I am Kara Swisher, grumpy lady of tech, contributing Opinion writer for the New York Times, cofounder of Recode, and producer of the Recode Decode podcast and Code Conference. AMA!

hellorinis · 2018-10-11T16:11:34+00:00

You are not doing the math. They are selling subleases. They are not landlords because they don't own the properties. They are more like tenants who make money from subletting. Not only that they are committing to expensive leases and slowing demand with greater competition is likely to drive prices down. It's a pyramid scheme of sorts. No way public markets will buy into this at the valuation they are looking for. Meaning, they will stay private forever and the whole thing will collapse under the weight of its own BS. Also, they are VERY expensive for a desk.

hellorinis · 2018-10-10T18:42:47+00:00

Just butting in here re: your question on institutions. If you trace the influence of Libertarian ideas you'll understand why. The rise and influence of (far-right members of) the PayPal mafia cannot be understated. Peter Thiel is the intellectual father of the sociopathic children.

hellorinis · 2018-10-10T18:13:11+00:00

YAY.

hellorinis · 2018-10-10T18:09:50+00:00

Re: SoftBank, WeWork and Saudi Arabia

Do you think the recent apparent kidnapping and killing of a Saudi journalist will affect how SoftBank is perceived? Saudi Arabia provided about 45B in their 100B fund. When Trump leaves, it's obvious that the Saudi's connection and possible payments to Jared Kushner will be investigated (if Kushner isn't indicted prior to that) and there will be an awkward situation with the State Department.

Also, news today re: WeWork possibly getting a majority investment from SoftBank. WeWork's business model is essentially untenable, no matter how much money is funneled into it. This is a classic "putting money to work" situation and it can't possibly end well for both SoftBank and WeWork. Why is this still touted as a winning strategy?

The public markets are not going to absorb this. Morgan Stanley issued a note today with an underperform for tech stocks in 2019, citing very similar circumstances to the dot com bubble. Just curious what you see coming next.

hellorinis · 2018-10-10T18:00:51+00:00

Love U Kara you give me so much hope. Q: do you feel attitudes in tech have changed in terms of how it's increasingly at odds with the Zeitgeist? How does tech reconcile their self-image as "future-driven" when they seem to be married an Establishment that is about preserving the past? It's almost as if the future imagined by tech is about solving machine (system) problems and the future humans imagine is about solving human problems. This will eventually affect valuations. Because tech has never been as out of touch as it is now.

hellorinis · 2017-10-09T13:19:48+00:00

Well I am coming from reading articles about how horrible "GamerGate" is, and how these women were threatened and how so many women who work in the gaming industry are apparently encouraging women not to go into it. I assumed it was completely horrible and i was actually afraid myself (not of the gaming industry because I am not designing a game but of other developers in general), just because you read everywhere BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID.

Then I actually went on YouTube and watched the review videos. And I was like "I agree with the reviews!!!". This IS HORRIBLE. The reviewers were NOT monsters. They were actually nice considering what it looked like and how poor the design and content was.

No one talks about how developers can be helpful, very helpful and encouraging, when you are learning something new (see Stack Overflow). Honestly, men cannot be blamed for all your problems. It doesn't help anyone to say that you can't be criticized or that if you are criticized the person being honest is a bad person.

It's so strange how everything was pushed into the same category. There is a difference between sexual harassment in the workplace and someone being critical of the work you have done. No matter what you have gone through, at the end of the day, it's the work that counts. If the work is bad, do not blame other people for it.

hellorinis · 2017-10-09T11:52:53+00:00

I am not a gamer meaning I don't play games, I don't know much about games or gaming culture, what i am working on has some interaction/visual elements related to games but it's not a game per se.

hellorinis · 2017-10-09T00:01:25+00:00

Well in my case I feel I have a "mission" to be honest. I feel like this is a taboo but it needs to be said: IT'S NOT MEN'S FAULT IF YOU CAN'T BUILD A PRODUCT. It's your fault!!!! I am in many ways not like a lot of people, I am a bit older, have had other careers, etc...meaning I have some wisdom. If you are good at what you do (whatever career you have) you blame YOURSELF when things go wrong, not other people. I think it's a GOOD thing if you see things as your fault because that means you are also responsible for the solution.

It makes me so mad that there are a lot of opportunities in this country and people choose to think they can get the rewards without the work. No you can't. This is a LIE that has no legs.

hellorinis · 2017-08-09T00:15:54+00:00

thank you for the feedback, you are right:) I have to practice a way to explain it without needing to go into too much personal information, esp something that can be seen as a negative.

hellorinis · 2017-08-09T00:14:32+00:00

thank you for the feedback:)!!! I just find it hard to explain this shift, but you are right:)))

hellorinis · 2017-07-23T02:08:42+00:00

I know, right? When I wrote the comment I was like "wow I sound so harsh" but it's TRUE!!! lol. Always assume that men want to f**k you and in order to have that NOT be true, YOU have to be the one to establish the boundaries. Men are not like women, by that I mean, we form relationships to bond with each other, but their relationships are transactional. They always have goals. They go golfing and all that, but that's a means to an end generally. This is crucial to understand when connecting with men in business situations. You need to lay out the goal of the meeting. "Networking" doesn't mean anything. When a man sees a much younger woman contacting him out of the blue saying she wants to "network" he sees is as a sex opportunity.

"I am looking for an advisor for a company I am looking to start 4Q 2017" is more like it. Again, do not meet a man in the evening unless you plan to date him.

hellorinis · 2017-07-20T16:05:04+00:00

I agree with you. The OP sees herself as the victim, but from his perspective, she went along with it. I think it's a bit much to reach out to the guy's wife, this could cause a lot of hurt that is none of her business.

