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from the You-can't-get-there-from-here dept.
[Ed note: I debated whether or not to run this story. On the one hand, it rather thoroughly eviscerates a particular company, and I truly wish no harm to other's ventures. (Seeing what it takes to run this site, well, it's not as easy as it looks!.) On the other hand, it rather handily illustrates management issues I have seen before. On the gripping hand, I found the submission to be entertainingly written, and that tipped the scales for me: I decided to give it a try... and see what the community thinks. Have you ever worked at a company like this? How did that work out for you? Did the company successfully reinvent themselves? --martyb]
WhenHub - a startup in search of an idea
As near as I can recall, the initial idea of WhenHub was that you could create a Whencast, which is basically a slideshow with slides shown in chronological order. You were supposed to embed this Whencast on your website. Aside from the sheer triviality of the idea, the embedding meant that visitors had to allow 3rd party cookies, so it didn't work for anyone with sensible security settings on their browser.
So they moved on: Next, they had an app that would let you share your location data with friends. For example, if you were heading to a meeting, and someone hadn't arrived yet, you could see that they were stuck in traffic (or maybe at the beach). Not a bad idea, but again trivial, and really better implemented by the mapping applications. Which they have done.
Somewhere along the way, they also talked about calendar sharing, but I never looked into the details. Anyway, you can share calendars just fine, from all sorts of different services, so...
So you have this startup, only none of your ideas are actually marketable, and money is running out. Whatever do you do? Ah, but now! Now they have a totally different idea. They will let you hire people, with contracts. But this isn't like any of the zillion freelancer sites around, no! WhenHub is different: They have sprinkled "magic blockchain dust" on their company.
They'd really like to do an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), but the regulators look like they are going to crack down on that. So they're offering a SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens). Really important: this is totally not an investment, because that might be subject to regulation, even though they keep talking about "investment", but anyway it isn't, because you don't get any equity in the company, or in Scott's apartment, or even a walk-on in a Dilbert strip.
Instead, you give them your money, and you get a non-transferable "SAFT", which maybe they will someday exchange for "WHEN tokens", which might someday be redeemable for, well, something, if the regulators don't outlaw it. And remember, it's totally not an investment, so...um... Why was it they expect people to send them money?
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I know, this is cynical as hell, but WTF? Is this the culture of startups, to throw ideas at the wall, hoping and praying that something - anything - turns out to be vaguely marketable? Then seeing Scott Adams, who otherwise seems like a decent enough fellow, hawking this SAFT on his blog. Whatever the truth, it sure looks like he's trying to bail out his bad investment by finding a bunch of suckers. That's just sad...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday November 02 2017, @03:04PM (3 children)
No, it really doesn't. What it takes is:
1. A working-class person with limited math skills and a penchant for thrill-seeking (i.e. somebody likely to play the lottery) doing something they've never done before, namely budgeting past the next paycheck.
2. Any advisors they hire or seek out not cheating them out of their money. There are laws that should prevent that sort of thing, but they mostly aren't enforced.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 03 2017, @01:45AM (2 children)
Takes more than budgeting.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday November 03 2017, @03:03AM (1 child)
If they are budgeting, they can say things like "My financial advisor tells me I only have $1000 for you. I know you're my mom, but that's all I can give you." It helps them say "no" to all the beggers and grifters that come their way.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 03 2017, @12:31PM
Now, at this point, we have to ask why do people claim that wealth takes only luck to acquire and takes so little skill to keep, despite considerable evidence to the contrary? My bet is some ideological brain worm has taken up residence between their ears. Reality doesn't matter when someone wants to redistribute wealth to those whom they've already rationalized as deserving it.