So Sam Sethi, former TechCrunch UK editor, announced the closing of his Blognation blog network today. He lays 100% of the blame for the failure on me personally. I agree with Mathew Ingram, Techfold and others that it isn’t appropriate to lay blame on others for your own failure. But I also want to point out a few things for the record, and then let Blognation rest in peace.
My History With Sam Sethi
Sam is, in my opinion, a classic confidence man. When he was the editor of TechCrunch UK in late 2006, he kept talking about various sponsorships and revenue that was coming in, and pushed up expenses based on that promised revenue. We thought things were going great for a couple of months until it became clear that the sponsorship money wasn’t actually real. It’s easy for people to understand that others tend to exaggerate, but outright fabrication and lying is just so surprising that it can catch us off guard. Eventually we would have let Sam go based on the way he ran the TechCrunch UK business, but the LeWeb debacle occurred first.
At LeWeb last year Sam lashed out at organizer Loic Le Meur for including French politicians at the event. That was ok, except for the fact that Sam was simultaneously planning to hold his own competing conference under the TechCrunch banner. In a flurry of email exchanges last December I told Sam he had to take down his critical post because it was a conflict of interest. The last email I sent him said “Fix this or I can’t work with you” or something similar. His next action was to post on the TechCrunch UK blog and his twitter account, that he’d been fired. He hadn’t in fact been fired - all I wanted him to do was take down the post because I felt that he wrote it only to further his own goals of competing with Le Web.
At the time it served Sam to say he was fired to get people to sympathize with him. Later, he says he quit, which is actually the truth. But he changed his story because being fired probably didn’t help him with VCs.
When Sam left that could have been the end of things between us. We shook hands at a conference in London in February 2007. I was focused on other things, as was he.
But I believe Sam was either obsessed with continuing the fight, or else made a decision that being anti-techcrunch was good for business.
Rise of Blognation
Sam then started Blognation, a network of blogs in various countries that reported on tech news in English. A lot of the bloggers he brought on are people I knew and respected. And generally speaking, the more tech blogs there are out there, the more we can all grow. So other than being wary that the network would be used primarily to attack TechCrunch, I was, again, not very concerned one way or another.
But Sam made some very dumb decisions in the early days of Blognation. First, he booted the guy that actually came up with the idea, Lee Wilkins. It was probably not legal, but Wilkins, who lives in Romania, had little legal recourse. But Wilkins did tell potential Blognation investors what Sam had done, prompting Sam to lose his cool and threaten to kill him. I found out about this fairly quickly back in the Spring of 2007, but didn’t post on it. I contacted Sam by Skype (he’s printed part of the conversation on this blog, linked above). It was clear to me that, as despicable as Sam’s actions were, I was too close to the situation to write about it. I also felt vaguely threatened by him in that Skype conversation. Sam also threatened a number of the editors he brought on. Many of them came to me with emails and skype messages showing the threats. Sam always just said they were fired employees with an axe to grind. It was clearly bullshit, but again, I chose not to write about it.
Second, Sam said from the start that he had venture funding even though he didn’t. This was even written on the About page of Blognation. He used this non existent funding to lure bloggers to the network, promising them thousands of euros per month to blog for him. In his blog post today, Sam says that he was forced to lie about funding to stop me from posting that they were in the deadpool. But it looks to me like things were falling apart months before - he writes “The merest whif of litigation whether true or not caused our the potential investors to run for the hills back in July.” But the first time I ever mentioned Blognation on TechCrunch, or any other blog, was five months later in December. If funding fell apart, I had nothing to do with it.
In those intervening months Sam and some of his editors continued to take shots at TechCrunch. They approached our writers and tried to hire them. Tris Hussy, Blognation Canada editor, wrote a post saying I blew off a conference. He later apologized when it became clear that his story was factually incorrect, but by then the story had spread throughout the blogosphere. It was clear to me that Blognation was looking for any way to attack TechCrunch.
