21 votes

How four people destroyed a $250 million tech company

11 comments

  1. [7]
    teaearlgraycold
    Link
    I love how YouTube journalists don’t pull punches. Crazy how those with the smallest budgets are doing the most aggressive reporting across various sectors.

    I love how YouTube journalists don’t pull punches. Crazy how those with the smallest budgets are doing the most aggressive reporting across various sectors.

    20 votes
    1. [6]
      MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      If you don't have any sponsors yet, you can afford to piss off the most people. Also, vitriol gets clicks. It makes sense that the smallest will be the most aggressive.

      If you don't have any sponsors yet, you can afford to piss off the most people. Also, vitriol gets clicks. It makes sense that the smallest will be the most aggressive.

      14 votes
      1. [5]
        infpossibilityspace
        Link Parent
        They are absolutely big enough to have sponsors. Other videos do have them and they publish their sponsorship guidelines on their website. For pieces like this, they choose to self-fund it.

        They are absolutely big enough to have sponsors. Other videos do have them and they publish their sponsorship guidelines on their website. For pieces like this, they choose to self-fund it.

        9 votes
        1. [4]
          MimicSquid
          Link Parent
          Ok, fair. Let me rephrase. The larger you are, the more you want to avoid irritating anyone you might ever work with. For every additional sponsor, the range of people you need to avoid irritating...

          Ok, fair. Let me rephrase. The larger you are, the more you want to avoid irritating anyone you might ever work with. For every additional sponsor, the range of people you need to avoid irritating grows. Thus, there's a sliding scale of aggression to pablum that is inversely correlated with the need for other people's money.

          16 votes
          1. [2]
            infpossibilityspace
            Link Parent
            That's true if your goal is to be a rich, bland company. That's not the impression I get from GN though, in my experience they are strong consumer advocates and ethically driven, even if it means...

            That's true if your goal is to be a rich, bland company. That's not the impression I get from GN though, in my experience they are strong consumer advocates and ethically driven, even if it means rubbing people the wrong way and almost certainly making less money as a result.

            Plus if you build an audience willing to buy your merch, you can be more principled and flexible in taking on these kinds of projects and worry less about making ends meet, which seems to be working for them.

            7 votes
            1. MimicSquid
              Link Parent
              As someone who has worked with a wide variety of businesses, unless you're a manufacturer and your whole business is selling things then merch will be a small sideline at best. I don't have any...

              As someone who has worked with a wide variety of businesses, unless you're a manufacturer and your whole business is selling things then merch will be a small sideline at best. I don't have any particular insight into Gamer's Nexus but margins on branded merch are generally low to decent, while sales numbers are low.

              If you look at estimates for their YouTube revenue you can see it's only about $5k a month. Patreon is 10k.

              With 15 staff (as stated on LinkedIn), their monthly payroll alone is easily breaking $50K. Total operations is likely over $100k/mo.

              As such, it's obvious to me that most of their revenue is coming from sponsorships, and my previous statement holds.

              4 votes
          2. CptBluebear
            Link Parent
            At this point we're seeing that Gamers Nexus is big enough to get the big dogs around the table in order not to get burnt.

            At this point we're seeing that Gamers Nexus is big enough to get the big dogs around the table in order not to get burnt.

  2. [4]
    Grzmot
    Link
    A hour long report into the massive mismanagement present at EK, a former industry leader in the field of computer water cooling. Really well done.

    A hour long report into the massive mismanagement present at EK, a former industry leader in the field of computer water cooling. Really well done.

    13 votes
    1. [3]
      Notcoffeetable
      Link Parent
      Fascinating, I worked at Koolance, a direct competitor. This was like 15 years ago but I interacted with the EK guys often and they were stand up guys, good customer service, good products, nice...

      Fascinating, I worked at Koolance, a direct competitor. This was like 15 years ago but I interacted with the EK guys often and they were stand up guys, good customer service, good products, nice to chat with. Our competition with them definitely moved us forward.

      9 votes
      1. Grzmot
        Link Parent
        Back then it doesn't surprise me, it seems like the founders got in way over their head, fired the one CEO they had with solid management skills and then it went down pretty hard pretty fast....

        Back then it doesn't surprise me, it seems like the founders got in way over their head, fired the one CEO they had with solid management skills and then it went down pretty hard pretty fast. Mismanagement, pet projects that never go anywhere, and of course the classic dipping into corporate funds to pay yourself out.

        8 votes
      2. Halfloaf
        Link Parent
        Oh cool! I’ve been using Koolance products in my system design. They make some good stuff!

        Oh cool! I’ve been using Koolance products in my system design. They make some good stuff!

        4 votes