Comments on: Start-Up Junkies: Must Watch TV (or Hulu I should say)

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:23:30 +0000

Vasu – totally agree with you about Paul. Despite all of the crap that gets thrown at him, he keeps his composure and does his best to get his team to execute seemingly impossible tasks in the time allotted.

By: Vasu

Vasu — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:20:40 +0000

Both Natalee and Ron are big whiners and I have never seen an episode where Natalee has shown her abilities based on her Bio. It’s funny to see that she “counts” Sprint among her successes. Laughable on multiple counts. Sprint is in the crapper, never heard of Natalee as a name for Sprint’s success and I too can count a lot of things there were success when I don’t have to back them up.

The only guy who does stuff is Paul. He at least knows his role and gets on with it. Rest can be fired.

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:14:19 +0000

Michael -

Good to hear from you.

Nah, no real difference btwn watching it on the Mojo site or on Hulu. Hulu strikes deals with networks like NBC, Fox, Mojo, etc but all of those networks always post the same shows on their own sites. I personally just like having only one place to visit. I also like Hulu’s ad format and the quality of video.

I actually have not seen nor heard of that documentary. Just looked it up on IMDB for anyone interested http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/. Anyone know somewhere to watch it online? The trailer looks very good http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi310771993/

By: Michael Tavani

Michael Tavani — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:27:28 +0000

Adam –

Great find. I’ve heard great things about Hulu, but never watched anything on there myself. It’s funny because there are so many interesting things online, but without this post, I never hear about this show, which is totally my favorite type of format – documentary on a startup. There’s not a lot of those out there.

Quick question: is there any difference watching it on Hulu vs. Mojo? Seems similar.

Also, have you seen the documentary Startup.com? It does a good job showing a dot com during the bubble years. Entertaining stuff.

Thanks again and keep it up.

- Michael

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:57:30 +0000

@Alan – “I honestly don’t see the point of building a business if you only care about money; why not just go be a banker instead? In my mind it’s totally about seeing a problem that people have, and finding a way to solve it for them. The buzz comes from seeing the solution working, not the pay cheque.” Couldn’t agree more with that statement. And like you said, if that’s the way you look at things it is inevitably more FUN than stressful.

@Tom – “My last impression I got from the show is that I don’t think these guys are going to be successful because they all seem to have their own agendas and are not transparent with each other at all.” I’m glad you picked that up as well. I wasn’t sure if it was just me. This is absolutely mind boggling to me.

Btw, I have seen a few episodes of Rock Startup – it is very good as well. I will have to sit down and watch all of them. I believe I watched the first handful of episodes and haven’t watched one since.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:32:48 +0000

First of all thank you for posting about this show Adam. I am a pretty big Hulu fan, but hadn’t actually stumbled upon Start-Up Junkies yet. I have only had time to watch four of the eight episodes so far, but definitely think it is an interesting show. I have no doubts that everyone at Earth Class Mail is very smart, but I don’t know how they look past so many small things. I realize that they are very busy and constantly stressed, but things like having a website written by your lawyers or switching your company name three times are basic things and should never occur. I also think it is interesting that they went ahead and purchased that huge warehouse right off the start. Scaling your business is something you have to be able to do, but if you waste all your money on the warehouse then you may never even reach the point where you can scale. Before they get the funding they say that they only have enough money left to pay for two more payrolls. One has to question if some planning ahead could have foreseen this happening and perhaps avoided it. My last impression I got from the show is that I don’t think these guys are going to be successful because they all seem to have their own agendas and are not transparent with each other at all. I think transparency is very important and especially with a small start up like this you need to have a lot of teamwork and that basic sense of community in the workplace. It just doesn’t seem like everyone clicks together at Earth Class Mail, but who knows maybe things will change as I watch the final four episodes.

Also as a side note, have you watched the show Rock Startup? (rockstartup.com) It is a very similar show made about the people from PayPerPost, and is produced for shorter YouTube length episodes. They haven’t released any new episodes now for a month or two, but I think they have about 40 episodes in their archives. If you haven’t seen it I would definitely recommend checking it out.

By: Alan Pritt

Alan Pritt — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:24:57 +0000

I’m not in the States, so I can’t watch anything on Hulu; but I’ll still make a comment based on your analysis.

I’m totally with you on the attitude thing. If anything money matters too little to me. For me money is a practical thing to help me build the business. I honestly don’t see the point of building a business if you only care about money; why not just go be a banker instead? In my mind it’s totally about seeing a problem that people have, and finding a way to solve it for them. The buzz comes from seeing the solution working, not the pay cheque.

And it should be fun. I don’t think the fact that you are a start-up should mean you have to be stressed all the time. Stress most likely means you’ve made bad decisions, or not made enough decisions, changed your mind too often… well there are many reasons. But ultimately it means you’re not coping and you should probably slow down while you figure out how to stop the fires developing. Maybe this is what happens if you chase VC. As with going public, the money changes something fundamental about the business. Bootstrapping definitely makes more sense to me when starting up.