December 2007 - The End of Blognation
When Lee Wilkins, the original founder of Blognation, started a new blog network to compete with Blognation, I felt that it was time to take the gloves off. In my post announcing MyKinda, I finally posted the death threat from earlier in the year. As far as I knew, that that point Blognation had been funded since Sam had told everyone that it was. I didn’t post that email to hurt blognation - I simply stopped not posting it out of fear of backlash from Sam.
Anyway, I once again assumed that things would die down and that Blognation, which I assumed was funded, would continue on its path.
But then Marc Orchant had a massive heart attack. And the reason he had a heart attack may have been because he was working for Sam, not being paid, and massively stressed out about supporting his family. That is a debatable point, but for another Blognation editor and Marc’s good friend, Oliver Starr (who also used to work with me), it was too much. He decided to destroy Sam and Blognation by attacking him publicly.
Oliver went from writing “I have to say, I like Sam. He’s smart, creative, brimming with integrity” in his first blognation post in August to saying “So… that’s a pretty ugly litany of yours up there; lies, more lies, still more lies, exaggerations, evasiveness, manipulation, usury, fraud even - honestly Sam I think there’s a good chance that what you’ve done is actually criminal not just pathological and antisocial - perhaps even psychotic behavior” just four months later.
Other editors then jumped on board and the floodgates were opened. It was clear that Blognation had never received funding, had never paid anyone for any work, and did not have a workable business model at all. If you care to read it all, see Oliver Starr’s and Debi Jones’ blogs. over the last couple of weeks. The clear pattern is that Sam would say anything on the phone or skype - apologize, lie, etc. but then not follow up with any promises he made. The mountain of recorded evidence against him is staggering, from bank fraud to recorded conversations. Again, it’s all chronicled on Oliver and Debi’s blogs.
My plan was to stay out of the fight. However, Duncan picked up the story in the middle of the night and ran with it. Given that Sam and Oliver both worked for me, there was no way to not be part of the story.
But then I got word that funding might actually be coming through, and I got a copy of the term sheet from an anonymous source. I posted it, saying that Blognation may yet live. Most people assumed that Sam leaked the term sheet to me to get word out that the startup wasn’t dead. That is certainly possible, although Sam is now claiming someone somehow stole it from him.
Sam claims that my posting of that term sheet killed the financing, and blognation. That’s just not true. What is much more likely is that the term sheet was a fake created by Sam, or the fund did due diligence on the financials and realized you can’t start a blog network with no revenue and dozens of editors being paid thousands of Euros per month each. Blognation had no advertisers, no page views and a lot of debt and other baggage. It was not fundable. If the deal made sense before the term sheet was published, the fact that it went up on TechCrunch would not have killed the deal.
The Future
It is hard for people not directly involved with Sam to understand the extent to which he will lie and manipulate to achieve his goals. As I said early in this post, people just don’t understand outright fabrication and so they often get sucked in to believing that, at worst, someone is just exaggerating a little. I can’t tell you the number of people who came up to me at the Le Web conference this week in Paris to tell me they’d been cheated, duped, or otherwise hurt by Sam. Many of these people attacked me last year when Sam left TechCrunch. Every single one of them apologized to me and said that they now know the truth about this guy. Some of these people called themselves Sam’s friend a year ago. Now, they just think he’s a jerk.
This is, hopefully, the last time I ever write about Sam Sethi. I’m sure that he’ll take some time off and then start his bullshit again. I hope for his sake he realizes that this time he hurt dozens of people who trusted him and worked for half a year with no salary to help make his dream become a reality. He has to stop blaming everyone around him for his actions and come to terms with the kind of person he is. And then live the rest of his life the way he decides to live it.
Blogging is supposed to be about transparent honesty and conversation. As the community grows it is clear that people like Sam can use and abuse it to achieve their own goals. They can lie repeatedly, get caught, and continue to spin and spin and spin and will at the end have at least a few people who still naively support them. Unless we, as a community, stand up and say we won’t put up with it, this kind of thing will happen again.
