Chronotope’s avatarChronotope’s Twitter Archive—№ 77,493

                                                                                  1. Wow Genius is really a perfect example of how startupland operates terribly & doesn't understand profit or media cos theverge.com/2017/3/15/14924238/rap-genius-web-annotator-chrome-extension-news
                                                                                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                                  Let's play a fun game: name me a post-Facebook popular US 'get-covers-on-the-cool-magazines' type startup that is making a profit.
                                                                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                                WeWork, Pinterest (mby), Slack (mby). Annnd? Ok, we'll get back to this later.
                                                                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                              Let's talk about how dumb an idea Genius is. It is expensive, from a technical perspective...
                                                                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                            The tool already exists (Diigo) and has not seen widespread success. In fact, Diigo is a presumably a staunch competitor...
                                                                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                          You see, at the end of the Great Social Web Bookmarking Bloom in the late 00s, Diigo presided and benefited over consolidation in the space
                                                                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                        Which makes it relatively stable, w/its redundancies trimmed. Also, on a user-level, it arguably has at least as good if not better tools
                                                                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                      So Genius wasn't even "disruptive" except in the sense of its founders connections and "hipness".
                                                                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                    Hinging your bets on a startup based on how hip and cool and just-like-you the founders are is a classic startupland shitty move.
                                                                    oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                                                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                  Especially because it prioritizes white male founders & sets up serious egotism as a requirement for funding. Not a quality of good leaders
                                                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                                Also, it practically guarantees you have problematic founders who, never being challenged, inevitably do shitty things to hurt the company.
                                                                oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                              There's a reason this type of behavior is a pattern all over startupland: because being an egotistical asswipe gets you funding.
                                                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                            Mostly because VCs see their younger selves (who had such success) in those types of people which *says a lot about VCs*
                                                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                          Then there's the classic: 'we don't care how customers are using the site because we know how they *should* use the site'
                                                          oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                        Repeated startupland theme: 'We don't care about how to make money, that will solve itself' so no sales people. A bet that never works
                                                        oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                      There's the shit culture problem, flowing from the founders being SV startup bros who have never had someone object to their ideas.
                                                      oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                    There's the mistaking influencers for influence. No one cares what Rick Rubin or Junot Diaz are highlighting, because that's not their space
                                                    oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                  Oh, & also there is nothing particularly technically unique about the platform. No secret sauce. Which makes it oh so easy to roll your own
                                                  oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                                Next up: let's discuss how Genius's pivot shows that SV has neither a basic understanding or respect for media companies.
                                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                              Media companies are desperate to pawn off development on 3rd parties, so for News Genius to be such a dismal failure two things must be:
                                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                            1 Genius has no idea what the technical or operational needs of media companies are and had no interest in finding out (see: ignoring users)
                                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                          2 Genius had to be so sure that it new better than media companies what media companies needed that it provided awful support.
                                          oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                        This relates to how startups don't respect salespeople. They firmly believe (because founders are high on ego) their product sells itself.
                                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                      No product sells itself. Though I suppose you can always cheat in that regard.
                                      oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                    It's also notable that Genius is repeating the classic media mistake of mistaking clicks for engaged users.
                                    oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their APIoh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                  If they had listened to the media companies they had feigned to work with, someone might have told them that pivoting on that was a bad idea
                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                So now, after having failed to work well with media companies, Genius thinks it knows better than all of them and is going to b/c a media co
                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                              Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha
                              oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                            I like how understated the author is here "dramatic". What is meant is mind-blowing-ly stupid.
                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                          So all the assumptions Genius is making in becoming a media company:
                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                        Assumption: It has taken knowledge from NYT, WaPo and other big media cos and now knows better than all of them what digital media is.
                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                      Assumption: Media companies just put content on the web, they just shove it up there, no continual engineering support needed.
                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                    Assumption: Media companies also do not need dedicated sales plans. Assumption: Media companies do not need significant marketing efforts
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  Assumption: We can just cover all verticals and ignore our specialty audience.
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                Assumption: Genius will somehow aggregate better and harder than anyone else but with less people than their competitors.
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              Assumption: Genius's brand (such as it is) will give it the cachet in medialand that it failed to gain in startupland.
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            Assumption: that Genius can do old media formats better than established companies while lacking a unique selling proposition.
            oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          Assumptions: People want to listen to music via videos & be engaged & attentive; videos are an easy space to step into; video is profitable.
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        To be clear: not a *single* one of the assumptions that Genius is making in its pivot to be a media co are true.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      If Genius had an inch of respect and communication with the old media cos they tried to work with, they could have observed this.
  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
    Genius is really the perfect storm of disrespect for the media industry, startupland stupidity, and SV-style shitty planning.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      And the kicker is that they have LEARNED NOTHING. They're going into media co-mode with as little a plan on how to make money as before.
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        Which brings us back to the top: Chronotope/842400987813941248
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          All the cool kid status & rich friends in the world isn't going to help you turn a profit. If you don't plan to make one on day 1, you won't
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            And here we are, day one of the New Media Co Genius and they still haven't figured that out.
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              The irony is, if they hadn't flipped over into that stupid VC-driven 'we need to take over the world' mode towards the beginning...
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                ... Genius would likely now be a small, but stable, perhaps profitable, narrowly focused business. Instead...
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  ... Genius tried to do everything b/f they even got the one thing right. A foolish move that put them in this position & will end in failure
                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                    Everyone wave as Genius pivots their crashing car right over the guardrail. We'll see them on the other end of the 50 foot drop. Crunch.
                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                      Today's lesson is: if you run a company, run it to make a profit, then use that profit to expand slowly and reasonably. And listen to peers.


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