If that religious behavior led to products that people loved, is it really wrong to be religious about it? What's the alternative? Believe that you can't truly know anything and not build anything worthwhile?
As I've grown older, I've come to believe that holding strong opinions and being decisive is extremely important and impactful. It comes with the caveat though that as soon as you find you're wrong, you need to be able to change direction and not cling to your disproved beliefs.
> holding strong opinions and being decisive is extremely important
it is, and yes you can be wrong. but it's being strongly opinionated that matters, not being right (assuming you don't confuse that with just being stubborn). Many "meh" projects are just due to not being able to make strong, bold choices.
Willix - For those of us that aren't aware of freelancer, can you provide some numbers on the kind of growth this team has been able to achieve? Also, it will help to know some top performing growth tactics for you guys...examples as specific as the airbnb one would be great!
Fair enough. Per AllthingsD [1], Andrew Mason has sold about 4 million shares, for $27 million. Per the latest S-1 [2], it appears Mason retains about 23.5 million shares, so he's sold about 15% of his earlier stake.
Eric Lefkofksy has sold (through related entities jointly owned with his wife) about 32 million shares, for $382 million. From the latest S-1, it appears he and his LLCs retain about 129 million shares, so he's sold about 20% of his earlier holdings.
Interestingly, Groupon also paid out about $27 million in dividends in 2009.
Mason diversifying away from Groupon makes good sense, without sending much of a negative signal, as his net worth was probably 99%+ in Groupon before the 2009 dividend and then later stock sales. Lefkofsky was already very wealthy (and thus presumably diversified) from other ventures, so his sales are a stronger signal that he thinks other investments are more promising.
Ok, so I'm trying to wrap my head around he ultimately gets screwed on this... Are the people/entities who bought $382mil worth of shares potentially screwed now that they see the real valuation? Is there any potential for fraud in this case?
>It's important to know what percentage of his total shares he dumped to form an opinion on this.
not in such a case. 382M out of close to 1B round - it is obvious that he dumped _all_ what he could dump. The rest of his holding doesn't matter - it is just paper.
Agreed. It's certainly not unheard of, or even necessarily unsavory, for founders and early-stage investors to take some profit off the table in later financing rounds. Since Groupon received HUGE financing prior to IPO, taking $382mm out might not have amounted to a giant percentage. Then again, it may have. But the percentage is indeed the more interesting figure.
Basically, the value proposition seems to be something like Groupon. Humble Bundle will become a place known to offer low priced games. People will go there in order to find low priced games. The fact that so many people go there will attract game developers to offer their games there at a huge discount hoping to get their name out and get some traction. I am not sure it will work but I am pretty sure this is their plan.
Do you think "low-priced" is a necessary part of the offering? I'd be strongly tempted to emphasize the other parts (aesthetic, Rage Against The Machine, etc), deemphasize "pay however little you think is fair", and walk up the number of sales in the $40+ bucket.
Humble Bundle is becoming the go-to place for platform agnostic independent game sales. Imagine what would happen if Humble Bundle, Inc. became the defacto, cross-platform Steam competitor. On top of that, Jeffrey Rosen's connection into the gaming industry puts him one step ahead of any potential competitors.
It's the same Amazon account for Associates and purchases... It's quite simple to match up. You may able to sneak around with different email and mailing addresses, but you still have cookies to deal with.
As I've grown older, I've come to believe that holding strong opinions and being decisive is extremely important and impactful. It comes with the caveat though that as soon as you find you're wrong, you need to be able to change direction and not cling to your disproved beliefs.