6/ [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsKKNYAQpnQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsKKNYAQpnQ [5] http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-wins-a-heartland-emmy/ http://www.techstars.com/the-founders-wins-a-heartland-emmy/

jswinghammer 15y ago

This doesn't surprise me considering how it's clear they were trying to play up the drama angle in some of the other startups on the show. I honestly thought after seeing it that she was starting a Groupon like thing for fashion and found that it didn't work. That LinkedIn thing was particularly weird too. It's good that she wrote this because the show sort of made her look foolish.

rokhayakebe 15y ago
They do paint her as a clueless girl when in fact reading her posts suggest the very opposite.
- epnk 15y ago
  As Melanie's co-founder for ToVieFor, it's true that they painted her in a bad light. She's super intelligent and very very good at grabbing onto a vision and propelling it forward. She may have hung on too tight to that vision at times, but I'd take that any day over a co-founder who was aimless and did not know what they wanted. We were up against a very difficult, entrenched industry, and she made as good of progress as I could expect any new entrepreneur to make. I too am a bit disappointed in Bloomberg. The fact of the matter is that you have a lot of strong, driven entrepreneurs in the same program, and while some of what you saw is accurate, Bloomberg really made an effort to polarize and make extreme the various personality types. Reece does not always talk about sports or use athlete analogies. Jason Baptiste doesn't walk around constantly saying he'll own the internet (although if you prod him for it, he'll probably say it), and Melanie is not clueless. I'm super excited for her current startup, she definitely shows more wisdom in leaner methodologies. In short, TechStars++, Bloomberg--.
  - melanie_io 15y ago
    Thank you Eric.

badclient 15y ago

This actually reflects poorly on TechStars that they gave so much access to a media source without proper negotiaion and/or enforcement. To the OP I say "what did you expect?". If you are not versed with the media and yet agree on giving them hours and hours of access, you will get some twisted final product more times than not. Also why PR firms still exist.

melanie_io 15y ago
You are right - this is exactly what I DID expect would happen - even though it was sold to us as a documentary on a business channel. Unfortunately, every company in our TechStars class was forced to participate. So, the decision for all of us was: drop out of TechStars or do the show.
- dannyr 15y ago
  Melanie, Props to you for showing up at the reunion show despite how you were portrayed. I guess that last show was part of the contract too right?
  - melanie_io 15y ago
    I did not have to show up last night. But I also did not want Bloomberg to be able to guide / direct the last word on ToVieFor. In addition, Tisch and Cohen fought VERY hard to make sure the finale episode was positive, which I knew ahead of time. They felt just as disappointed and betrayed by Bloomberg as I.
    - dpe82 15y ago
      We've been working hard on our application to TS Cloud and this story gave me reason to pause. When the series started I was super excited - I hoped it would be a real look into the program we hope to go through. After the second episode it became obvious it was all about the drama. I watched the rest of the series, but by the end I was pretty confused by the whole thing. Shame on Bloomberg.

pedalpete 15y ago

Do people here think TechStars is somewhat to blame in this? they are the ones who are running the incubator and hosting the companies. Why would they bring in this sort of outside factor into an already challenging environment. If they were unaware of how the show would turn out, I suspect all they needed to do was speak to reality tv producers (other than those who produced this show), and they would have been told about the story writers, story developers, etc. etc.

staunch 15y ago
I'm sure YC has been asked to participate in this kind of thing and they've declined. After watching this show, it's clear that they showed good judgment. I do think there's room to do a quality documentary on YC or TechStars, but the dramatic reality show format is inherently crap.
- awfycooper 15y ago
  This wouldn't work in the YC environment since people don't actually work at YC's offices. The startups just meet every Tuesday for a group dinner then outside of that will only appear at the YC office if they have office hours booked with one of the partners.
  - ElevenElOwl 15y ago
    I think that YC would be better for something about Startups and less about drama and entertainment. I always liked the importance of space that YC has, and that people don't work in an incubator environment. I would think you could make a quality documentary that doesn't have that reality show flare.
- rglover 15y ago
  I agree that a documentary would be cool, but I'd be hesitant to say that it would need to be produced under the guise of a network or other professional organization. If anything, I'd love to see a glued together collection of videos from the founders, pg, and the rest of the team (sort of like pg's post not too long ago of pictures of the early days of YC). It doesn't have to be produced to be entertaining and the story wouldn't need to be written (it would simply be the YC companies going through the experience).

