for 6 October 1999. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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IPO'd That article rocked! As a member of a prepublic company, I well know how many people are planning to ride a shiny new Mercedes into the sunset. And yet, aren't the cynical among us waiting with perverse anticipation for the whole thing to fall about our ears? It's nice to hear the story Newsweek doesn't tell you. Beth Morgan <bmorgan@digital-impact.com> You might want to warn them: sometimes the sunset is a plywood backdrop. But, believe me, the pleasure of saying "I told you so" is a muted one at best, especially when it can't be heard above the rending of cloth. An Entirely Other Greg  Great Suck. Incidentally, usually some junior associate at the law firm representing the underwriter is the one who is supposed to register the ticker symbol with Nasdaq. Nasdaq used to require all kinds of notice, but now they just need, like, 24 hours. Hence, there's probably some lawyer out there in the Valley with ears singed from fiery partner breath, briefcase weighed down with a pink slip, and serious doubt as to how to pay his or her $2,000-a-month rent on Potrero Hill. You can call that justice and be consoled or add it to the personal fortune death toll of an IPO gone wrong. I'm not sure the Valley rewards merit anymore (if it ever did), but it still punishes a lack of it. Antoun Nabhan <anabhan@law.harvard.edu> If only. That someone who can't be bothered to flip the most important switch on the most important day of the offering managed to get into a position where he could screw up that badly — without anyone looking over his shoulder — is an embarrassment verging on the satiric. But it's also pretty typical. An Entirely Other Greg Subject: Re: IPOs (And How They) Suck Interesting column. Hey, look on the bright side — at least you went public. I worked at an information retrieval/knowledge management startup for a couple of years. We had lots of promise and great technology, but we burned through the VC cash and got sold. None of the employees got any kind of return on their options. When this happened after I worked startup hours for about a year and a half, I came to some realizations about startups similar to yours. Now I work 9 to 5 (except for crisis mode, but that's not every day anymore) and collect the paycheck. I still want to try my luck with a startup again, but at least I'll know a little more going into it this time and be able to balance the myths with the realities, hopefully without being too bitter. :) I assume you read Po Bronson's article about startup employees in the recent issue of Wired? It was a good reality check. Of course, my friend left the company we were working for, moved to Santa Barbara, and started working for a messaging products company that went public recently and is now trading at around 50. I guess it's time to pack my car and head to California. Craig Thrall <craig@thrall.net> I believe it's the Chinese who say, "A successful friend is a curse, because he will cause you to spend your days wondering, 'Why not me? Huh? I mean, why not?' and farting away what is probably a good job for some stupid, million-to-one shot." An Entirely Other Greg Tech Support Bill of Rights Hi Suck. I work in telephone tech support for a major computer manufacturer. I have a few pointers for your readers about phone support: 1. We do not care how long you have been on hold. 2. A hardware technician will not help you with outlook. 3. Call in for a single issue at a time. 4. Do not ask a series of unrelated questions or talk about things unrelated to your computer. 5. Don't annoy the technician or you may be put back on hold. And there are a couple of other things to bear in mind: We get rated by our call times. If your call is finished quickly, you are more likely to get better support. Also, not all technicians are überusers, but you did call us for our help. Please be courteous. It makes our job nicer, making it easier for us to be nicer to you. Feeling so disgruntled that I may apply for a job with the postal service, Joel Mcgrady <capttwinky@yahoo.com> We don't doubt that there's nothing worse than sitting on the phone all day, pretending to care about idiotic customers' problems, but see, that's your job. We suggest you look into other career possibilities. the Sucksters IPO'd Subject: Re: No Subject Thanks for those revelations! <Mopopop@ aol.com> My pleasure. I figure if I can amortize my painful experience over as many people as possible, then, heck, I didn't lose out on a bunch of money: We all lost out on just a little bit. Right? Right, damn it? An Entirely Other Greg Hello. Great article on the dark side of IPOs! Can you tell me who the company was, please? Thanks! Tom Bagnell <tabagnell@email.msn.com> Oh, come on! That would take the fun out of it. Consider it a game: Who can find the source of that rotting smell first? An Entirely Other Greg Nice column, although painful to read. It sounds like you were moving in parallel to our company, which postponed its offering during the bottom of the market in August. The night we were scheduled to price, there were 17 other issues. We'd cut our offering size and price, and it was still looking bad. In a conversation with a banker that night, I likened it to the lights going on in a bar at 3 a.m.; even if you could hook up in that desperate moment, you'd definitely regret it in the morning. <gallen@ echonyc.com> Heck, I wish my company had been in the bar instead of standing outside on the street corner in fish-nets and stiletto heels. "You wanna date?" it said as I walked by. "Twenty bucks. No, wait, ten. OK, eight. All right, five-and-a-quarter." An Entirely Other Greg Welcome to the real world. Despite exuberant news stories, hard work and long hours don't always pay off. It's not just the world of IPOs. Check out the failure rate of restaurants or really any small business that doesn't have a .com. For every winner there are many losers. Or did I miss your point? KBD JXNO <kbdjxno@hotmail.com> No, no, that was pretty much my point. But I had to pad it out to 1,200 words in order to get paid. An Entirely Other Greg |
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