[iDC] Will you delete your Feedburner account?

[Charles Turner]

Geert Lovink wrote on 6/9/07 at 5:24 AM

>> Take Craigslist. Most of you will know this network for urban
>> communities.

>Inspiring example. But why aren't there more of those? Maybe there are 
>and they are little known... Selling out seems to be the default in the 
>Web 2.0 area. The question is why.

(Apologies for the personal response. My posts don't seem to be getting
through to iDC for some reason...)

Although not a sufficient reason, I suggest that disenchantment with the
internal day-to-day business process might be a strong incentive to
sell.

I've seen this in quite a few "graphic design" firms/studios. They're
typically founded by 2-3 talented designers who have the
ability/interest to attract and successfully complete projects.

When success has grown their company to around 30 employees (a seemingly
magic number), these principals find that their project involvement
stops when the contract is signed; and that they're doomed to collecting
on invoices, dealing with accumulated staff overtime, etc. etc. The
telepathic management techniques of a small 8-person studio have long
ago failed them.

The personality of the firm has matured too much for them to take on a
"managing partner", they're unhappy because their management skills are
inadequate, and what they really want to do is get back into the
creative parts of design. So selling the firm/studio seems like a magic
bullet where they're free to move on and start over, or become eminences
grises involved in only the most "creative" parts of the business.

Craigslist was certainly not the most ambitious web project of the
mid-1990s: a real sleeper. But perhaps Craig Newmark was a lot clearer
about what he would get out of owning and growing a business than most.

Best, Charles Turner

<vze26m98 at optonline.net>