In his final post, Sam forgets to thank his editors who worked for free, or express any regret for lying to them during the entire process. I hope that some day Sam fixes that and tells the real story of Blognation. I hope he expresses regret for the death of Marc Orchant. His editors, Marc’s family, and Blognation readers deserve that honesty. And it will help Sam understand just how despicable his actions were.
[...] Update: The financing didn’t close, Blognation is now in the DeadPool. [...]
I think it was setup wrong, I think they should all started writing for it in their spare time to build it up as any blog out there does.
At the end of the day this is a sad tale and people have been hurt from it and noone needs to get the news they are not getting paid for all the work they have put into something this close to Christmas. Maybe you could here some of them Mike they had some good coverage of Germany and China.
edit: Maybe you could hire some of them Mike they had some good coverage of Germany and China.
Textbook narcissist, look it up. They never change.
[..]Do I blame Mike Arrington, not really, it’s just business[..]
Guess that helps you sleep better
“My plan was to stay out of the fight. However, … there was no way to not be part of the story.”
Sure there was. Just not post this kind of thing.
Are you aware (1) how little the rest of the world cares about these little feuds, and (2) how immature and High School 2.0 this makes you look?
Mike,
Thanks for what I feel is a fair and balanced analysis of the Blognation debacle. I realize that a lot of people won’t agree with my sentiment that this is fair but what they fail to understand is that even with your description of the various and sundry vile things that Sam did you barely scratch the surface of his lies, deceit and other abuses of friendship, trust and ethics.
Within our community many people are aware that there’s no love lost between you and I. As a result, I hope they realize that it is not my charitable inclination that causes me to comment on this post but the simple desire to make sure that people are aware of the real crimes - and let’s make no mistake - much of what Sam did was simply criminal, Sam Sethi perpetrated in the name of his own ego and desire to show you up in some way.
Not only did he fail in his quest, destroying his reputation in the process, but he badly hurt numerous people along the way. While I won’t go as far as you and directly blame Sam for Marc Orchant’s tragedy, I will say that in the weeks leading up to his death Marc was becoming progressively more agitated about the situation with Sam. I know that the huge shortfall (Marc died with Sam owing him roughly $20,000) was causing Marc a certain amount of anxiety. When I visited him the week before Thanksgiving I noticed an undercurrent of anger - particularly when driving in traffic - that was completely uncharacteristic of the Marc I had grown to know very well.
As it seemed to me (and keep in mind Marc and I spoke at least once every day in addition to constant back and forth on Skype, Twitter, etc. ) that the only item out of place in Marc’s world was the mounting debt Blognation was accruing, the consistent failure on Sam’s part to keep his word about anything, and Sam’s growing evasiveness and unavailability.
I have taken a pretty serious amount of heat for the open letter I wrote - which you say “destroyed” Sam Sethi. I’d like to point out that I didn’t destroy Sam, I simply exposed a truth that he wished I would have kept private. I didn’t DO the things that destroyed Sam. He did them and in so doing, he destroyed himself. At worst, perhaps I was an instrument in his destruction. Even if Sam can’t be a man and finally accept blame for his own failures I certainly don’t think it is fair to foist that blame on you for TechCrunch’s coverage or me for exposing his lies.
It is not as if I just woke up one morning pissed off at Sam and let rip. For two months I wrote Sam, called Sam, sent Sam SMS messages, wrote letters with Marc - we literally tried everything to get Sam to tell us the truth. Sam had appointed Marc and I as his two senior directors - Marc would have been VP of Content and I was to have a similar Biz Dev title.
Given that you’d think that he’d level with us so that we could be aware of the situation - particularly me with my VC contacts and prior VC experience. Don’t you think that telling me what was going on and asking for my help, advice and connections would have made sense? So did I. I wrote this to him at least half a dozen times. I am happy to release every letter I sent to him if there’s any doubt about this claim.