genieyclo 15y ago

Speaking of Bravo, they're looking for people to be in their new Silicon Valley reality TV show, I submitted a story about it a week ago: http://www.psfk.com/2011/10/bravo-seeking-young-professionals-for-silicon-valley-reality-show.html http://www.psfk.com/2011/10/bravo-seeking-young-professional...

drags 15y ago

It's possible to make "process" and "strategy" interesting without twisting facts: "The War Room" is a great example. It's unfortunate that the producers of this series weren't up to the task.

veyron 15y ago

Bloomberg in general is terrible. From the financial side, they leak information to others, so the rule of thumb is to never talk to them unless you are absolutely desperate to raise monies.

wensing 15y ago
I agree they messed up here, but Bloomberg in general is amazing. The terminal is invincible, the news network is the best on television (have you seen their interview with pg or their feature on Elon Musk?), their revenues are insanely great. On what evidence are you basing this "leak info" rumor?
- veyron 15y ago
  I'm not arguing about bloomberg the terminal. I and many of my other friends in trading have had conversations with really chatty Bloomberg reps who wantonly leak information. In particular one rep mentioned by name that I was a customer when discussing smaller firms using Bloomberg :/
  - apaprocki 15y ago
    Did you complain? If you're interested, email me (profile).
    - veyron 15y ago
      I don't see an email in your profile ...
      - apaprocki 15y ago
        Sorry, updated it so it is in about: now.
- gsiener 15y ago
  I randomly saw that feature on Elon and was blown away by both his story and the piece. I thought it was great.

swanson 15y ago

I was aware that stuff was probably being edited and I think Melanie and Jason Baptiste got an unfair shake. If I am reading this blog post correctly: the production crew spliced together two unrelated bits of audio ("LinkedIn for fashion") and then played it off like it was actually said? And that it was the new pivot for the company? That's messed up.

melanie_io 15y ago
No, they literally just made it up, and paid a narrator to do a voice-over.
- swanson 15y ago
  Yikes - that's even worse...
jasonlbaptiste 15y ago
the "LinkedIn for fashion" was a retarded move on bloomberg's part. I was there when Melanie was contemplating that pivot. It was more like salesforce for fashion aka a SaaS tool to help the fashion world.

chrislloyd 15y ago

This American Life's "Gossip" episode had a story from someone working on a reality TV show. TL;DR Everything is staged and drama is fabricated if it doesn't exist. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/444/gossip?act=2 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/444/g...

hncommenter13 15y ago
I don't doubt that you're correct overall that everything on "reality" shows is staged: my neighbor was on a dating reality show on national tv and lots of it was fake. Just for the record, though, as a huge fan of TAL, their site describes that story as based on a work of fiction.

mixmax 15y ago

Well, that's showbusiness for you. I have friends in media and showbusiness, so I've seen these things from behind the scenes, and have a good feel for the dynamics. Media is about getting customers just like any other company, and their product is stories. They try to make these stories as appealing as possible, just like any other company tries to make the product their customers want.Truth plays second fiddle to a good story. Oftentimes we think the media is engaged in a search for truth, justice and a real portrayal of how things work, but unfortunately that's not the how it is. They are there to sell you entertainment, and if the truth isn't sexy enough they'll pimp it up until it is. That's how it works. On a broader note this is a huge problem for democracy - what we believe to be a guard against lies, bad politics and corruption is in reality just entertainment created by for-profit corporations with no interest in keeping a government honest or multinational corporations on the right side of the law. It's about business. Big business.

