I keep an anthology of ancient Chinese lit. on my desk, and that's a great quotation. I also like The Godfather, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
WRT the non-event at LeWeb, I just watched the video and it didn't seem worthy of so much controversy. Pure spectacle by design of the participants I suspect. It was probably the worst and shortest G Gang I've listened to this year (and I listen to all of them).
The affiliate marketing industry does have a poor image, not sure there's anything to be done about that. It is a B2B operation, so it doesn't really matter. It is just business :)
Last thing: "VC money" does not normally = debt. In fact, venture capital is, by definition, equity financing. One does not owe the VC firm(s) if the company fails.
Scott, you are right about VCs using debt. It's just that it's sometimes it's rather disguised.
I worked for a company that received VC financing, but it emerged later that there was interest accruing for the amount the VCs had put into the company. This meant that when we eventually went public (after many years), the VCs were paid back their interest from the proceeds of going public, and then they also got to cash out of their stock (they owned most of the company). To be fair, they would have lost everything if the company failed, but they did get this extra "bump" in the terms that they negotiated, which really wasn't talked about openly - it just slipped out at a meeting.
The explanation I heard was that this provided an incentive to exit quickly, before more interest piled up. Incentive indeed!
I haven't heard people talking much about this tactic. Usually it's just the VC=Equity Financing thing. But here's a pdf that talks about it in some more detail:
http://www.yvcs.org/uploads/1118448011Venture%20Debt_final.pdf
Personally, I'll take $100k in affiliate revenue with no strings attached over $10mil in VC funding any day. But then again, I'm a salesman at heart.
My 2 favorite quotes from Sun Tsu are...
"We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors."
Entering partnerships in business, requires an unrushed courting period, where you get your last chance to learn if she's a good match, with good intentions, before any damage can be done.
~~~~~~~~~~
"The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain."
Optimists is business, see opportunities where many see as obstacles, making this not only a Sun Tsu classic, be a real life Yin-Yang truth. Conquering obstacles (aka achievement) first requires you to recognize them, them to have the will to try to vanquish them, then the savvy and patience and intellect to devise and implement tactics to that end.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These antagonists, Calcanis and Arrington, to me, are just the road noises we hear along the way on our ride. Beep, beep.
I would say that perception of affiliate marketers is that they are one notch above used car salesman. However, I do not believe it has been brought to the main stream public and 100k checks have not been shown as the norm by any means and so the only people who know what an affiliate marketer is are internet minded people who have little use for affiliates.
I say let them talk, if they wan't to look to silicon valley and say thats good practice, they forget one thing.. Silicon valley has a almost unlimited start capital. Its easy to become successful when you have a head start.
We who are trying to make a living through the "affiliate" world, are all entrepeneurs, most with a small budget. And excuse me, if I reach the point I get $100000 through "affiliate" marketing, they can call me stupid, a spammer or an idiot..... I won't care.
I would have put in an enormous effort that paid off. I think we are more ambitious and harder working than most of the silicon valley personel, taking no risk at all and waiting to get their monthly paychecks.
No people, we are the modern Knights, fighting against the boring 9to5 world. So call us a spammer, a amateur.. or whatever...
Well that was my 2 cents.
© 2012 http://www.jangro.com/
RSS
As I read about the scuffle between Michael Arrington and, well, the entire European Internet community, I'm reminded of another high profile Silicon Valley individual making waves at another industry conference.
In the recent case, Arrington was on the stage at LeWeb '08 in Paris. In response to Loic Le Meur's statement that Silicon Valley moves too fast, and that Europeans enjoy a good two hour lunch just to experience the joy of life, Arrington recounts in his blog post:
Ouch. Thank you, may I have another?
Almost a year ago, Jason Calacanis stood on the stage at Affiliate Summit and essentially called Affiliate Marketers a bunch of spammers and short-sighted entrepreneurial wannabes. He scoffed at the $100,000 single paycheck earned by a kid (read revenue) and suggested that we aim higher, that in silicon valley they like to add a few zeros and get it as VC money (read debt).
Instead of screaming to have Calacanis banned from another industry event, my response was, "Holy crap, is this really how the valley perceives affiliate marketing?" We've got a serious image problem, one that matters when a big source of our traffic comes from companies who live in that valley.
The comments may sting, and the SV guys are remarkably without tact. But look in the mirror at yourself and the people around you, who define you to the rest of the world. Is there any truth there? And does it matter?
You may decide that you don't need or want to be more like the Silicon Valley rat-racers as they think you should. But at the very least, understand what they're thinking, and check to see what you can do to be better in business, and how you may deal with them better in whatever ways you need to.
Fighting back with words won't change their attitudes. Action will.
I'll let Sun Tzu make the point for me: