3 ms·

I mean yeah - brand equity matters, and the CEO and how they behave is just about the most visible manifestation of your brand

BoorishBears 4y ago
This is a pretty disengeous response, it's clear I'm not saying it's because it's Coinbase or Coinbase's CEO. I'm saying it's because it's the literal individual "Jack Altman", outside of his capacity as a CEO, has personally rubbed elbows with the right crowd. Lattice had 700+ employees working on a product that HN would normally lampoon for having even 100 working on, they were massively bloated and there is literally no chance the organization wasn't aware that they were hiring people who wouldn't add enough value to weather any sort of mild storm (and they all but say that in the letter). - They did so because it shows growth, and they put company growth above even the slightest bit resiliency because that's the playbook. Show growth at all costs because you can just fire those people and write a cutesy letter and a severance package with... some of the money that showing growth let you raise! It's a crappy thing founders often do, but again, if you sling tweets with the right crowd and hang with the right people, all is forgiven. Essentially the CEO gets to behave badly, as long as the person is well liked. That's not how a meritocracy based on anything like "brand equity" should work.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  The simple banal answer is probably people know more about Coinbase than they do about Lattice.
  - BoorishBears 4y ago
    Again, this really isn't about Coinbase. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33895773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33895773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34268762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34268762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33961410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33961410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33809631 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33809631 Every single time it's the same template, every single time the CEO is the villain, until we got one that was part of the in crowd. I think people forget how tight knit the SV crowd can be. A lot of these people are former class mates/team mates/etc. It's a softer version of nepotism where any failings are taken much softer because these are people who just might rub your back the right way down the line due to proximity.
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      Speaking for myself, I am less familiar with Lattice than any of those brands except for the last one

BoorishBears 4y ago

This is a pretty disengeous response, it's clear I'm not saying it's because it's Coinbase or Coinbase's CEO. I'm saying it's because it's the literal individual "Jack Altman", outside of his capacity as a CEO, has personally rubbed elbows with the right crowd. Lattice had 700+ employees working on a product that HN would normally lampoon for having even 100 working on, they were massively bloated and there is literally no chance the organization wasn't aware that they were hiring people who wouldn't add enough value to weather any sort of mild storm (and they all but say that in the letter). - They did so because it shows growth, and they put company growth above even the slightest bit resiliency because that's the playbook. Show growth at all costs because you can just fire those people and write a cutesy letter and a severance package with... some of the money that showing growth let you raise! It's a crappy thing founders often do, but again, if you sling tweets with the right crowd and hang with the right people, all is forgiven. Essentially the CEO gets to behave badly, as long as the person is well liked. That's not how a meritocracy based on anything like "brand equity" should work.

Apocryphon 4y ago
The simple banal answer is probably people know more about Coinbase than they do about Lattice.
- BoorishBears 4y ago
  Again, this really isn't about Coinbase. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33895773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33895773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34268762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34268762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33961410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33961410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33809631 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33809631 Every single time it's the same template, every single time the CEO is the villain, until we got one that was part of the in crowd. I think people forget how tight knit the SV crowd can be. A lot of these people are former class mates/team mates/etc. It's a softer version of nepotism where any failings are taken much softer because these are people who just might rub your back the right way down the line due to proximity.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Speaking for myself, I am less familiar with Lattice than any of those brands except for the last one