curiouskat 15y ago
I wonder how much this quest for storylines has seeped into professional sports. It seems like more and more the NBA and NFL are manufacturing/assisting storylines rather than concerning themselves with the purity of competition.
- brc 15y ago
  It's probably bottom-up driven rather than top-down. The sports players see the trappings of notoriety (endorsements, media profiles, etc) which can mean, in some cases, bigger earnings than actually winning in the sport. Being merely good enough and having a big public persona can bring very good rewards. It's all part of the current celebrity mania that has engulfed society. All you need is a hook to get into gossip magazines - once there, you can leverage yourself as much as you like, whether that is photo opportunities with orphans or passing out in front of nightclubs. I think the second-tier sports players would find that mightily attractive, because it's certainly harder to keep winning at the sport you're playing.
  - curiouskat 15y ago

zach 15y ago

Here's a cached version since the Wordpress database has gone south: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:melanie.io/&strip=1 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:melanie... Just as true here as elsewhere: if you're not a customer, you're probably the product. Being someone else's content can suck.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

redrory 15y ago

Site is down Cache : http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q8QO-LXmhBgJ:melanie.io/%3Fp%3D258+http://melanie.io/%3Fp%3D258&hl=en&gl=jm&strip=1 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q8QO-LX...

jasonlbaptiste 15y ago

Seems to be a lot of assumptions going around. Let me clarify anything you want to know. AMA.

il 15y ago
It seemed as if you were typecast as the villain/arrogant/guy-you-love-to-hate reality show archetype. Did you expect this during filming? Did the producers try to steer you into behaving in a certain way?
- jasonlbaptiste 15y ago
  We knew how to handle certain questions. There was a lot of liberty with editing. In real life, I'm an aggressive, confident, and quirky person. I'm also quite nice :).

reecepacheco 15y ago

disclaimer: techstars founder here... while the finished product that Bloomberg aired is not the most amazing piece of journalism i've ever seen, i don't think TechStars is to blame for that. the TechStars ethos is to be open and encourage entrepreneurship. to this end, TechStars asked us if we were ok with putting ourselves out there to the world and we all agreed to it before the program started. at the end of the day, 10/11 companies got funded, a few are driving great revenues already and all are on track to build great companies... it's hard to argue with that. and if anyone out there learns from what we went through on the show, or is excited by startups or encouraged to go start/join a startup... then the show is a success.

deepkut 15y ago
So, you believe the ends justify the means, and I couldn't disagree more. TS is respectable, but this show is a bastardization and misrepresentation of startups and more importantly, those behind them. However, this comes at no surprise... 'Reality shows' tend to screw everyone's perception of true 'reality.' Ironic.
- reecepacheco 15y ago
  never said 'the ends justify the means' while i agree that the show is not all-inclusive of the complexity of startups, i think it's funny how much noise is made about the show itself, when the good news is people are excited about startups enough to 1. make a show and 2. to watch it some of us are going to succeed and some of us are going to fail... some publicly, some not so publicly TechStars chose, and we agreed, to doing this in the public eye
0x12 15y ago
Techstars founder? You mean 'founder of a business that is funded by techstars' I presume?
- reecepacheco 15y ago
  yes. sorry

TWSS 15y ago

Holy shit. I'm in a tech incubator now (http://www.piepdx.com http://www.piepdx.com) and this sounds nightmarish to me. To be frank, I hadn't been following the show all that closely, but I can't even imagine the added stress of having cameras around filming me with my co-founders. Melanie, I'm really glad you called bullshit. Keep rocking.

nl 15y ago

If it is any consolation, I've enjoyed the series. I can understand how her portrayal would upset Melanie, but I thought she came across as enthusiastic and polished. Also, ToVieFor is a great name!

geedot 15y ago
+1 I actually found the shows entertaining. Then again I feel I'm competent enough to understand the difference between the bits that were added for drama and the bits covering the real startup process. Speaking of which, chracterisations aside, I feel the show did a good job of explaining the highs and lows of the startup process to non-startup people I.e. it's not all about ripping an idea off a couple of brothers, building a site in a night, serendipitously running into a former tech startup superstar who helps you rip off your friends before creating a multi-billion dollar business, all while wearing a hoodie with secret symbols sewn into the lining and wearing flip flops. Just sayin...

joshfraser 15y ago

As a TechStars alum, I can say that this show painted a very distorted view of the real TechStars program. The drama was fabricated by Bloomberg because that's what makes good TV. Don't let this show ruin your view of TechStars. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up regretting doing this show, but of course, hindsight is 20/20. It would have been hard for me to turn down that amount of national exposure too.

melanie_io 15y ago
I agree. I think TechStars had nothing but the best of intentions, and they were sold a bill of goods from Bloomberg that the show would be a documentary. I think this is why they were so adamant about each company participating: because they honestly believed the exposure would be good for our companies.
- abbasmehdi 15y ago
  But still, forcing companies to do something or drop out? That is not how an accelerator should treat its companies, like they were your bosses. The only boss a startup should have is its customers, and now TS, due to its poor judgement has done the opposite of what it was meant to do. Not only do they make poor calls, but they also bulley founders?

peteforde 15y ago

While I'm empathetic towards the founders who got the short sticks on this episode, I just watched episode three (having not been aware of the show before reading this post) and it was exactly what I'd expect a show like this to be. If an incubator gave me an ultimatum like "reality documentary or hit the curb" I'd run the other way as quickly as possible. Melanie might be strong and brilliant, but there's real live footage here of her being unrealistic, ineloquent and covering for a weak business model (in which she appears to have zero unfair advantage) by hiding behind a claim that "developers just don't get fashion". This show might be trash but her responses to medium-hard questions about her business model don't suggest CEO DNA. I've never met a competent CEO that says "like" constantly and says what they think VCs want to hear.

ysilver 15y ago
This isn't a fair criticism in my opinion. Anybody who has a camera in their face all day can be made to look stupid. That even goes for the most practiced politicians. Even the best first time start-up CEO's require hundreds of run-throughs to get their story polished. TechStars exists in large part to give entrepreneurs this opportunity to practice.
- ohashi 15y ago
  It just seems unfortunate that the practice which they are supposed to be doing is filmed, edited and put in front of people in perhaps the worst light possible to tell the story someone else wants to tell.
  - ysilver 15y ago
    I just saw this comment. Very well stated!
- eavc 15y ago
  With a commitment to deceptive editing, even award-winning films and famous, eloquent speeches can be made to seem stupid.

revorad 15y ago

It's nice that the startup founders are defending Techstars, but as a potential applicant, this whole thing does raise red flags for me. Doing a startup is hard enough with your personal emotional ups and downs. To add a reality tv show to that just seems like the worst idea ever. Maybe it's good for media startups to get as much press as possible, good or bad. But this blog post seems to suggest otherwise. If the people running Techstars really got fooled by Bloomberg, then how can I trust these people about giving good startup advice? The title of this blog post doesn't help. Why isn't it Bloomberg, lies and videotape?

JonnieCache 15y ago

Not wishing to be rude to any of the participants, but what were you expecting? You have seen television, right? If you're clever enough to run a startup then the editing tricks and other manipulation should be pretty transparant. I suppose in that situation the publicity is very hard to turn down. Hopefully lessons have been learned.

robjohnson 15y ago

This is the worst kind of marketing for tech stars. I wonder how many people who held them high esteem are seriously questioning any motivations of attending.

megamark16 15y ago

When they showed the scene where that one guy admitted to embezzlement I thought "wow, that's intense." Now I know that the participants were told that none of the audio from their private mentor meetings would be used. They thought they were having a private discussion about a team members hardships. Talk about lost trust, sheesh.

leemhoffman 15y ago

Hey we were in the TechStars NYC class and in the TV show (Veri). I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but TechStars was the best thing to ever happen to us. We came in with a prototype and in three months had a product, traction, funding, and a great network of mentors to help us. We couldn't have done this without them. Regardless of how people feel about the idea of a TV show, I'm very grateful to TechStars for everything they've done and I think any TechStars CEO would say the same. - Lee Hoffman (CEO, VERI)