Further, before I posted my Open Letter, I sent Sam a final demand letter and explicitly described the steps I would take if my demands were not met. I did not, as many think, demand immediate and full payment. No. All I asked for was a promissory note that was signed by Sam and witnessed by a second party other than Sam’s wife.
Given that Sam owed me close to $35,000 at that point and that he’d cut me out of the Skype Group Chat just a few days prior (hardly the two months of being “sacked” stated by Sam) it seems to me awfully reasonable to have made the request I did. which was simply the note and a timetable for repayment in the event no funding materialized and commitment for immediate full repayment should BN get funded.
I gave him 24 hours to respond that he agreed to do this and an additional 48 on top of that to procure the document and signatures. He never replied and at that point he gave me no choice but to go public.
I wish people understood just how many lies Sam told, how evasive and manipulative he can be or how badly he’s hurt the people that believed in him.
I think it is strong testimony to the correctness of my decision to go public just how many bloggers that have had dealings with Sam have written me privately to tell me of their own torture at Sethi’s hands.
While I don’t myself sleep much, I can tell you and the world that what little sleep I do get is not in the least troubled by my decision to expose Sam’s corruption. To the contrary, however, I sincerely hope that Sam’s sleep is deeply troubled and that he awakens in a cold sweat with the feeling that some big, black, inexorable force is chasing him, over-running him and smothering him in the suffocating darkness.
If he does, I can tell him what that is; it’s me, it’s the righteousness of my claims, it’s the law and it’s the memory of Marc Orchant. We are coming Sam and we will not ever stop until we have had the justice we so richly deserve.
Oliver Starr
http://owstarr.com
[...] http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=438 [...]
Mike
I have took only a passing interest in this whole debacle.
I know Oliver, I know you and I kind of know Sam. I think to an outsider the whole thing stinks to high heaven.
I spoke to hundreds of people at Le Web regarding a blogging network paying its way and everyone agreed its madness unless you are a Techcrunch or a GigaOM, well thats been done already, you guys have the well deserved traction and the only other option is niche and advertising will in no way cover these kind of wages.
I actually believe that you have been extremly fair in your coverage and I know there is plenty of more crap to be slung if certain people decide to sling it.
Time to put this one to bed I think.
[...] I just can’t decide. It’s like deciding which part of the train wreck is the best, or which accident victim is worse off. The only thing that’s clear is that Sam doesn’t bear any of the blame for what happened — anything wrong he did was something he was forced to do by Mike Arrington (Mike has posted a response here). What a graceless and insipid way to end something. If Sam was trying to win any support or respect with his post, he has failed completely. [...]
[...] Arringtons story is here: The Fact and Fiction of Sam Sethi Sam Sethi’s story is here: Here’s to You Mr(s) Arrington, Goodbye and Good Luck Startups [...]
I wrote for Sam from before Blognation (Vecosys). Despite promises he never paid me anything, which caused huge stress in my family. I realised nothing was forthcoming and left the project a long time ago. I can believe the stress caused Marc Orchant’s death - and it makes me feel sick to my heart. Sam - fuck you, you bastard.
[...] NOTE: This is not a Cincy thing. ADDITIONAL UPDATE: My hesitance to get specific has caused some hurt and confusion for some. This is what I’m referring to.) [...]
While I have not been a huge fan of the TechCrunch coverage of various Web 2.0 sites, I have to admit that you actually presented a fair and balanced accounting of the history behind the current situation with Blognation.
That said, I think it is an egregious leap to connect Marc Orchant’s death with the failing of a blog network he was a part of. I just think that presumption is far to big a jump to make.
The Fact And Fiction Of Sam Sethi…
This story has been submitted to Stirrdup. Your support can help it become hot….
Jeez Mike, this is like reading vintage Hunter S Thompson: there’s a lot of fear and loathing around, a lot of smoke, mirrors and deception, and at the heart, a really very terrible human cost.
