Free Financial Advice
- Posted on: Oct. 13, 2008
- 48 Comments
I didn’t go to Wharton. I don’t have an MBA. I’m not a certified or licensed financial advisor.
Today’s show was brought to you by Payoneer.
Posted in Common Sense, Dopes, Payoneer, VC48 comments
P&Ls for the win.
Replyuncanny
ReplyI feel like I owe you an advice back: you should wear a T-Shirt.
ReplyLOL. +1 Alex.
ReplyIncredible
ReplyHow come they overlooked this?
How come you don’t talk about your ‘friend’ Loic who laid off half his staff the last month?
Because Loic is so full of crap. The seesmic platform has been 95% developed by outsourcing through a team of coders based in Romania. I can get you a clone of seesmic on rentacoder for $10,000 max with coders from Ukraine or Romania, you choose.
The truth is Loic leaves totally in the bubble 2.0 and has no clue of what a profitable business should be. I think he should go back to the HEC business school he’s coming from (I wonder how he got his degree) and learn how to lay a business plan. Same attitude as Zuckerberg: money will flow later. Yeah, right.
Because Loic’s plan was clear: build a website around another of these crappy web 2.0 socially pointless ideas and sell it ASAP. Problem is no one will buy it in the current financial context. Not to mention the poor website’s traffic (140,000 unique visitor on compete.com and steady since May ‘08, even after the introduction of his blog-embedd feature and purchase of thwirl).
I mean, seriously, does he even know what a budget is? He’s got $12M, right? And now, suddenly, he’s using the excuse of the financial crisis to lay off the very people who helped him marketing his crappy website. You should be ashamed of yourself, Loic.
Because guys, I tell you what: Loic is leaving the good life and burning these $12M in expensive restaurants, parties, business class flights back and forth to Europe and Asia to nurture his ego attending ‘conferences’, put his outrageously expensive SF apartment on the cost of the company and not to mention the out of this world hidden compensations and salaries for himself and his wife.
Mike and you Loren have paled with the wrong guy and that makes Mike a terrible investor.
He should have known better, because Le Meur did the same back in Europe before he decided to screw american VCs. And the worse thing is that Arrington helped a crook raising funds.
Anyway, Seesmic will be in the deadpool within 1 year max because it serves a wrong idea and a concept that yahoo had already tested and implemented. Damn it, can’t you send video responses in Youtube or what?
What were you thinking, Arrington?
ReplyHardcore 2.0
ReplyLaura,
I have no stake or interest in seesmic. If you remember Im the guy who said it seemed silly the day they opened the doors there. Did you get laid off there or something? You seem to have a lot of details.
ReplyLaura,
Loren is now good friends with Loic, which means conflict of interest and less freedom.
ReplyBtw, the lay off wasn’t last month but last Friday.
Alex,
I have all the freedom in the world. I told you seesmic would have problems before anyone. So Laura gets sacked and that’s my problem? Go fight your own battles. Im not the defender of the fucking internet. Also Alex wtf do you know about who my friends are? Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking you know me or can read my actions. I have so much more going on than you realize. Things are not always as they seem. Havent you learned that yet?
ReplyHmm… I take back my +1 Alex, you get -2.
ReplyThank you for the free lesson. However Master, I’m not the first one that used the term “conflict of interest” here:
http://www.1938media.com/seesmic-delaying-the-inevitable/
ReplyAlex,
You sure a dumb one huh? It was a joke you moron because I was trashing seesmic from its highest profile investors house you idiot. Like I said long before you douchebags even noticed seesmic I was goofing on them. Do I like Loic? Sure. Do I like seesmic? Not really. Is that clear enough for you?
ReplyGood financial advice Feldmeister, I’m with ye on this one
ReplyMy favorite video blog post of all time. I would like to play this one every day when I wake up just to remind myself of the only business advice that really matters. If only I can master it as well as you have Loren …
Replyahah hilarious
Replythis is so true
make more money than you spend
Loren
ReplyMakes for good bar talk but relying on profits to fund growth kills more companies than it saves. Autrement, pas mal et j’aime loic aussi.
Wait we have to make money?
Fuck
Replywhy go the hard road loren when you can just…
1)pay yourself and your buds six figures
2)take exotic vacations
3)party like a rock star
4)go to industry events and be treated like a god
5) etc etc
…unitl the vc money is gone.
by then failure or not your established within your tribe and industry as a go to get it done (sort of) guy/gal and when the vc market is back… you do it again. it’s a business model all it’s own.
ReplyTiga,
Because you don’t understand what startups are about. Seesmic might be a special case, i dont know. Although you can’t generalize and make statements like that. Startup CEOs and founders usually never do those things on company funds. Especially tech startups.
ReplyAlex,
1/3 of the staff was laid off indeed last week, but 3 other coders were laid off just after the crash started about 3-4 weeks ago, and now bottom line is sadly half of the staff gone.
At this point, I would compare Le Meur to famous french crook Christophe Rocancourt how managed to screw up many Hollywood actors ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Rocancourt ).
Loren, I know you don’t like Seesmic, what I don’t understand is you palling with its founder.