bomatson 15y ago
Sounds like a press release from a corporate CEO. Either way - Dope pivot w/ Veri, Lee
- leemhoffman 15y ago
  Thanks Bobby (re: pivot), TechStars has been amazing for us, just thought people should know.
shanedanger 15y ago
We're a TechStars NYC class this year (Contently), and the program has been an amazing experience. Harvard has good and bad students; YC turns out great companies and duds alike (though not very often, for sure!). I'm sad that Melanie had a bad experience, but TBH it wasn't for lack of support in the program, or for lack of amazing mentors and networking experiences. Reality TV is a pretty bogus misrepresentation of actual reality, anyway. I'm glad they didn't film our class!
- melanie_io 15y ago
  TechStars is an absolutely amazing program, and we had a fantastic experience. I could not be more complementary of the program itself. My post was only commenting on the TV show, and trying to clear up some events that were portrayed by Bloomberg.
reecepacheco 15y ago
i wrote this on another thread last night: disclaimer: TechStar alum from NYC Winter '11 here... while the finished product that Bloomberg aired is not the most amazing piece of journalism i've ever seen, i don't think TechStars is to blame for that. the TechStars ethos is to be open and encourage entrepreneurship. to this end, TechStars asked us if we were ok with putting ourselves out there to the world and we all agreed to it before the program started. at the end of the day, 10/11 companies got funded, a few are driving great revenues already and all are on track to build great companies... it's hard to argue with that. and if anyone out there learns from what we went through on the show, or is excited by startups or encouraged to go start/join a startup... then the show is a success.

softwaregravy 15y ago

We were in that class of TechStars (ThinkNear). Not featured in the show -- though in retrospect it makes sense given what they were going for. They had a lot of footage they left on the cutting room floor, and I guess we were just too heads down to be very interesting. My cofounder and I also get along quite well, so we had very little drama to bring to the table. I recommend the TechStars program to anyone, without any reservation whatsoever. It was really awesome for us. We started basically at zero, along with Lee (Veri), and another team not featured (who's now FourSquareAndSevenYearsAgo). We came out much stronger at the end than we could have been without TechStars with an awesome network, some great mentors, and were able to raise a bit over $1.6. Tisch and Cohen are awesome. Seriously, don't let the show sour you at all on the program. Some companies will have drama early on, and the show really played it up.

asignorini 15y ago

Hello everyone, this is Alessio Signorini (@a_signorini), CTO and co-founder of Immersive Labs, which was one of the companies on the show. At our final interviews to get into the program, they told us that we were accepted before telling us about the show. They actually asked us "would you mind being part of a documentary on your experience filmed by Bloomberg?". We didn't mind. I did not feel it was forced on us. They asked politely, and we agreed enthusiastically. We really wanted to be in TechStars. TechStars was a great experience for me. I lived/worked for 4 months, 20 hours a day, shoulder-to-shoulder with 40 among the brightest people you can find in the US which now become my closest friend. It did not matter what we were doing or where, we were all helping each other succeed, sharing experiences, contacts, reviewing pitches, etc. And even now, 6 months later, we still speak often and have tons of fun every time we see each other. It's a family. But that's not all, TechStars allowed us to meet and bond with dozens of the greatest and smartest investors and CEOs of the United States. They helped us, coached us, and pushed us to the our best at all time. And even now that the show is over, they are reaching out, helping out, and creating connections for us. It is great. Simply great. We really all feel part of a big group which I am sure will last forever. Having the cameras around during the program was actually fun, at least for me. The crews became friends and it was normal to have them around. They did not change a bit what we were doing and how: they did not tell us what to say, they did not create drama, they did not ask gotcha-questions. Of course, compressing 5000 hours of video in less than 2 hours of show forced them to do some liberal editing. And I am sure that lots of things changed at Bloomberg between January and last Tuesday. They had to focus on 6 companies instead of 11, pick some characters instead of the teams, and reduce hours of meetings into a few seconds. Melanie is great and is already running with a new idea. The show did not portray her that way. Too bad. Same thing for the meeting with my co-founder, they should have skipped the money troubles of Jason, it did not help anybody. But that's show-business I guess, and since everything during the program went so smooth and it was so positive, they probably had to focus on those two moments to create a bit of drama, which, given the amount of "reality" on TV nowadays, seem to be necessary. I highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly... :) recommend submitting your application to TechStars and do your best to be accepted into the program. It may just be the best thing you do after coming up with the idea for your company.