Raul I Lopez
San Jose, California, USA
- 174 comments
- 53 likes given
- 24 likes received
Two-time entrepreneur
Excellent article. I would like to add that, unfortunately, once profitability is reached, the founder(s) often either lose interest or are fired and a gutless wave of management takes over that just tries to keep milking the cow without ever taking large risks again. At that point it is time for all risk takers to move on and aim to take the next hill.
@paulcarr OK, so the Conflict Tower is another NSFWCORP product like the puppy stickers. Good idea.
Very good article indeed, two items I would like you to consider:
1) I don't see in the Conflict Tower itself that there are more benefits such as Dinner Parties that you participate in (if I click on an available window, I don't see that benefit listed there).
2) Can you explain what the Conflict Tower is to the SEC? Is it Crowdfunding?
@JamesSwanson, as a 40-something parent of under-10-year-olds, I tend to agree with Ryan and the key issue is precisely what you say "parents would give their kids anything but the best advice" my view is a view that is not one but almost two generations away from reality today. My nieces and nephews are having a hard time finding jobs with college degrees AND they, or their parents, have debt to pay for the education that is not helping them land a job.
Thanks for following up on the wind-down of the business, also, since there are more start-ups that fail than succeed I believe that there are actually more opportunities to learn from those failures than of successes. Maybe Pando should start a series of Failure Stories.
Hmmmrmrm, how come their Job Openings still say that the positions are in Las Vegas?
When I go through "Facebook Moments", something in my life that I would like to share with my family and friends, I realize the importance of the platform and then post in Facebook what just happened.
Please, please rename Yahoo to anything else that does not exist, has been at its peak and faded...
Think Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, not Ampex, Polaroid, Kodak, Yahoo...
@occamsrazor Were the laid off employees given compensation packages then? If so, then it is indeed and act of kindness if the company was virtually bankrupt. Again, please, journalists, let's get to the bottom of why Ecomom had to lay off most of its staff.
Why is this happening? If the investors are recalling their funding, shame on them! Please get to the bottom of it.
@Laura E Haupt I am parent too and I was trained to go to college, no matter what. Fortunately my parents supported me to go to good schools including Graduate School and I am doing fine professionally and financially, but I really don't know if, for my kids, the answer is going to be to go to college no matter what. I think that top schools are still going to be around by the time they go to college, at least 10 years from now, and that graduating from them is going to be appreciated by employers, but I really have changed my mind about asking young people to go to any college and rack up student loans that they might never be able to re-pay. I think that it is important as parents to be aware of the changing work market, the 7% permanent unemployment group, and that Peter Thiel might be right about telling kids to "take off" earlier rather than wait until finishing college. Of course, no article or piece of news is a justification for treating anybody like crap, but I think it is important to be flexible and show flexibility in understanding that our kids are not going to live in the same world that we grew up in.
The Living Room is wherever in the house, or outside of the house, my kids turn on the iPad or the iPhone to be entertained.
@Todd Dunning What I am looking for is a wonderful "safety net" that would allow everybody to explore entrepreneurial ideas without having to deal with the drags of interrupted health insurance coverage and other crap like that. Lack of Universal Health Insurance really makes Silicon Valley feel like we are not in the 21st century.
@jholyhead Unfortunately all of our LI activity belongs to LI and, as far as I know, they can do anything that they want with it including feeding it to the Big Data Monster (no reference to monster.com). I have been able to do inferences myself following activities of my network and then confirming my theories with the actual LI members.
Good article, I feel that LinkedIn has enormous untapped potential by using "Big Data" Analytics on its members activity and selling that to anybody that would pay for it. For example, a LinkedIn user that has a poorly written profile and, all of a sudden, improves that profile drastically could mean that the person has been laid off or is fed up with his/her job. More of those from the same company and then it can be inferred that the company is in trouble. Likewise, as a user beefs up his/her network with people from his/her own company he/she is on his/her way out and is Prime target for recruiters. Finally, the growth of a user's network clearly shows the people that he/she runs into and/or meets through interviews, so finally a heartbeat to listen to... So, though not owning any LinkedIn, I see it at $200 unless somebody else sells those Analytics first.
Two issues with entrepreneurship at a later age:
- for anybody with a family, not having world-class cradle-to-grave healthcare in the US gets in the way
- for those same people, do you want to miss being part of your kids growing up?
We have plenty of ideas and would gladly sell them to an incubator, but which one?
Some of my older friends are considering taking their ideas and personal discoveries to the grave...huge loss...
Great post! Glad to see that PandoDaily had a great first year!
Thanks for bringing this up Adam, good (and scary) research.