The failure of any venture is full of pain, and some people can’t handle failure maturely. As you say, blogging is supposed to be about transparent honesty and conversation.
Thank you for providing that in this blog Michael. I hope that the frankness and restraint you have demonstrated helps those who have suffered in this very sad situation to move on.
[...] When we took the chance and helped Mobile Jones break the story that Blognation was not just DOA, but had joined the dead pool, there was a certain amount of uncertainty in the story. Today the story is confirmed, amidst high drama, and everyone and their brother chiming in. [...]
I was another victim of this debacle and like Ivan, it caused a lot of stress in my family. Sam threatened me when I chased him for money and he repeatedly said he would pay me and never did. I kept quiet because I was afraid and because I had a life to get on with. I feel guilty that I didn’t expose him sooner and maybe help avoid the ongoing deception and fraud and the terrible tragic outcome. My biggest fear now is that Sam will make a profit from auctioning Blognation - that would be a vile outcome.
[...] Chances are, part of that is false — guess which. [...]
saying he killed someone is harsh but it looks to be true. wow.
[...] The Fact And Fiction Of Sam Sethi — So Sam Sethi, former TechCrunch UK editor, announced the closing of his Blognation blog network today. Hey lays 100% of the blame for the failure on me personally. And while I agree with Mathew Ingram, Techfold and others that it isn’t appropriate to lay blame on others for your own failure. Source: CrunchNotes Author: Mike Link: http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=438 [...]
@unbiased
I think Sam is the sole person to look to benefit from Marcs death. Check out his comment to this blog post.
http://howtosplitanatom.com/news/sam-sethi-mike-arrington-and-a-moment-of-clarity/
Disgusting.
Who would have thought that the blogging industry could have more conflict and drama than a afternoon T.V. soap opera or London tabloid newspaper?
[...] Update 3: Michael Arrington responds with a post that’s well worth your time to read. [...]
>>>He lays 100% of the blame for the failure on me personally.
Hello? Who is this “me”? I don’t see any byline on this piece.
You really think *everyone* knows who you are? Maybe that is Problem Number One…
>>>But then Marc Orchant had a massive heart attack. And the reason he had a heart attack may have been because he was working for Sam, not being paid, and massively stressed out about supporting his family. That is a debatable point,
Wow, using someone who recently died and who CANNOT SPEAK FOR HIMSELF is the lowest thing I think I’ve seen on the web. Congratulations, whoever you are.
[...] - Sam Sethi Blames Arrington Sorta December 13, 2007 Posted by Furrier.org in Technology. trackback Update: Mike Arrington posted a long and detailed post on the truth about Sam Sethi. Mikegives his personal account based upon months of working with Sam but also weaves in his view on the overall community obligation not to tolerate unethical behavior. Starting and building a company takes guts and skills. Blaming any one person or organization is wrong. The lead entrepreneur is responsible and has to accept the ’bill’ for the outcome - period. I continue to believe that the Blognation mission was a good one and had good editors people but the entrepreneurial team and startup execution was flawed. I hope that Blognation as a idea and venture doesn’t stay in the deadpool. [...]
“But then Marc Orchant had a massive heart attack. And the reason he had a heart attack may have been because he was working for Sam, not being paid, and massively stressed out about supporting his family. That”
It was inappropriate of you to even bring in Marc Orchant. He’s not here to speak for himeself, and probably wouldn’t appreciate being dragged into this discussion.
In addition, if you read Oliver Starr, Marc Orchant had a clogged artery, and it sounds like other clogged arteries. From Starr’s report:
“Marc was rushed into emergency open heart surgery where an angioplasty was performed to restore circulation in the blocked artery…Sue went on to tell me that in spite of Marc’s apparent good health, he has severe occlusion in both his other arteries and they too will require treatment soon.”
