OPW - Nov 24 - The proverbial s*t is hitting the fan at TechCrunch.fr.
- Francois Tison, General Partner at 360 Capital Partners
“Risk and failure are part of our business. In most failures, we can look between shareholders and say "we tried, we did everything we could, we saved what we could." Some failures leave a more bitter taste. It (SmartDate) clearly belongs to the second category. "
SmartDate is accused of loading the site with fakesters.Contractors and employees have not been paid, apparently.
- Former Employee
He (CEO, Fabrice LeParc) lied to us, forced to use unethical techniques, contradicted himself constantly, and pushed us to lie providers ("Yes, be patient, the bank transfer has been done ...").
SmartDate should be a case of study for prospective investors in new start ups.
SmartDate was a case of Stupid Investors Series: they had lost over Euros 5.5 million.
Next series of Stupid Investors will include:
HowAboutWe (over USD 18 million), which is like MeetUp during 2004
Zoosk (over USD 40.5 million).
Zingl
Badoo which is 95% men and 5% women
eDarling (maybe)
Past series of Stupid Investors included:
Be2 over Euros 15 million
Engage over USD 5 million
Thread
Triangulate
Gelato
Parship
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi,
Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
ardenghifer at gmail dot com
Posted by: Fernando de Argentina | Nov 24, 2011 at 03:19 PM
Wow Fernando,
The first time I agree with you!!
Mark
Posted by: Mark Harrison | Nov 25, 2011 at 11:09 AM
What is unethical about generating accounts for the friends of those who signed up via Facebook Connect? They might join. If the degrees of separation are only one, then they can be counted. I read that somewhere. Let's be honest. I'm either incompetent or I'm a liar. If you can't monetize 4.5 million members that you gained in a short period of time, then something went wrong and it starts with the top. Why do you think I bailed? It's time for me to get some new VC money in NYC.
Posted by: FabriceLeFake | Dec 07, 2011 at 06:12 PM