The Startups Making Entrepreneurs Look Like Idiots

in Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs: Congratulations. We are now represented by a band of hair flipping, posh idiots on Bravo’s Startup Series. The headlines presenting our entrepreneurs? “Omg! Sarah throws her drink on Jay!” and “Must See- Sarah live tweets a date”.

Startups are getting out of hand. It’s all over the media, egos are going to their heads, and I just wanted to bring some attention to what’s going on in the entrepreneur community. But first…let me ask you this:

What do our employees think when they watch crap like this about our “supposed lives”? How much respect do we loose, that we worked so hard to build? A lot. How many of our mentors and investors time is now going to be wasted from people like this trying to be entrepreneurs because it’s like being a “celebrity”? Exactly.

When this new breed of entrepreneur first made their appearance, techs referred to them as “idea guys”. Well, as you know, every entrepreneur & innovator is an idea guy. They’re not geeks either though. I know my real geeks. They wear glasses and talk to me in complicated terms I don’t understand. Then your entrepreneurs are street smart, and they’ll get that company out of any bad situation.

But these new entrepreneurs calling themselves “startups”….we’re not quite sure what they are. They are not geeks, and possibly shouldn’t even be called entrepreneurs. Mike Arrington was the first to report, referring to them as “the new douchebag of startups”.

“But here’s the real problem with him: Like all gold-rushing douchebags of any era, he’s not starting a company because he believes in it. You can tell because there’s no great idea there, rather it’s a collection of buzzwords and phrases like “We’re the (fill in the blank) of (fill in the blank). With badges.” And he’s happy to abandon his company if something shinier comes along. Like a wet Gremlin, he’s multiplying like crazy right now. And like all gold-rushing douchebags of any era, there are plenty of people who can’t wait until he leaves. Don’t worry, he will. They always do, and the great entrepreneurs stay and continue to build awesome stuff. “

I don’t know a single real entrepreneur that is happy right now with the way these startups are making us look. We encounter them more and more frequently. They say things to our mentors like “you can’t see how great our app is, because your head’s so far up your ass”. They whine when talking about work and say “omiigod, this sucks!”. They call me trying to get me to come to “launch parties” for their “stealth mode startup” that hasn’t even started yet. Oh, and by the way, it’s an “exclusive startup party you have to pay to come to”. Business is hard work and doesn’t come with the privileges to party, except maybe in your head on that 6 hour flight to meet with partners & clients. Get over it.

Whoever they are, they are making entrepreneurs look like idiots. And thanks to Bravo, they’ve even gotten their own TV show now so they can look like even bigger idiots: