I have a love/hate opinion of the theater of the absurd that propagates across the “look at me” blogosphere.
First, a mea culpa. I am 100% guilty of suffering a case of pot calling the kettle black, so take my comments with some measure of humility and self-awareness.
That said, I roll my eyes every time I read attention-seekers like Jason Calcanis quit blogging, announce same in a blog post, and then when no one cares, start blogging again as quickly as they see a story wave to ride/exploit.
Stay or leave, Jason, I don’t care, but just don’t package up your self-promotion “look at me” moments as anything other than a cry for attention.
Similarly, it’s funny to see folks like Jason Fried of 37Signals get a soap box to stand upon (well earned, to be clear - by virtue of cultivating a conversation around good design; eating their own dog food with decent, if uninspiring, products; and driving Ruby on Rails innovation), and then acting like they own the joint (the joint being the Web Economy), arrogantly judging and dismissing the accomplishments of others, since, after all, Jason has found the one 'right' way to be a true entrepreneur.
Fried first disses the founder of Mint.com (in a post derisively called ‘The next generation bends over’) for taking the money from Intuit, espousing upon the acquisition as “indicative of VC-induced 'cancer' that’s infecting our industry and killing off the next generation.”
Yeah, if cancer involves the entrepreneurial team high-fiving one another gleefully on being set for life, coupled with the gorilla of personal finance kissing your ring finger, let’s hope that 'disease' spreads.
No less, anyone who knows the first thing about VCs, knows that these guys (VCs) will almost always encourage you to double down versus taking well-earned gains off the table, so Fried's core point is WAY off-base.
(Sinking deeper into “look at me” self-promotion, yet a week later Fried will mock Twitter’s recent $1B valuation in another link-baiting post).
Now, a full two weeks after Fried’s post on the Mint.com-Intuit deal, Dave McClure writes an over the top, expletive-filled “right back atcha” post that seems at least half purposed in making sure that everyone knows that Dave is an angel investor in Mint.com.
In other words, nobody showboats about a company that I'm involved with without me getting MY whack at the Piñata first. "Look at me!"
The irony is that McClure’s post is strangely coherent, well-argued and has a really solid thesis that
is worth ruminating on before dismissing what can only be called Cirque du
Blogosphere, in terms of unabashed theatricality:
- The trend
towards more and more innovation-challenged companies (Exhibit A: Intuit) turning to
M&A to enhance their DNA and product pipeline as the Web matures is a
long-term one;
- Owing to this
same maturity, more entrepreneurs can build a real business on less dollars
than in days of old, obviating the need for mega VCs (in many cases), thereby creating an opportunity for savvy angels and micro-fund VCs;
- More
transactions are good for Startups Ecosystem (arguably, since small is
easier to integrate than big, diversity is innovation, and there is a
risk-reward balance for entrepreneurs, investors and acquirers alike).
There is, however, one fly in the ointment.
Namely, that most acquiring companies do a really poor job on the post-acquisition ‘integration' part of M&A.
In other words, they know how to court startups. They know how to paper a transaction.
But most are fairly clueless about how to ensure that the core 2-3 'keepers' in terms of technical, product, marketing and/or sales human capital hang around in a long-term, deeply-engaged fashion.
And, the silo'd nature of larger companies often guarantees that the outcome manifests in a 1+1<2 fashion in terms of whatever differentiation, magic, consumer engagement or product innovation culture they acquired being leeched out within six months of the deal closing.
Netting it Out: If the trend of big fish eating little fish is to be a long-term thing, and I think that it is, then acquiring companies have to get a lot more rigorous about the post M&A integration piece of their M&A strategy.
Did I forget to mention my experience in this domain? "Look at me," "look at me," "look at me!" ;-)
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