welcome back to segment three of show 15
so lightning round what’s the first
question all right so Tommy ash is TV
dead uh I’m gonna be sitting on a panel
at digital hollywood this week where
we’re going to be talking more and more
about that no TV is not that TV did more
revenue than ever last year TV still has
the best programming TV carries news and
sports etc etc TV is not dead I just
think that in 10 years the companies
that are the Viacom’s the news corp’s
the NBC’s those companies will face the
various degrees some of the same things
that print and print and music companies
went through but overall the same way
that the advent of cable made total
television consumption and advertising
bigger I do think though that overall
the overall consumption of content will
just increase because now if I don’t
have time to watch television pretty
soon I will be able to watch it on
demand on a tablet and the reason for
that is that the gatekeepers like
comcast and verizon are going to keep
pushing the envelope to offer more to
users because they they control
distribution and they want offer more
question number two so you always think
about oh my god if you embrace
technology you’re going to basically
survive the early adopter through the
early adopter but yet in fear in
practice it’s almost the opposite case
in point the San Jose Mercury News they
adopted newspaper they adopted the
internet really really early and they
almost got crushed more than anyone else
so why didn’t the Mercury News become
this amazing model of embracing the
latest shiniest gadget um you know I
haven’t dived into them you know Mercury
News case study deeply but I think what
really killed newspapers early off
whether they were early adopters or not
was it was a complete lack of ad
targeting for to a big degree the
technology wasn’t really there yet but I
think what they did wrong is they just
tried to apply their their print ad
sales model to online you know just sell
out some real estate then they found out
there’s only so much people are willing
to pay for an impression and then they
started you know
as a result they see their website is
not making very much money they treated
it as this bastard redheaded stepchild
and they don’t invest in doing more
things but really what it came down to
his lack of ad targeting with good ad
targeting they could have diversified
more mixed up impressions with cpa with
CPC depending on who the user is and
they probably could have done a little
bit more symbiotic editorial now I
realize newspapers are supposed to
provide reporting and be objective but
like let’s face it they’re arts and life
section their auto section like these
these are sections of the newspaper that
can actually drive a lot of page views
and they have a little bit more
flexibility in terms of like the kind of
editorial they deliver so yeah mostly ad
targeting but because of the ad
targeting they did invest in proper
digital strategy because they didn’t see
a return okay I’m not gonna chime on I
am going to say this on an upcoming show
we’re going to talk about craigslist the
impact on newspapers how much of it is
myth how much of it is fear mongering
you know fud and how much of it is
actually legitimately what Facebook did
to newspapers okay so little mental note
next question all right um so Mark
Pincus did something interesting this
week a sh do you think he was unethical
for trying to waste trying to take away
stock from his early employees so mark
pincus is the CEO of Zynga one of the
hottest companies out there mark pincus
has already the unfortunate reality that
there was a video of him like a couple
years ago that came out about how much
he talked about what unethical things he
did to get revenue by basically you know
violating users rights and all that and
it was very embarrassing Tim so Mark
Pincus that is context that he has a
track record of really pushing the
envelope but you know what the season
and Wall Street love that kind of CEO
they love the kind of CEOs cutthroat
who’s going to do what’s best for
himself in his company and his
shareholders and could care less about
you know how things look but to be fair
here there’s what the market thought
happened which was Mark Pincus telling
his employees we’re going to take stock
away from you because we want to give it
to new employees and we don’t want to
dilute let’s I don’t want to dilute as a
CEO or the investors don’t want to
dilute that’s really unfair and shocking
or whatnot but what he actually said was
there are some employees who have not
vested
all their stock let’s say you have stock
that you earn over four year period
you’ve been with Zynga for two years or
you know the remaining two years of
unvested stock you want you should give
some of that back because you’re not
performing the way we thought you were
this is a very murky area it’s like
lawyers go crazy right so as much as
what he’s doing is unfair in the eyes of
many and I would never personally do it
it’s not what was initially reported in
the media because nowadays people want
to be the first to jump on the story and
not report the facts that is not cool
I’m going to just say listen mark zhang
sorry margins inga mark pincus is Mark
Pincus that’s how he is it shouldn’t
surprise you and vc-backed companies
don’t really care about anyone but the
investors who put in the money not the
shareholders who might have stock as
employees and all that but the guys who
put the money to me when I started
watchmojo and this is like naive
idealistic stupid you know innocent a
sheer but I was like you know I’d like
to start a company where I can you know
be a certain way with clients and
employees and you know what that’s I
think naive and you know stupid
basically that’s the real world what
Mark Pincus is doing just got out stuff
like that unfortunately happens at more
or less every venture-backed companies
it’s just the reality was on answering
the question just because it happens and
just because it makes sense from a
business investment side is it ethical
or not uh is it ethical it’s life’s
unfair I don’t think it’s ethical I
don’t share mark pincus moral compass
but mark pincus is worth on paper let’s
say five billion dollars I’m worth five
dollars let’s say and I think it depends
what is your objective in life if it’s
purely to make money like you know it’s
like there’s a class ad in college it
was what’s the objective what’s the
constraint if you wake up in the morning
and your objective is make the most
money possible let’s say for me it’s
like build something that has value and
the constraint is don’t be a dick you
know I could step on the neck of many
people clients suppliers employees to
get an extra two dollars out of every
transaction I like to go with what dick
Parsons former chairman of Time Warner
says which was when you negotiate leave
something on the table
other party if you always try to get
every penny on the table well that other
your counterparty won’t want to deal
with you down the road so mark pink is
we live in a world it’s a capitalist
world vc’s markets everybody rewards
that kind of behavior implicitly and
explicitly it doesn’t matter if it’s
unethical that’s the world we live in
VCS are conditioning entrepreneurs to be
bastards that’s the world we live in
it’s not about ethics it’s that’s the
world we live in so if you decide to
play ball with VCS that’s the kind of
stuff you have to do you know I wouldn’t
do it do I think Mark Pincus is an
a-hole I don’t know him would I do that
no what does that do to morale doesn’t
really help it the profile of an
employee that joins you when you’re
worth 20 billion is different than the
employee that joins you when you got a
piece of paper on a napkin you should
treat those you should treat those
employees differently but again I’m not
anybody to tell mark part Pincus what to
do I when you’re trying really hard not
to offend him right I would love no
here’s what I will say I would love it
if Fred Wilson who’s the investor in in
zynga to chime in on that but I’m pretty
sure he won’t either you know again it’s
a it’s a it’s a beautiful thing in life
you you don’t have to agree with people
and you know did litigation ultimately
help the music industry I think
litigations screwed the music industry
Napster came out mp3.com came out they
got sued they got shut down the people
who are interested in this kind of
technology said okay what were the legal
terms of why you know Napster didn’t get
away with it we’ll just find another way
to doing it current peer-to-peer
technology now the music industry has no
choice but to go after like single mums
which they’ve done to you know make an
example ideal up to sue there you know
well that’s it you know and you can’t
sue every consumer out there so I think
litigation ultimately screwed them I
think you know maybe they should have
played ball with Sean Parker and
actually jump on the bag on a lot
earlier they probably could have
precluded the possibility of itunes if
they done so who’s to say you know it’s
in the past and we’ll never know but
yeah I think litigation screwed them
pretty hard email the week email the
week Baltimore not too many blue moons
come from Baltimore Ansel is that how
you pronounce it and pencil it Ansel
from Baltimore I’m guessing but yes I
hope so sorry Ansel do you need to be in
New York or San Francisco or
major city to do a digital media or tech
startup I actually went to college with
an Ansel but he wasn’t from Baltimore do
you need to be in New York or San Fran
or LA or any major city to do it media
or tech startup I think you could start
a company more or less everywhere but to
scale it you do need to be in a big city
I don’t care about what technology does
and this and that I’ll give you a couple
of examples so we started the company in
Montreal Montreal it’s great city it’s
great to start it lots of talent here
you know you see everybody loving it
shouting you know shout out to the city
but like when Google and YouTube
basically forked over a hundred to two
hundred million dollars to content
producers you know there is merit if you
are in their face and you run into the
people who make those kind of decisions
at the cocktail parties and the after
party events and all that and I think if
you’re not you know out of sight out of
mind if you’re not in front meeting
people running into people stumbling
into people you do miss out on a lot of
opportunities but at the end of the day
I think the beautiful thing about the
web is you should probably set up your
company where you’re going to find
talent you know so for us being in the
media creative space I think I lucked
out or I mean I don’t say it was part of
the vision I think I lucked out to be
set up in Montreal there’s a lot of very
creative people if I would have been a
tech company you know I think then yeah
you might need to be a now here’s the
irony even in tech it’s harder to hire
in San friend than it is saying Montreal
right so so times have changed but I do
think though that if you really want to
build like a multi-billion dollar
company then you do need to be in like
the center of capital and the center of
your field so New York or San Fran or LA
so you could set it up anywhere but you
do need to move very quickly or at least
have some kind of representation yep
alright so that was this week’s show
show number 15 and we’ll be back next
week same time same place
so lightning round what’s the first
question all right so Tommy ash is TV
dead uh I’m gonna be sitting on a panel
at digital hollywood this week where
we’re going to be talking more and more
about that no TV is not that TV did more
revenue than ever last year TV still has
the best programming TV carries news and
sports etc etc TV is not dead I just
think that in 10 years the companies
that are the Viacom’s the news corp’s
the NBC’s those companies will face the
various degrees some of the same things
that print and print and music companies
went through but overall the same way
that the advent of cable made total
television consumption and advertising
bigger I do think though that overall
the overall consumption of content will
just increase because now if I don’t
have time to watch television pretty
soon I will be able to watch it on
demand on a tablet and the reason for
that is that the gatekeepers like
comcast and verizon are going to keep
pushing the envelope to offer more to
users because they they control
distribution and they want offer more
question number two so you always think
about oh my god if you embrace
technology you’re going to basically
survive the early adopter through the
early adopter but yet in fear in
practice it’s almost the opposite case
in point the San Jose Mercury News they
adopted newspaper they adopted the
internet really really early and they
almost got crushed more than anyone else
so why didn’t the Mercury News become
this amazing model of embracing the
latest shiniest gadget um you know I
haven’t dived into them you know Mercury
News case study deeply but I think what
really killed newspapers early off
whether they were early adopters or not
was it was a complete lack of ad
targeting for to a big degree the
technology wasn’t really there yet but I
think what they did wrong is they just
tried to apply their their print ad
sales model to online you know just sell
out some real estate then they found out
there’s only so much people are willing
to pay for an impression and then they
started you know
as a result they see their website is
not making very much money they treated
it as this bastard redheaded stepchild
and they don’t invest in doing more
things but really what it came down to
his lack of ad targeting with good ad
targeting they could have diversified
more mixed up impressions with cpa with
CPC depending on who the user is and
they probably could have done a little
bit more symbiotic editorial now I
realize newspapers are supposed to
provide reporting and be objective but
like let’s face it they’re arts and life
section their auto section like these
these are sections of the newspaper that
can actually drive a lot of page views
and they have a little bit more
flexibility in terms of like the kind of
editorial they deliver so yeah mostly ad
targeting but because of the ad
targeting they did invest in proper
digital strategy because they didn’t see
a return okay I’m not gonna chime on I
am going to say this on an upcoming show
we’re going to talk about craigslist the
impact on newspapers how much of it is
myth how much of it is fear mongering
you know fud and how much of it is
actually legitimately what Facebook did
to newspapers okay so little mental note
next question all right um so Mark
Pincus did something interesting this
week a sh do you think he was unethical
for trying to waste trying to take away
stock from his early employees so mark
pincus is the CEO of Zynga one of the
hottest companies out there mark pincus
has already the unfortunate reality that
there was a video of him like a couple
years ago that came out about how much
he talked about what unethical things he
did to get revenue by basically you know
violating users rights and all that and
it was very embarrassing Tim so Mark
Pincus that is context that he has a
track record of really pushing the
envelope but you know what the season
and Wall Street love that kind of CEO
they love the kind of CEOs cutthroat
who’s going to do what’s best for
himself in his company and his
shareholders and could care less about
you know how things look but to be fair
here there’s what the market thought
happened which was Mark Pincus telling
his employees we’re going to take stock
away from you because we want to give it
to new employees and we don’t want to
dilute let’s I don’t want to dilute as a
CEO or the investors don’t want to
dilute that’s really unfair and shocking
or whatnot but what he actually said was
there are some employees who have not
vested
all their stock let’s say you have stock
that you earn over four year period
you’ve been with Zynga for two years or
you know the remaining two years of
unvested stock you want you should give
some of that back because you’re not
performing the way we thought you were
this is a very murky area it’s like
lawyers go crazy right so as much as
what he’s doing is unfair in the eyes of
many and I would never personally do it
it’s not what was initially reported in
the media because nowadays people want
to be the first to jump on the story and
not report the facts that is not cool
I’m going to just say listen mark zhang
sorry margins inga mark pincus is Mark
Pincus that’s how he is it shouldn’t
surprise you and vc-backed companies
don’t really care about anyone but the
investors who put in the money not the
shareholders who might have stock as
employees and all that but the guys who
put the money to me when I started
watchmojo and this is like naive
idealistic stupid you know innocent a
sheer but I was like you know I’d like
to start a company where I can you know
be a certain way with clients and
employees and you know what that’s I
think naive and you know stupid
basically that’s the real world what
