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Layoffs at stealth payment startup Clinkle
- justinzollars 13y agowhy is this news? They are stealth
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- themoonbus 13y agoApparently the culture there is pretty poor... http://www.quora.com/Clinkle/What-is-it-like-to-work-at-Clinkle/answers/3579130 http://www.quora.com/Clinkle/What-is-it-like-to-work-at-Clin...
- gfosco 13y agoWhen do we drop the word "stealth"? I think raising a noteworthy funding round and having articles on CNN are both good indicators the startup is anything but.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- rubiquity 13y agoStealth is not a synonym for visibility, it's a synonym for zero revenue.
- DigitalJack 13y agoReally? I'd think "Broke" would be a much better word than Stealth. What, are they trying to sneak up on a dollar?
- thatmiddleway 13y agoOh wow, another startup has to lay people off. Why should we care every time a volatile organization realizes that they're not making money and can't afford to pay people? Isn't that the nature of working at startups?
- vladimirralev 13y agoThese guys wasted a lot of money that could have been used to fund 100s of other companies. This should make the headlines as a case study, what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. When a high profile well-funded startup goes south, there is a lesson to be learned for many people.
- pbreit 13y agoIt would probably take over $100m to fund "100s of other companies". The company is not going south. It brought in top-tier talent (Barry McCarthy ex-Netflix, namely) who reasonably concluded the company wasn't structured properly from a personnel standpoint. This doesn't appear to be another Color considering the company has plenty of cash, some quality executives and a functional product in a huge, well-known category (payments).
- kloncks 13y agoPerhaps he was talking about examples like YC funding "100s of companies" (500? 600?) with less than half of what Clinkle has raised.
- pbreit 13y agoThen that's a total mis-understanding of what YC is and how it compares to venture capital. And no one has really come very close to replicating YC despite quite a few attempts.
- tedchs 13y agoWonder if having a difficult-to-enunciate name has anything to do with their lack of success?
- pbreit 13y agoI don't love the name but names are rarely make-or-break and the product is barely even live so "lack of success" is wholly inappropriate at this point. The company has had success in raising money and hiring top tier talent which is most important at this stage.
- calbear81 13y agoHmm... I thought it was relatively decent to sound out, just like "wrinkle" but with a "cl" sound in front. I thought it was a play on "clink" like clinking glasses or making a brief connection in celebration.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- minikites 13y agoI think this is their big problem: https://twitter.com/mrgan/status/384780273721696256 https://twitter.com/mrgan/status/384780273721696256 —"I'd like to, uh… "pay with clinkle." —"Excuse me?" —"Uh, pay with… clinkle?" —"Do you need the key to the restroom?" —"Pay… with… clinkle"
- nlh 13y agoThis may have no basis in reality, but I get a sense that there's an inverse relationship between the amount of hype a "stealth" startup gets and how successful it is. Or at the very least, if not directly inverse, the hype factor does little to actually promote success. Color, Snocap, Asana, Cuil, etc. I feel like the more hype, the more stealthy, the worse they end up doing. But I know this can't be right (or rather I hope not). Anyone have some good counter-examples (Hype => Win)?
- atwebb 13y agoI don't really have another example (maybe Diaspora, what are they up to?). I hadn't seen Cuil in a long time and had to look it up. Looks like 2008 was the dawn of the Cuil theory, internet nostalgia feels odd.
- kloncks 13y agoI agree with the overall sentiment. But there are some counter examples. At least from your list, I believe Asana is doing well. I don't remember there being as much hype with them, however.
- state 13y agoIs Asana doing poorly?
- TrainedMonkey 13y agoFrom what I figure there are two benefits of widely publicized start ups: 1. Interest/brand recognition interesting tech naturally generates. 2. Attracting high profile employees that are interested in your product. So going stealth assumes you got a handle on both of those problems. If not, I think, chances of success are slim.
- patmcguire 13y agoI'm going to be really annoyed if Clinkle winds up being a performance art project.
- fleitz 13y agoWhat part of life isn't performance art?
- thoughtpalette 13y agoIt's all subjective.
- theboss 13y agoI actually interviewed with them...if you can call it that. I saw some negative post on here about them and decided to submit my resume for the heck of it. They called me that day and I talked with HR and then we set up a ``technical'' interview with one of the head-honchos who has left. That interview lasted all of 5 minutes. He basically said we will have to hire someone who can interview you and the call ended in 5 minutes. I don't have some special set of skills or anything...it was weird. Anyways...I had fun talking to people I read about in articles...
- 21echoes 13y agoi don't know who you could possibly call a "head honcho" who has left...
- laurenstill 13y agoI interviewed with them a few times last month, and then HR told me they were re - evaluating their employment needs. And here I thought it was something I had said. ..
- cylinder 13y agoThis Clinkle thing is going to end up being one of the big laughingstocks of the current bubble after it goes down and the bubble bursts. Similar to Pets.com and Webvan and such. This actually gave me a flashback to a website I had completely forgotten about. Does anyone remember FuckedCompany.com?
- prodigal_erik 13y agoPud posts here occasionally. He spent quite a while running an ad exchange that spun out of Fucked Company. Lately he's been working on distribution for musicians.
- billconan 13y agoVCs are stupid.