Remember Kickstarter’s frankly insane plan to pivot to blockchain? Yeah, that was because a16z promised them $100m to adopt blockchain
Remember Kickstarter’s frankly insane plan to pivot to blockchain? Yeah, that was because a16z promised them $100m to adopt blockchain
Inside the once-hot startup’s struggle to regain relevance despite a massive check from the crypto arm of venture giant Andreessen Horowitz.
archive: https://archive.ph/UZv4s
Reading this extract I was surprised, figuring the desperate search for investment money must mean that Kickstarter wasn't turning a profit despite a seemingly sound business model.
Reading the article I found out it was even stupider. Kickstarter wasn't lacking a path to profit, it was lacking a path to growth. And being a profitable company with a clear market nisch isn't cool enough. Everything has to grow, grow, grow. So Kickstarter created a bunch of problems for itself, destroying much of its brand. It's that stupid.
21st century capitalism is going great
and UNIONS
the article is so grim. at no point does the company have a financial problem, and tons of people in it are presenting themselves as too cool and socially conscious to get obsessed with growth. but the reality, on both the executive and worker sides, seems to have been a frenzy of fomo from the moment it was clear the company wasn't ballooning to infinity