4 ms·

Calacanis: "Tough times, hard decisions at Mahalo"

13 points by daveambrose 18y ago

henning 18y ago
So he fired people based purely on hunch and speculation rather than reacting to concrete information he actually had. That's a recipe for success!
- comatose_kid 18y ago
  You are right - he wasn't being reactive, he was being proactive, trying to steer his ship ahead of the oncoming storm.
  - henning 18y ago
    If you make decisions based on what will probably happen, the proactive thing is to shut down the operation entirely, because most companies fail. But you don't know whether that's going to happen. Firing people is not free. All the time and energy spent investing in them is essentially gone. You shouldn't do it unless you have a solid reason to.
    - apgwoz 18y ago
      The impression I got from reading his article is that with the lay-off, Mahalo can survive with no external funding (or revenue) until 2012.
nolanbrown23 18y ago
He's a great business mind but a seemingly terrible leader. If I hire someone I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they keep their job (provided they are doing their job and doing it well). All he's doing at this point is contributing to and prolonging the recession by firing people. In the long run, firing 10% of the workforce isn't going to be the life or death of the company.
- comatose_kid 18y ago
  I don't know - being a leader means making the best possible decision, even if it isn't popular. If a 10% cut saves the other 90%, that's a trade I would gladly take.
- arockwell 18y ago
  I don't understand your reasoning at all. He specifically states that reducing the workforce will give Mahalo an extra year of runway. That could definitely be the difference between life and death.
fallentimes 18y ago
This was just an excuse to lay off people. If Calacanis was 1/4 of awesome as he thought he was, or the people he hired were 1/2 as good as he says they are, or he had 1/3 as much money as he says he does, he would have done everything in his power to keep these people including reducing his own salary to $0.
- staunch 18y ago
  Agreed. I think it's hilarious watching so many companies use the current situation as an excuse to fire people. I have no problem with CEOs firing people for whatever reason but it is pretty pathetic when they use such transparent and bullshit excuses.
  - jshen 18y ago
    If you care about people at all it's much better to "lay them off" than to "fire them".
    - jumper 18y ago
      If they're never told their performance is inadequate, how will they ever know to improve? This reminds of the old political correctness slide into oblivion...
      - jshen 18y ago
        You're assumption is usually false in my experience. Most of the people I laid off were told of their shortcomings long before being laid off. It's expensive to find and hire good people and it's also human nature, at least mine, to try to help people improve before giving up on them. Also, when profits are high it's easy to let things slide. When those profits evaporate and tough choices have to be made you lay off rather than fire those that never met the expectations. Where is the slide into oblivion exactly? I think the slide begins when we loose our humanity and run around firing people willy nilly.
sant0sk1 18y ago
I thought Calacanis renounced blogging and began an opt-in mailing list..?! The things some people will do to get attention...
quasimojo 18y ago
writing's on the wall wantrapeneurs...invest the last $100 in crisco. you can survive two weeks on a tub, and it doubles as a lubricant
charlesju 18y ago
I'm surprised that Jason made over $10 M in revenue from just advertising, that's really impressive.
nradov 18y ago
What's the point of Mahalo anyway? Does anyone actually use it? I took a quick look and it seems like a weird mix of Dogpile, About.com, and Wikipedia without any unique value added. The searches I tried for a few consumer products and technical terms turned up mostly irrelevant results.
- apgwoz 18y ago
  His blog article (I thought he retired from blogging...) mentions it gets 4M uniques a month, so people are obviously using it.
  - shafqat 18y ago
    I've never seen a result in Google that led me to Mahalo. Who are these 4M???
    - fallentimes 18y ago
      Got me. Here's some interesting stuff on them though: http://www.quarkbase.com/show/mahalo.com http://www.quarkbase.com/show/mahalo.com http://spyfoo.com/Domain.aspx?d=-6195448603068914896 http://spyfoo.com/Domain.aspx?d=-6195448603068914896
    - dmix 18y ago
      It's been said a large number are paid content contributors, but really its 4 million... I can't really say. I haven't see much press or online marketing from them either. But then again I live outside of the valley.
    - ojbyrne 18y ago
      A year ago it was quite common to see Mahalo show up in google searches. They're in decline. Hate to bring up digg, but its in a positive light rather than my usual bitching. When we were around 4 million uniques we had 4 people (not actually employees, this was pre-series A), and Calacanis tried to buy us for $5 mill (almost all of it subject to earnouts). Rough subjective cash estimate of mahalo valuation based on his own offer to digg - half a mill.
ojbyrne 18y ago
6 offices?