[...] The Fact And Fiction Of Sam Sethi [...]
“I sincerely hope that Sam’s sleep is deeply troubled and that he awakens in a cold sweat with the feeling that some big, black, inexorable force is chasing him, over-running him and smothering him in the suffocating darkness.”
I don’t know Sam and only know tangentially a few people in this scenario. However, the pathology described is really classic. People like this — I have worked with several — cannot recognize their own behavior. They lack some internal pieces in their psyche, and aren’t simply pretending or using people. They are broken. Read Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, who walks through the clinical evidence now about pathological liars, narcissists, and others who view other people as objects. They aren’t schemers; they just have no capability for empathy.
Such a shame, you had the moral high ground until bringing Marc into it in the way you did.
Also, the biggest shame is for all the Blognation contributors, who are not only going to walk away from this with £0, but will have to put a blank entry in their CV for fear of being associated with that venture and it’s CEO.
I didn’t “bring Marc into this.” I have no idea if there is a connection between Sam’s actions and his death. But it is very clear that it led to Oliver’s going nuclear on Sam, and that’s when the floodgates opened. That’s the whole point.
It is absurd and ridiculous for people to continue to find a way to defend Sethi. Everyone that did so a year ago regrets it. Anyone who does it now is simply a fool.
Can we have a moratorium on using Marc Orchant from you, Sam AND his best friend Oliver, please. If Sam did this to himself as Oliver said, there’s not respectable reason to even mention Marc in this. While you, and Oliver, and Sam, and Tris, and Debbie and all the other people throwing stuff around have every right and capability of defending your positions, Marc does not have that ability. He’s barely been put in the ground. Have a little decency please.
[...] Mike Arrington posts his final take on the issue, sparing nothing in calling Sam Sethi a liar. He says that Sam’s claim that he killed Blognation with his post on Techcrunch was a lie. And he all but says that it was Sam Sethi and the BlogNation fiasco (Sam owed several bloggers thousands of euros) that led to Marc Orchant’s death. [...]
Aaron - actually, no. The situation with Marc quite clearly led to Oliver’s post. It is therefore a very big part of the story. By suggesting it’s inappropriate to mention it means you are hiding from the reality of what happened. And doing nothing, combined with hiding, means you are as guilty as Sethi in this debacle.
Normally all the hate comments don’t bother me too much. But in this case too many of you are suggesting this is a simple blogger v. blogger story. That’s just quite simply despicable behavior. Even a cursory glance at the evidence shows the massive deceit and manipulation that occurred, and a lot of our fellow bloggers were devastated financially. Put aside your TechCrunch hate for one second and see what it is that you are doing.
Demanding that Mike not speak for Marc (which he didn’t) while in the same breath claiming that Marc wouldn’t have wanted to be mentioned is pretty hilariously stupid. Good job.
Mike-
This has nothing to do with Techcrunch hate. I don’t hate Techcrunch anymore than I hate any number of other lightning rods in the blogosphere.
I’ve looked at the evidence. I’ve looked at your very realistic sounding report as I’ve looked at Sam and Oliver’s very realistic looking reports. To use Marc’s death in this chess match is ridiculous - and yes that is after looking at the evidence.
Bottom line is it’s not for you or I to decide. Keep in mind that the Orchant family will probably read this post as well as others. Is it appropriate to throw this stuff around, true or false?
Obviously the Blognation bloggers are royally screwed. Someone screwed up somewhere. Fine. Cover that story. Do it well. But I don’t think bringing Marc in is very noble of you.
Aaron -
It provides context for why Oliver posted. It is relevant. Incredibly relevant, since if Marc had not had a heart attack Oliver would almost certainly not have posted and Blognation would almost certainly not have closed down.
You are simply looking for things to attack in my post - and the fact that you ignore all the incredibly evil shit Sethi did to his own employees, including Marc, tells me where you stand on this issue or any other that I post about: Anti-TechCrunch.