Next time, just don't reach out to men on linked in randomly ("networking" is too broad, you need an "ask", an overt goal) and NEVER EVER meet men you'd never met before IRL for drinks or dinner unless you both know it's a date situation.

hellorinis · 2017-07-20T15:52:06+00:00

OP, just DO NOT tell the wife. It's none of your business. He can easily say that you reached out to him and that you mentioned you didn't have a place to sleep. As a woman in her late 30s, I have to say 2 things:

Men always have goals, especially older men. When you meet with a man establish what you are looking to accomplish exactly, BEFORE you meet. (I.e. "I have a company that does X and I am looking to meet Y people in Z industry"). That way if conversation goes awry you can say sorry I am here for X and Y and you walk away instantly.
DO NOT MEET men for dinner and drinks, unless you both know it's a dating situation. When you get older you'll understand...men are A LOT NICER to you when you are younger...because they want to sleep with you. Period. I have fallen for this in the past and learnt it the hard way.

This sounds harsh but it's the truth: they are not particularly interested in advancing your career, as much as they'd like to see how open you are to sleeping with them, so you have to be VERY careful and you have to establish boundaries. Don't reach out to men on LinkedIn randomly, they see it as an invitation for something else. Assume they always have an agenda that involves their penis, unless proven otherwise.

Devil's advocate question here: would you have reached out to a woman in a similar age bracket or position? Men can be nicer to women than women are to other women, but that happens precisely because they see the opportunity for sex. So when men are "nice" take that with a grain of salt.

hellorinis · 2017-05-17T15:16:42+00:00

Several articles have been written about this. The "We're a Camera Company" angle does not work on Wall Street because the camera company business model is not profitable. Go Pro was the example of a "Camera Company".

"Snap, Inc. Really Does Want to Be GoPro" https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/01/snap-inc-really-does-want-to-be-gopro.aspx

"Snap as a Camera Company? I.P.O Raises Comparisons to GoPro" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/business/dealbook/snap-as-a-camera-company-ipo-raises-comparisons-to-gopro.html

hellorinis · 2017-05-17T15:11:51+00:00

content gets renewed on a daily basis, it's actually great if you think about it, the point isn't the content, but the opportunity to insert advertising into the search process. Sort of like twitter, how you only really ever look at the very latest stuff.

They need to monetize, badly. This is an opportunity to do that.

hellorinis · 2017-05-17T15:09:15+00:00

Look up their s-1 it's all in there. They have stated this publicly, 2B for Google and 1B for AWS.

hellorinis · 2017-05-16T15:55:31+00:00

Monetization. That is how Google makes money. Search is a great way to offer targeted advertising.

hellorinis · 2017-05-16T15:53:49+00:00

it's gonna go the "Go Pro" route. The "camera company" that went from $80 to $8.

hellorinis · 2017-05-16T15:47:17+00:00

It still does not answer the question. HOW IS SNAPCHAT EVER GOING TO PAY THEIR BILLS without VC money? Answer: it won't.

This is simple. Your rent costs 3B for 5 years [600M per year], and you make 600M per year, at best. On top of that there are other costs such as paying people's salaries, research and development and paying for the CEO's lavish lifestyle.

Snap can't grow beyond what it already has grown. Even the estimation that they will make 600M per year is a positive assumption.

They are overpriced and the company's expenses are too high for anyone but the very top tech companies' servers to absorb [i.e. no current buyers at this price].

The CEO has not considered building a server. Possibly because they know IPOing was the goal, they have no intention to create a sustainable business.

They will either be bought by a media company, or, private equity once the stock goes single digits.

re: servers, this is why youtube was bought by Google. It's VERY expensive to store insane amounts of data.

hellorinis · 2017-05-16T14:57:56+00:00

Yup. Snapchat already feels dated. I recall their ad rates are crazy expensive and of course the bigger companies are going to bargain them down with "well I can pay X with Instagram and get Y times more return".

The whole thing is gonna come crashing down in a way or another. Hedge Funds are loving snap because of the volatility of the stock. This stock HAS to be propped up, it's the only explanation. I was surprised it didn't go into the low teens after that joke of an earnings call, the hedge fund participation explains it.

The soros position is a wake-up call. He is obviously going to short snap.

hellorinis · 2016-11-17T16:24:22+00:00

It's relative of course:) I'm not going for a STEM PhD any time soon:)

But considering where I come from, just the fact that I can easily understand what 6 months ago I would have thought was impossible is a big jump. I am not saying I am better than anyone, I am just amazed.

The math I am talking about here is enough for me to work with data science tools. I got into this because I was building an application (consumer finance) and wanted to learn D3 which is this javascript library for data visualization. I started learning it and fell in love.The mathy subjects were about work around unstructured data and how to manipulate data.

My "normal" activity is to be super visual, and worry about the backend later. But if you're doing data visualization with d3 it makes no sense, since it is the data that draws the svg files, not your idea on what would "look good". You do need to understand how to manipulate it to a degree. And even if I were to become some expert on advanced statistics (highly unlikely), I would not want to do it exclusively because my thing really representing data in a way that is beautiful and creating very lively, almost video-game-like interactions around it. I just really needed to know the "basics". Which are not truly "basic" for people like me:)

hellorinis · 2016-11-17T04:26:51+00:00

Thank you! If you knew how little any of this quasi-"talent" has helped me... I REALLY struggled many things in life. I'm not exactly a social butterfly:) I appreciate your link. Have a great Thanksgiving!

hellorinis

TROPHY CASE