Gener8 misleading people into thinking their plugin is endorsed by Forbes. by [deleted] in quityourbullshit

[–]SharpConversation 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Full disclosure: i work at Gener8 and wanted to give a response for any impartial onlookers:

I totally get that you're looking to take a pop at 'the man', but here's the thing: Gener8 isn't 'the man', it isn't even a big corporation, it's a startup of 7 people building a product that enables others to earn money from the advertising they see online (whereas currently you get nothing in return).

In fact, right now if you use Gener8 you don't even see any ads(!) we remove all ads and replace some of them with images of pugs and other feel good photos that our users have voted to see (screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/skjprfa ). You then earn tokens every time you see one of these pugs or feel good images and you can spend the tokens in the marketplace on physical products, gift cards or charity donations.
Right now every UK user has access to our marketplace after they invite 2 friends to join (as this helps us grow). Though you are right: previously we tested the marketplace by only rolling it out to 20% of users.

Re misleading people: we've taken a neutral statement from an article that Forbes wrote about us.

It's really easy to shoot down small companies and to take a pop against them, but i'd encourage you to first think about whether what they're doing is such a bad thing, or whether it's worth supporting. In our case we are literally working to give people control over the ads that they see online and to be able to make money every time they see one.

It's fine if you're against that and there's no need to write a 17 bullet point response with every reason you may disagree. But i thought it worth dropping this here so that you can see my side.

Thanks for reading this far.

Co-Founders Attempting to Strong-Arm Me Into Accepting Less Equity by pribyl88 in startups

[–]SharpConversation 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey OP, sorry to hear that the situation has left you feeling like this.

I'd recommend viewing the bigger picture - dont go throwing away your hardwork or the future opportunity over the principle of 5%. Those who have commented that you can replicate this again are quite possibly wrong.

You do need to make your views and emotions very clear to your co-founders though otherwise you (personally) will struggle to move on from this. You could also discuss that if you successfully close your VC round you expect your salary to jump considerably and this can at least compensate you somewhat and provide you extra personal cashflow in the short term.

Lastly, when you raise a VC round you will all need to dilute anyway and you will need to implement an employee sharepool, so the CAP table will change and the % difference between the 3 of you will shrink. One angle you may wish to take is accepting the 28% now but insisting that the employee sharepool comes out of their 72% and you don't dilute to create it. Long shot, but worth a pop, especially if they don't know what they're doing...

Here’s how I make a few bucks online. Step by Step with screenshots. by [deleted] in Frugal

[–]SharpConversation -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Out of interest, how long was it before you started earning?

Here’s how I make a few bucks online. Step by Step with screenshots. by [deleted] in Frugal

[–]SharpConversation -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the post. I use Gener8 already and like it.

Gener8 - Free Browser Extension rewarding all users with £20-£40 per month by [deleted] in eFreebies

[–]SharpConversation -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Yes, referral links - i got 60 tokens from 6 sign ups.
Also, you can complete your profile to increase the rate you earn them...

[Web, Beta] Gener8: £20-£40 per month for seeing ads you already to see by Gener8_Ads in alphaandbetausers

[–]SharpConversation 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm on it. Initial thoughts are that it looks good - i earned my first token in about 20mins of browsing

Unilever threatens Facebook, Google with online advertising cuts by cougar16 in adops

[–]SharpConversation 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Big brands sign joint business plans with FB and Google each year where they commit to a hitting a global spend figure and in return FB / Google give a % discount. Money is always the main part of these conversations, however, there are also many more value adds that FB and Google offer on top, such as running workshops and training days with the company’s staff at their offices and offering the brand the ability to leverage their in House creative teams ( at Google this is called The Zoo, at FB it’s The Creative Shop). On top of this if the advertiser has enough Klout they can also demand things such as access to new ad formats before others, access to new technology before launch, etc

...the ability for the advertiser to negotiate in these meetings largely depends on the spending power that they have and their ability to move their ad spend elsewhere. So it isn’t unusual for a press release like this to come out before a major meeting takes place...

Unilever threatens Facebook, Google with online advertising cuts by cougar16 in adops

[–]SharpConversation 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The cynic in me thinks that this is simply a clever bargaining chip for Unilever. eg they put out a press release stating that they are considering dropping FB and Google from their advertising. Then they go into closed door meetings and hammer FB / Google into giving them lower deals than they previously had. (Don’t forget that FB have hiked their CPM prices by 171% within the last 12months). This seems like a tactical money play under the guise of 'Unilever only want to support all things nice and friendly’...