13 points by daveambrose 18y ago

So he fired people based purely on hunch and speculation rather than reacting to concrete information he actually had. That's a recipe for success!

comatose_kid 18y ago
You are right - he wasn't being reactive, he was being proactive, trying to steer his ship ahead of the oncoming storm.
- henning 18y ago
  If you make decisions based on what will probably happen, the proactive thing is to shut down the operation entirely, because most companies fail. But you don't know whether that's going to happen. Firing people is not free. All the time and energy spent investing in them is essentially gone. You shouldn't do it unless you have a solid reason to.
  - apgwoz 18y ago
    The impression I got from reading his article is that with the lay-off, Mahalo can survive with no external funding (or revenue) until 2012.

nolanbrown23 18y ago

He's a great business mind but a seemingly terrible leader. If I hire someone I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they keep their job (provided they are doing their job and doing it well). All he's doing at this point is contributing to and prolonging the recession by firing people. In the long run, firing 10% of the workforce isn't going to be the life or death of the company.

comatose_kid 18y ago
I don't know - being a leader means making the best possible decision, even if it isn't popular. If a 10% cut saves the other 90%, that's a trade I would gladly take.
arockwell 18y ago
I don't understand your reasoning at all. He specifically states that reducing the workforce will give Mahalo an extra year of runway. That could definitely be the difference between life and death.

fallentimes 18y ago

This was just an excuse to lay off people. If Calacanis was 1/4 of awesome as he thought he was, or the people he hired were 1/2 as good as he says they are, or he had 1/3 as much money as he says he does, he would have done everything in his power to keep these people including reducing his own salary to $0.

staunch 18y ago
Agreed. I think it's hilarious watching so many companies use the current situation as an excuse to fire people. I have no problem with CEOs firing people for whatever reason but it is pretty pathetic when they use such transparent and bullshit excuses.
- jshen 18y ago
  If you care about people at all it's much better to "lay them off" than to "fire them".
  - jumper 18y ago
    If they're never told their performance is inadequate, how will they ever know to improve? This reminds of the old political correctness slide into oblivion...
    - jshen 18y ago
      You're assumption is usually false in my experience. Most of the people I laid off were told of their shortcomings long before being laid off. It's expensive to find and hire good people and it's also human nature, at least mine, to try to help people improve before giving up on them. Also, when profits are high it's easy to let things slide. When those profits evaporate and tough choices have to be made you lay off rather than fire those that never met the expectations. Where is the slide into oblivion exactly? I think the slide begins when we loose our humanity and run around firing people willy nilly.

sant0sk1 18y ago

I thought Calacanis renounced blogging and began an opt-in mailing list..?! The things some people will do to get attention...

quasimojo 18y ago

writing's on the wall wantrapeneurs...invest the last $100 in crisco. you can survive two weeks on a tub, and it doubles as a lubricant

charlesju 18y ago

I'm surprised that Jason made over $10 M in revenue from just advertising, that's really impressive.

nradov 18y ago

What's the point of Mahalo anyway? Does anyone actually use it? I took a quick look and it seems like a weird mix of Dogpile, About.com, and Wikipedia without any unique value added. The searches I tried for a few consumer products and technical terms turned up mostly irrelevant results.

apgwoz 18y ago
His blog article (I thought he retired from blogging...) mentions it gets 4M uniques a month, so people are obviously using it.
- shafqat 18y ago
  I've never seen a result in Google that led me to Mahalo. Who are these 4M???
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    Got me. Here's some interesting stuff on them though: http://www.quarkbase.com/show/mahalo.com http://www.quarkbase.com/show/mahalo.com http://spyfoo.com/Domain.aspx?d=-6195448603068914896 http://spyfoo.com/Domain.aspx?d=-6195448603068914896
  - dmix 18y ago
    It's been said a large number are paid content contributors, but really its 4 million... I can't really say. I haven't see much press or online marketing from them either. But then again I live outside of the valley.
  - ojbyrne 18y ago
    A year ago it was quite common to see Mahalo show up in google searches. They're in decline. Hate to bring up digg, but its in a positive light rather than my usual bitching. When we were around 4 million uniques we had 4 people (not actually employees, this was pre-series A), and Calacanis tried to buy us for $5 mill (almost all of it subject to earnouts). Rough subjective cash estimate of mahalo valuation based on his own offer to digg - half a mill.

ojbyrne 18y ago

6 offices?