Posts tagged investment
“I can Has Cheezburger” loses millions : Jann Scott’s Journal
Dec 20th
In a confession on Back Channel Huh said:
“In a nutshell, we didn’t know what we were doing. We had been profitable for years, selling ads, t-shirts, books and even a reality show on Bravo. But having investment money in the bank was new for us. More important, so was the process of transforming ourselves from a team that built and acquired WordPress sites to a company that produced a full-on content platform. We tripled our headcount.
After cashing out our original investors, however, our $30 million had dwindled to just $4 million. That figure is small by venture capital standards, but for a company that was used to duct tape and folding chairs, we felt like we were swimming in cash. We were turning into a confused, money-losing mess.”
What is this company ? What do they produce ? What is their financial model ? Believe it or not it is a kitty Kat humor website company who depends on fucking banner ads and T shirt sales to make it. It was a losing idea from the beginning. Memes. really. The entire startup world is caught up in this kind of bullshit and most of them go broke. The only people making money are the founder hustlers and the early stage VCs like Foundry. It is almost like these people plan to fail.
I hate to toot my own horn but I sure as hell know how to turn 30 million dollars into a profitable company and not blow it on dumb shit. Take a company like mine: Channel One Networks llc. We have evolved from cable television programming in the 90s to web based TV and news in the 2000s. We built slowly and surely turning a profit every year while expanding steadily. Now we have a grown to 6,000 TV channels and newspapers with local content and local advertising in every city in the world. We are not a flash in the pan and we don’t make Giant company ending mistakes. We compete with Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft. We build and sell our own products . We are not re sellers of somebody elses.. And we know what is King. Advertising and service sales are kings not content. Yes we are changing the way TV and news is delivered locally and we are changing the world.
One of the problems with the entire start-up millennium movement is that they are not business people. Most of them go broke. Most of them have little business or sales training. They do not know how to service customers or produce results for them. They are so caught up with making the scene that their zine meme thing crashes and they wonder .. oh gee what happened. business happened.
I wish some of these incubators and business schools would teach business instead of entrepreneurship. Not everybody can be an entrepreneur. There is great value in being a good solid worker.
From the Real World Home Town
Jann Scott
Boulder, Colorado
Jann Scott’s Journal gives a critical look at the world through the wise eyes of Boulders #1 multiculturalist
Jann Scotts Journal : Some of the things I do to protect myself.
Apr 1st
an attitude” to see what they do. Then it doesn’t hurt to meet with police safety experts. It is also important to know who your enemies are and what potential they have to kill you.
In my case my life has been threatened so many times, I became proactive in my own protection and defense.
I have had police tell me straight up. We can’t protect you, you have to protect yourself.
As a talk show host I have interviewed countless Gang experts, cops of all types and I came away with one solidifying factor.
Cops carry guns in holsters on their hips. They wear bullet proof vests and they are constantly vigil when on the job. If you are a criminal or violent offender and you are going to get into a gun fight with a cop , you are probably going to lose.
If you are a mouthy talk show host and piss off the wrong element of society, you better be as prepared as a cop when bad guys come gunning for you or you are going to die.
An expert in the Amend program which treats violent offenders once asked me, “do you actually think you are going to out draw a violent man who is intent on killing you??”
People who are targets, who carry concealed weapons will never out draw a violent offender or come out of an ambush alive.
Now just so that you know in my line of work I have been kidnapped at gun point by three assailants who were never caught. I have had guns pulled on me twice. One was a drug dealer who aimed a gun at my chest point blank from his car window because he did not like my stance on drugs. I instantly disarmed him, drug him out of the car by his hair and pinned him until the sheriff got there..
The second time was during a live radio show with former DA Bill Ritter and Governor Rohmer at 9th and Corona in Denver. A right wing Arian man wanted to shoot me . He was subdued by two Denver PD who were standing in the crowd.
I don’t think Ritter nor Romer know how close we all came to dying that night.
Even so, I had two armed body guards provided by the Radio station standing ten feet from me and they missed the whole thing.
Body guards are a good investment when tensions are high and people are threatening your life. I have always hired armed body guards in my career on Radio and TV. You never know who or when an assailant will jump out of the bushes and shoot you dead when you are getting out of your car.
That happened to my colleague Alan Berg in 1984. He had so taunted the Aryan nation that they ambushed him and killed him outside his home.