Mark Pincus is doing just got out stuff
like that unfortunately happens at more
or less every venture-backed companies
it’s just the reality was on answering
the question just because it happens and
just because it makes sense from a
business investment side is it ethical
or not uh is it ethical it’s life’s
unfair I don’t think it’s ethical I
don’t share mark pincus moral compass
but mark pincus is worth on paper let’s
say five billion dollars I’m worth five
dollars let’s say and I think it depends
what is your objective in life if it’s
purely to make money like you know it’s
like there’s a class ad in college it
was what’s the objective what’s the
constraint if you wake up in the morning
and your objective is make the most
money possible let’s say for me it’s
like build something that has value and
the constraint is don’t be a dick you
know I could step on the neck of many
people clients suppliers employees to
get an extra two dollars out of every
transaction I like to go with what dick
Parsons former chairman of Time Warner
says which was when you negotiate leave
something on the table
other party if you always try to get
every penny on the table well that other
your counterparty won’t want to deal
with you down the road so mark pink is
we live in a world it’s a capitalist
world vc’s markets everybody rewards
that kind of behavior implicitly and
explicitly it doesn’t matter if it’s
unethical that’s the world we live in
VCS are conditioning entrepreneurs to be
bastards that’s the world we live in
it’s not about ethics it’s that’s the
world we live in so if you decide to
play ball with VCS that’s the kind of
stuff you have to do you know I wouldn’t
do it do I think Mark Pincus is an
a-hole I don’t know him would I do that
no what does that do to morale doesn’t
really help it the profile of an
employee that joins you when you’re
worth 20 billion is different than the
employee that joins you when you got a
piece of paper on a napkin you should
treat those you should treat those
employees differently but again I’m not
anybody to tell mark part Pincus what to
do I when you’re trying really hard not
to offend him right I would love no
here’s what I will say I would love it
if Fred Wilson who’s the investor in in
zynga to chime in on that but I’m pretty
sure he won’t either you know again it’s
a it’s a it’s a beautiful thing in life
you you don’t have to agree with people
and you know did litigation ultimately
help the music industry I think
litigations screwed the music industry
Napster came out mp3.com came out they
got sued they got shut down the people
who are interested in this kind of
technology said okay what were the legal
terms of why you know Napster didn’t get
away with it we’ll just find another way
to doing it current peer-to-peer
technology now the music industry has no
choice but to go after like single mums
which they’ve done to you know make an
example ideal up to sue there you know
well that’s it you know and you can’t
sue every consumer out there so I think
litigation ultimately screwed them I
think you know maybe they should have
played ball with Sean Parker and
actually jump on the bag on a lot
earlier they probably could have
precluded the possibility of itunes if
they done so who’s to say you know it’s
in the past and we’ll never know but
yeah I think litigation screwed them
pretty hard email the week email the
week Baltimore not too many blue moons
come from Baltimore Ansel is that how
you pronounce it and pencil it Ansel
from Baltimore I’m guessing but yes I
hope so sorry Ansel do you need to be in
New York or San Francisco or
major city to do a digital media or tech
startup I actually went to college with
an Ansel but he wasn’t from Baltimore do
you need to be in New York or San Fran
or LA or any major city to do it media
or tech startup I think you could start
a company more or less everywhere but to
scale it you do need to be in a big city
I don’t care about what technology does
and this and that I’ll give you a couple
of examples so we started the company in
Montreal Montreal it’s great city it’s
great to start it lots of talent here
you know you see everybody loving it
shouting you know shout out to the city
but like when Google and YouTube
basically forked over a hundred to two
hundred million dollars to content
producers you know there is merit if you
are in their face and you run into the
people who make those kind of decisions
at the cocktail parties and the after
party events and all that and I think if
you’re not you know out of sight out of
mind if you’re not in front meeting
people running into people stumbling
into people you do miss out on a lot of
opportunities but at the end of the day
I think the beautiful thing about the
web is you should probably set up your
company where you’re going to find
talent you know so for us being in the
media creative space I think I lucked
out or I mean I don’t say it was part of
the vision I think I lucked out to be
set up in Montreal there’s a lot of very
creative people if I would have been a
tech company you know I think then yeah
you might need to be a now here’s the
irony even in tech it’s harder to hire
in San friend than it is saying Montreal
right so so times have changed but I do
think though that if you really want to
build like a multi-billion dollar
company then you do need to be in like
the center of capital and the center of
your field so New York or San Fran or LA
so you could set it up anywhere but you
do need to move very quickly or at least
have some kind of representation yep
alright so that was this week’s show
show number 15 and we’ll be back next
week same time same place
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