2 ms·

> We are bold, we take risks, and we do things that haven’t been done before. This is a very annoying line. Risk for the sake of risk is self-destructive. The

> We are bold, we take risks, and we do things that haven’t been done before. This is a very annoying line. Risk for the sake of risk is self-destructive. The risk-reward profile is what matters, and people respect risk taking with large upside. Having your company’s logo tattooed on a bunch of random people is zero or negative upside.

fuzzfactor 2mo ago
It's the kind of action founders imagine who would be willing to give optional tattoos to any of their their proud employees after all their unusually generous equity packages have skyrocketed, matured, and been cashed in. But they know they don't have what it takes for that.
ip26 2mo ago
There seems to be a line of thinking that past unicorn startups had bad risk-reward profiles, and therefore a good founder should be taking lots of bad risks. If they take good risks, they will never succeed and become a unicorn. Very "tres commas". So, demonstrating there's no risk too outlandish for you becomes a form of social signaling to investors.
chomp 2mo ago
Tattooing company logos has already been done https://www.huffpost.com/entry/billy-gibby-aka-hostgator_n_2902509/amp https://www.huffpost.com/entry/billy-gibby-aka-hostgator_n_2... So really, they are just boring and derivative. Probably an analog to be drawn here for modern SV.
- roryirvine 2mo ago
  I don't think anyone has previously been crass enough to require it for job interviews but, yeah, there've been a couple of previous waves of "skinvertising". The first, in 1999-2001, was a bit more subtle. There was a general trend for small, colourful corporate logo tattoos, almost cyberpunk-inspired - think airlines, pizzas, soft drinks. Dot coms with VC-inflated marketing budgets jumped on the back of that, which inevitably ended with those companies being amongst the first to implode when the bubble burst. Discussed as a new form of the Bladerunner Curse on forums like Fucked Company. The second, in 2006-2008, was the opposite - big, crude, prominently displayed blatant cash grabs. Porn, online casinos, domain squatting registrars, 2nd rate auction sites, e-gold style finance scams. Heavily publicised, but far fewer people actually did it. Died off in the Great Financial Crisis. A small sample size, but it does seem to be a harbinger of an imminent economic crisis...
richie_adler 2mo ago
This whole affair has the dirty shadow of a society like the one depicted in Jennifer Government.

fuzzfactor 2mo ago

It's the kind of action founders imagine who would be willing to give optional tattoos to any of their their proud employees after all their unusually generous equity packages have skyrocketed, matured, and been cashed in. But they know they don't have what it takes for that.

ip26 2mo ago

There seems to be a line of thinking that past unicorn startups had bad risk-reward profiles, and therefore a good founder should be taking lots of bad risks. If they take good risks, they will never succeed and become a unicorn. Very "tres commas". So, demonstrating there's no risk too outlandish for you becomes a form of social signaling to investors.

chomp 2mo ago

Tattooing company logos has already been done https://www.huffpost.com/entry/billy-gibby-aka-hostgator_n_2902509/amp https://www.huffpost.com/entry/billy-gibby-aka-hostgator_n_2... So really, they are just boring and derivative. Probably an analog to be drawn here for modern SV.

roryirvine 2mo ago
I don't think anyone has previously been crass enough to require it for job interviews but, yeah, there've been a couple of previous waves of "skinvertising". The first, in 1999-2001, was a bit more subtle. There was a general trend for small, colourful corporate logo tattoos, almost cyberpunk-inspired - think airlines, pizzas, soft drinks. Dot coms with VC-inflated marketing budgets jumped on the back of that, which inevitably ended with those companies being amongst the first to implode when the bubble burst. Discussed as a new form of the Bladerunner Curse on forums like Fucked Company. The second, in 2006-2008, was the opposite - big, crude, prominently displayed blatant cash grabs. Porn, online casinos, domain squatting registrars, 2nd rate auction sites, e-gold style finance scams. Heavily publicised, but far fewer people actually did it. Died off in the Great Financial Crisis. A small sample size, but it does seem to be a harbinger of an imminent economic crisis...

richie_adler 2mo ago

This whole affair has the dirty shadow of a society like the one depicted in Jennifer Government.