When Seth Brigham kept whispering in my ear “ I can kill you any time I want” I wasn’t waiting to call 911 to protect myself. I hired an armed guard to watch Seth and to protect me. In that case the police could not protect me and the media made a joke out of Seths threats.
You cannot listen to people who say you are over reacting when you get death threats. The Daily Camera were in such denial in their reporting, that they actually made it dangerous for me. I told them about it in no uncertain terms. They still thought it was a joke. But you can’t listen to people who have never experienced vehement threats from fans, callers or political crazies who have targeted you.
You cannot listen to nay sayers when your life is being threatened.
Under extreme circumstances, I have armed myself to the teeth and wore a bullet proof vest. I have actually walked down the middle of a dark street with a gun in hand just to secure my ability to get to my car and drive home.
I have had black Cripps gangsters follow me to my car knowing that they were not going to kill me with out a fight. I have had Body guards walk with with me with shot guns to my car.
I have told people on the air if you come for me I will be ready and you may get a few rounds off at me, but I am taking you with me. It is very important to not show fear to violent offenders and to let them know you are as big a nightmare as they are. I swear that has saved my life more than once. That is the kind of attitude you have to have with violent offenders intent on hurting you.
You have to know when you are in a war zone and be prepared to defend yourself and match the threat with overwhelming bravado and visible firepower. Visible firepower.
If you in the line of work where people want to kill you… You know provocative talk show host, DA, cop, etc…. I think you have to be as prepared as a street smart cop.
I have taken multiple self defense classes. One was model mugging for men. How to defend against multiple assailants with hand guns. I have studied and practiced shoot no shoot scenarios. I have gone up against armed gunmen.
My son is a LERP special forces Marine. When I see him we train in how to disarm assailants at 30 paces.
So yes I take my personal protection very seriously. I learned from Denver Police: refuse to be a victim.
Now with me. It is protect myself or get out of the TV talk business.
And that is the question high profile people have to ask themselves, : How far am I willing to go for personal protection. ?
From the land of happy hippies
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
KCOL Fails Fort Collins during High Park Fire
Jun 20th
I expected to hear Ft Collins news talk radio station 600 KCOL to be pumping out information about the High Park Fire: You know the stuff we residents need right now during a raging wild fire. The latest evacuations, escape routes, where is the Red Cross located? Where can I eat? Where can I sleep?. Is there a medical team , my aunt is having a hard time breathing? Where are are some clean clothes? What roads are open.? Is my house still standing.? Little things like that.
Instead I got the idiot team of Al Malmberg and Sue Sutton acting as though they were on vacation in Disneyland. Worse they were having endless banal jokes about duct tape, her husband, their weight as though the city was not on fire at all. Their insensitivity and and complete lack of broadcast news professionalism is the reason for this column.
This radio station failed so completely to be there for Ft Collins in its greatest time of need, the entire morning show should be fired. The GM should be fired. And Clear channel the corporate vampire should absolutely lose it license to operate this radio station.
When I called Sue and Al, they were insulted that I dare question their programming decisions. They absolutely did not understand why they should suspend all programming and help the community while it burned. That is the chief criteria for an FCC license: Be good stewards of the airwaves we entrust in you. They could have taken calls, brought in volunteers, gotten out information, listened to the fire scanners. Did they do any of that? Hell no. They twiddle twaddled each other. These two are the worst kind of incredibly stupid broadcasters. So thoughtless.
Sue Sutton told duct tape jokes instead of Evacuation routesWhen I talked to the Managing director of the FCC in Washington, he launched an immediate investigation of Al, Sue and KCOL. Nicky Shears the special agent in charge of Colorado called me. She was incensed by the morning show. ” I have been listening and they are not doing much on the fire. I understand your concerns and the concerns of the city. Frankly we are concerned. Every 15 minutes they give very brief update” she said. “We are taking the KCOL situation very seriously and it will not end here, I assure you.” she said.
What could the FCC do. ?? Suspend the KCOL license, yank the million dollar investment from Clear Channel and hand it to a real community minded person for $1.00. They could do that.
Since KCOL radio in Fort Collins Colorado has clearly violated the spirit of broadcasting, the FCC will likely enact some law that will force the local radio station to go on the air and help with the disaster.
To make matters even worse KCOL pumped out Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and other haters all day and night and never addressed the fire at all.
Jann Scott
Jann Scott’s Journal