I mean, seriously, is there anything that Sam could do that would offend you? If Marc hadn’t been mentioned, what was your second choice for attack fodder in the post?
Ridiculous. Absurd. Sad.
Michael Arrington, Amateur Cardiologist…
How stupid with anger must you be to diagnose somebody’s heart ailment from afar and use it to score points in a business feud? Arrington should muster up some decency, for the sake of Orchant’s family and friends if not his own reputation, and keep …
Yeah, everybody hates you Mike. Might as well go eat worms. If I wanted to attack Techcrunch, I’d be here all the time attacking you. I wouldn’t pick THIS entry to attack Techcrunch. I also in no way have defended Sam. Yeah, as far as I can tell, he’s a sick man.
Anyways, I’m done with this. Just wanted to clarify that my comments have absolutely NOTHING to do with Techcrunch. While you’re certainly not my favorite person in the world, I also don’t hate you. Heh.
[...] The big tech topic yesterday was Blognation’s death. But by the end of the day, people were already talking about resurrecting it. The site certainly has some baggage to overcome but it is a great domain name and a great idea. Time will tell if a deal can be made to save Blognation. Share the Blog: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] The big tech topic yesterday was Blognation’s death. But by the end of the day, people were already talking about resurrecting it. The site certainly has some baggage to overcome but it is a great domain name and a great idea. Time will tell if a deal can be made to save Blognation. Share the Blog: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
The dollar amounts (very, very small) necessary to cause the complete collapse of a blogging network is pretty telling.
The fact that TechCrunch now has a CEO and Mike still posted this PR horror reinforces my belief that TechCrunch will never catch CNET.
Blognation? Techcrunch? Who are these people and why do I care? I just followed a link from Digg here thinking it would be interesting. I didn’t think I’d end up reading about the grown-up equivalent of a high-school feud…
Aaron, you said “I’ve looked at Sam and Oliver’s very realistic looking reports.” That turns this into a blogger v. blogger battle, two sides of the story, etc. All you are focusing on is the one thing you can attack me for, and even that you are stretching to the point of being ridiculous. You know what? Just take you and your righteousness and go away.
Mike -
“Blognation? Techcrunch? Who are these people and why do I care? I just followed a link from Digg here thinking it would be interesting. I didn’t think I’d end up reading about the grown-up equivalent of a high-school feud…”
CTRL-W should sort out your problems.
>>>If Marc hadn’t been mentioned, what was your second choice for attack fodder in the post?
How about your ego, as I pointed out in my original post? You act as if everyone is supposed to know who the hell you are and your alleged accomplishments. I came in from a techmeme link.
Get over yourself.
And bringing in Orchant is still the lowest thing I have seen. And your defense of it is actually even lower.
Mike,
If you were only trying to say the Marc’s heart attack was the trigger for Oliver’s actions, as your protests indicate, retract the text that is offending every one: “. And the reason he had a heart attack may have been because he was working for Sam, not being paid, and massively stressed out about supporting his family. That is a debatable point, but”. Replace it simply with the word ” and”. Problem solved.
Even Oliver believed that you to be accusing Sam of directly causing Marc’s death… “While I won’t go as far as you and directly blame Sam for Marc Orchant’s tragedy”.
You shouldn’t be surprised, at this point, that others are reading it the same way.
Dancing around accusing someone of involuntary manslaughter isn’t often the wisest course of action, but if that IS what you are saying, then stick by it and don’t be surprised that it offends people.
You’re straddling a fence at the moment trying to keep inflammatory words and while being surprised that people are inflamed.
Mike - it says quite clearly who writes this blog in the sidebar. Go troll somewhere else.
Weary - actually, the problem would be solved if you simply left the blog and never came back. If you call what I’m doing dancing, you’re an idiot. Acutally, strike that. You’re just an idiot, period.
Mike,
Your post was so clear, so transparent and really well put together. It gives a lot of us hope that in the end hard work and honesty do win out over snake oil salesmen in the end.
