I’ve been asked repeatedly this last week about how it is I fell out with Michael Arrington. Not helped by this post at Valleywag. I know Owen is on holidays, because if he was there I would have received an email asking me about it (and for the record, I would have replied). I’m still waiting for that email. Also, I don’t think I’m a nerd. My degree was in Marketing (well ecommerce as well), and until I started blogging for a living I was for all intents and purposes a PR hack. I cope with geek better 😉
I don’t want to rehash the whole thing. Suffice to say Michael wasn’t happy with my deal with Tradevibes. It was a business deal, nothing more, nothing less. Tradevibes approached me with a great deal that delivered a co-branded company database site for The Inquisitr. I’ve always thought that the notion of having a site like this was a solid idea, but starting one from scratch was, in my current situation, which is self funded from savings, tight budget, and very much revenue negative at just shy of 2 months, something that I couldn’t do. Arrington and Cruchbase dealt only in loyalty, but with no real incentive. They even link condomed the links back out to those who used the Crunchbase embeds. I respect the avoid spam argument, but there was no actual incentive there.
Michael wasn’t happy. I received an email from him a week ago, after getting in very late from Pubcamp saying as such. It was personal. He made it personal, but it never was. It’s not as though I’d stopped linking to TechCrunch. Tradevibes copied Crunchbase no more that Crunchbase copied Killerstartups, and the idea of Wiki’s is hardly new. To this day I don’t believe that the deal was an affront to TechCrunch, and I asked myself whether if Michael was me if he’d have done the deal. I actually thought about it, he would have. It made sense, from a business perspective, and I still believe today that it’s a great value add for The Inquisitr.
Michael dislikes the fact that Tradevibes does deals with Mashable, but that has always been a dislike of his I’ve never understood. Besides, investors in Tradevibes include Ron Conway, a co-investor in Seesmic with Michael, and Dave McLure, one of the smartest guys I’ve had the privilege of meeting…and both times I’ve met the guy were at Arringtons house!
This will be my final word on the matter. It will probably make no difference, but I will say publicly that the fallout has deeply saddened me. For all of Michael’s interesting ways with people, I’ve always spoken extremely highly of him in private, and I think of a Calacanis adage about those who work the hardest achieve, because till the day I die I’ll probably never see anyone again who works as hard as Michael.
Hey that's a real shame, I was chuffed that someone could move from one blog to setup a competing blog with all parties remaining amicable.
Looking forward to it, lets have a pint and compare who's former boss is crazier.
wrong post for that comment, meant for your LA visit one.
Mike, you are crazy competitive, its a huge strength but at time a serious weakness. I already see crunchbase becoming the wiki for startups. The rankings and content are only geting better, I wouldn't worry so much. Like with search, competition is good here.
All this web2.0 drama is jamaican my crazy
You mean something appeared on Valleywag that was true? I thought it was a PR move. Anyway, for the record I thought ismikearringtonadick[dot]com was pretty funny.
nice comments, nice tone … your destiny is to do inquisitr, circumstances line up in such a way that that can happen, and nothing is actually personal about that, we all ride the wave of time and event and circumstance, do the best we can.
all people have quirks. love them anyway.
Having a relationship deterioriate is always a shame. Maybe with time, feelings will heal a little bit and it will all be water over the damn. I hope so!
Still complimenting him even though he is a complete a**hole to you…kind of pathetic, Duncan. And you're calling Dave McClure one of the smartest men you've ever met? You hang out with a pretty dumb crowd.
Why try to salvage a relationship with a man who obviously has no respect for you? You say that he is hard working and will probably succeed. What about hubris? Hasn't that been known to be a man's downfall? It seems like Arrington has a bit of that working against him.
Duncan, it seems like you have integrity. My advice to you: sack up, be a man and don't coddle Michael when he insults you. Be an Aussie, damn it! Good luck with your start up. I like the blend of tech and gossip.
Still complimenting him even though he is a complete a**hole to you…kind of pathetic, Duncan. And you're calling Dave McClure one of the smartest men you've ever met? You hang out with a pretty dumb crowd.
Why try to salvage a relationship with a man who obviously has no respect for you? You say that he is hard working and will probably succeed. What about hubris? Hasn't that been known to be a man's downfall? It seems like Arrington has a bit of that working against him.
Duncan, it seems like you have integrity. My advice to you: sack up, be a man and don't coddle Michael when he insults you. Be an Aussie, damn it! Good luck with your start up. I like the blend of tech and gossip.
Still complimenting him even though he is a complete a**hole to you…kind of pathetic, Duncan. And you're calling Dave McClure one of the smartest men you've ever met? You hang out with a pretty dumb crowd.
Why try to salvage a relationship with a man who obviously has no respect for you? You say that he is hard working and will probably succeed. What about hubris? Hasn't that been known to be a man's downfall? It seems like Arrington has a bit of that working against him.
Duncan, it seems like you have integrity. My advice to you: sack up, be a man and don't coddle Michael when he insults you. Be an Aussie, damn it! Good luck with your start up. I like the blend of tech and gossip.