3 ms·

The Lessons Google Ventures Learned from Secret

3 points by karangoeluw 11y ago

DigitalSea 11y ago
I think the biggest WTF in this whole situation is the two founders took six million dollars off the table and put it into their own accounts. When you're running a pre-revenue startup, you don't remove anything from the business. Seems it was greed that killed Secret, taking money out of the business and asking for too much, too soon. I think the biggest lesson here is: just because a startup is being run by ex-Google employees does not mean it is going to succeed or be successful in the long run. Great for getting on Techcrunch and having the media talk about you, but once those 15 minutes are up, you're a real business and it becomes less about who you are and more about how you are going to make money and grow your business.
- karangoeluw 11y ago
  http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/the-secret-about-rich-founders-and-ferraris/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/the-secret-about-rich-found... > David Byttow and Chrys Bader-Wechseler, had previously received $3 million dollars apiece through a mechanism known as a secondary sale in their $25 million Series B fundraise last July. > Secondary sales are pretty simple to understand. When a company raises funding, that funding goes directly to the company as cash on the balance sheet, which is why it is known as primary. Secondary is when a founder or even other employees sell part of their personal shares in the company at the price of the round. That money doesn’t go to the company but into the seller’s pockets. The VC's who bought the $6M worth of stocks knew what they were signing up for.
  - DigitalSea 11y ago
    "The VC's who bought the $6M worth of stocks knew what they were signing up for." Definitely agree. I was pointing out how this move is just one in a series of many that doomed Secret. When you're trying to gain traction and get users, you don't take money for personal gain. Who knows if that six million dollars might have helped Secret ride out the storm and still be around today, who knows. I think the VC's are too blame as much as the founders of Secret are.
- pbiggar 11y ago
  Secret wasn't hurting for money. How would 6m (which was a secondary sale and was not taken out of the business, btw) have helped?

3 points by karangoeluw 11y ago

I think the biggest WTF in this whole situation is the two founders took six million dollars off the table and put it into their own accounts. When you're running a pre-revenue startup, you don't remove anything from the business. Seems it was greed that killed Secret, taking money out of the business and asking for too much, too soon. I think the biggest lesson here is: just because a startup is being run by ex-Google employees does not mean it is going to succeed or be successful in the long run. Great for getting on Techcrunch and having the media talk about you, but once those 15 minutes are up, you're a real business and it becomes less about who you are and more about how you are going to make money and grow your business.

karangoeluw 11y ago
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/the-secret-about-rich-founders-and-ferraris/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/the-secret-about-rich-found... > David Byttow and Chrys Bader-Wechseler, had previously received $3 million dollars apiece through a mechanism known as a secondary sale in their $25 million Series B fundraise last July. > Secondary sales are pretty simple to understand. When a company raises funding, that funding goes directly to the company as cash on the balance sheet, which is why it is known as primary. Secondary is when a founder or even other employees sell part of their personal shares in the company at the price of the round. That money doesn’t go to the company but into the seller’s pockets. The VC's who bought the $6M worth of stocks knew what they were signing up for.
- DigitalSea 11y ago
  "The VC's who bought the $6M worth of stocks knew what they were signing up for." Definitely agree. I was pointing out how this move is just one in a series of many that doomed Secret. When you're trying to gain traction and get users, you don't take money for personal gain. Who knows if that six million dollars might have helped Secret ride out the storm and still be around today, who knows. I think the VC's are too blame as much as the founders of Secret are.
pbiggar 11y ago
Secret wasn't hurting for money. How would 6m (which was a secondary sale and was not taken out of the business, btw) have helped?