But then you go and sully it by reacting so harshly to the trolls. Trolls will be trolls, you know that. You only make them more bold by even reacting to them. Don’t take their bait.
Your original piece stands perfectly well on its own. Thanks for writing it and helping us all to learn the lessons.
Good job to see the demise of Blognation. SS was always on such a downer about startups, like he had a real chip on his shoulder about people coming up with a decent idea and having the balls to give it a shot.
The fact that he had to rip off the Blognation idea from Lee Wilkins perhaps suggests that this bitterness came from an inability to have blue shy thoughts if his own.
And what is the subject line “heres-to-you-mrs-arrington…” of his final Blognation post all about? Does he think it’s a slur to refer to someone as Mrs? It’s not the 80’s Sam, for f*ck’s sake.
Good riddance.
First off, I think you deserve a certain amount of kudos Mike for posting this… I’m sure your finger hovered over the delete key more than once and it’s obviously an extremely difficult thing to write about.
I can see the people who are worried about Marc Orchants family have a good argument for why he shouldn’t be mentioned - but I also see (as others should try to) that whether the incidents are linked or not you’ve highlighted a key example of Sam Sethi treating people as subhuman and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
It is, unfortunately, necessary.
[...] For me it comes as no surprise that Blognation has joined the deadpool and yet again the handbags are out. Sam blames Mike A and Mike blames Sam. [...]
Regardless of who is right, this post and the whole series of back-and-forth is exactly why a blog business such as TechCrunch and certainly some others, cannot be taken seriously.
Mike, you really should be above this nonsense. To make it personal, much like your prior post, makes you look sleezy. That is not to say the allegations are not sleezy, but the way you cover it is not much above VelleyWag and you write about it in such a way that simply looks like you are taking too much glee.
Meanwhile, I have yet to read about Omnidrive for which you are involved apparently, and their alleged screwing of employees… much the way has been written about here and regarding the other blog startup.
In short, you come off looking like an immature and half baked operation with obvious biases.
The apparent behavior of Sethi speak for themselves without throwing yourself into the mud along with the laundry.
Mike,
In addition to the above, I missed this comment by you:
” the fact that you ignore all the incredibly evil shit Sethi did to his own employees, including Marc, tells me where you stand on this issue or any other that I post about: Anti-TechCrunch.”
Not only is this the attitude that I was writing about (childish at best - wha disagree with a part of your post and it is anti-techcrunch), but this also drives home the absurdity of you covering your own ass and not delving into omnidrive and the royal screwing going on there. But do it in a reporting way, rather than making leaps implicating someone in manslaughter.
Before you roll out your same tired line - read what I wrote above and what I say here: I read TechCrunch daily (many times), I enjoy TechCrunch by-in-large, I am not anti-TechCrunch (see said enjoyment) and I was not looking to pick in any way… but I have noted posts such in November, where the way your write is not only shameful but has crossed into offensive. The implications of the heart-attack, along with the clear personal vendetta you seem to have, while ignoring other similar stories, really make me lose respect for you and this business. There are clearly others that feel the same. You can send a big one fingered salute to us all if you like, but at the end of the day - we pay your bills. Many of us are simply asking you to attempt to really look at the slant and the way you have covered this entire thing from start to this really absurd finish. I write this because I would like to think TechCrunch and ultimately you, should be above this sleezy crap. A man is dead, you have no idea if it was related to the stress, but you chose to bring it up. That is just one of many things not right with it and I for one would like to see a follow-up post where you admit your slants and at least how it looked. Rise above this.
ben - Marc’s heart attack led to Oliver’s post, which led to blognation falling apart. its relevant.
comments are closed. I refuse to listen to anyone else draw conclusions about Marc that just aren’t supported by what I wrote, and any editors out there who still think that Sam is blameless in this situation and that somehow I am to blame for Blognation’s failure can take their rants elsewhere.