ReplyU are totally right bro… is a lifetime that I keep saying that about web2
ReplyOh you people are so short-sighted, Loic is so much more than Seesmic. I mean the guy owns twirl for god sake. Not only that but he’s organizing Europe’s greatest tech orgy, Le Web. And if that’s not enough, he knows the president of France. The only president I know is a block of cheese…
ReplyLaura,
I dont pal around with anyone. You are making a lot of assertions with of course no proof. Hey its the internet right? I dont know shit about Loic, and honestly I dont care either. Not my problem at all. Im not an investor, user, and I barely know the guy. You are obviously pissed about something, but talking shit with no proof just makes you another idiot on the web. Send me something tangible that proves anything youve said and Ill give it to Arrington who will handle it.
ReplyDear Laura (respectfully)…
When money gets tight during recessions the risky new companies with zero balance sheets go out of business. Those with actual customers and actual profits stay open.
Don’t take jobs at start-up companies with no revenue if you want what passes as job security in 2008.
This public service announcement brought to you by every business that has ever been started since your local blacksmith hung out his shingle during the Roman Empire.
ReplyPlenty of companies didn’t make more money than they spent for a long time and are now doing just fine. Should Amazon have shut their doors in the late 90’s? I know it sounds like sage advice but the reality is that some good ideas do need time to start up and sometimes that means spending more than you make for a couple years.
ReplyWow, who knew my business model would be endorsed by (gasp) Loren Feldman!
I can die happy now.
ReplyI hear the same thing about Loic that he is a crook. He raised $6m then went for more another $6m and what his business isn’t scaling. The investors got taken. He is definitely taking money. I am on the inside and I see it. It’s all true. Loic is stealing money from the company (or VCs)to pay for his ski trips. I can’t blame him. The VCs paid him off.
Arrington wouldn’t put up with this (at least I don’t think so).
Mike Arrington: what do you have to say about this. Someone needs to get to the bottom of this now.
ReplyGood advice.
@Alex -1 on the shirt thing.
Regarding what Laura brought to our attention she should have been more careful when looking for a job
ReplyHuh..Did someone say ‘Free”???
ReplySimple advice is great.
The best way to clean upholstery is with just two things; soap and water.
Reply@Loren: thank you for this post. Arrington should watch it 1000x to *understand* that the financial crisis is a f*** excuse for all those guys who burn someoneelse’s money for building a useless website.
But… Wait it is Arrington who invested in Seesmic and edgeio…..
@Loren: thanks for your attitude: you do not seem to filter the comments “against” you(Arrington and Kim Jong-il do it). It is rare on the web and appreciated!
@Laura: Loren was one of the first and only who identified this kind of useless and crappy application. Many top bloggers seemed to be not capable of doing it….
@all: If some people still give their money to a scam through Western Union or to a *too much* creative entrepreneur… who cares…
Reply” So Fuckin Sue.Me”!!!
Replyhttp://tinyurl.com/3qz9wt
“Do you have any stuff to sell???” XD XD XD
what an >:( group of commentators…who gives a fuck about Arrington or seesmic…Feldman, this one is a classic!
Replywhy isn’t valleywag picking up on the Loic fraud scheme?
ReplySuperJew explain for the viewers what you mean about the Loic Fraud Scheme!
ReplyHere is the Scoop on Loic..
Replyhttp://tinyurl.com/l9ufw
I seen it http://tinyurl.com/44zfgx
ReplyI disagree. You just have to be able to sell it for a lot. Well,
Replyif you did that you would have made more money than you spent…so it’s interesting that Ebay refuses to sell Stumbleupon for a dime less than it bought it for. Sort of implies they haven’t made anything with it…hahaa.
ReplyDr Who: Laura posted it above. Ask around in Silicon Valley and you’ll get the answers that you’re looking for
ReplySpread the Wealth Loren.. Open the Crate of Scotch and Pass the Cubans Around~
Replygregg dourgarian:
“Makes for good bar talk but relying on profits to fund growth kills more companies than it saves.”
Amazon.com delayed profits in favor of grabbing market share. But from day one they sold things and had a revenue model. This is VERY DIFFERENT than all of these “web 2.0″ websites that have no revenue at all and NO IDEA at all how the hell they ever will make any money.
Round after round of VC funding is NOT revenue. =)
ReplyThis would make a great T-Shirt
Great video.
ReplyLove it!!!
As I grew up my parents owned a tool and die shop in the Midwest. I recall arguing with my father’s management that making profits come down to making more than you spend. Of course during the 90’s when the automotive industry was revenue heavy, everyone wanted to focus on why other functions of the business prevented the company from making a profit. The company finally closed and I moved on. I’m still in the automotive industry however I now work for a Japanese OEM, not a Domestic company. It was good for a while: things are changing. As the domestic companies cut back, we are having more and more upper management from the domestic OEMs join our company.
Over the past 2 years I have watch team building and project oriented goals move towards sub-optimization to meet departmental goals and ideology replace common sense.
What I love about your blog is the black and white common sense of it. It has been years since my family closed the tool and die shop, but I face the same issue: profits come down to making more than you spend. While I have since earned the bachelor and master degrees, I never needed them to understand the common sense of what was wrong with the business. I only decided to get them so people would begin to listen. Keep posting, the world needs more common sense.
The Financial Swami
Replyhttp://www.financialswami.com
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