If you don’t subscribe to Wired magazine, go out and get this month’s edition. The cover story is about the increasing transparency of business (why it’s mostly a good thing). In it Jobster’s Jason Goldberg gets a not-so-nice write-up regarding the recent firings at Jobster and the heat that followed.
Goldberg probably hopes that little incident will quietly fade away. But it won’t, for one simple reason: When you type ‘Jason Goldberg’ into Google, a link to an International Herald Tribune Story detailing the entire debacle appears near the top of the first page of results. Anyone who searches for Goldberg will immediately trip over the biggest faux pas of his career. It has entered, as it were, his permanent record.
The story is a fascinating ride into how bloggers are dictating so much of what people see when investigating a person or a company via Google, and how much of it can be negative.
However, the story to me also represents another straw on the camel’s back of how Jason Goldberg the person might just be the death knell for Jobster, the company, if this stuff continues.
CEOs who serve as lightning rods for controversy aren’t new. Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban and Oracle’s Larry Ellison come to mind. On most days, I usually find Goldberg’s actions entertaining, but it seems like a fine line between getting attention – in even a likable way – and dragging yourself and your brand through the mud, negatively impacting the bottom line.
Between trashing Monster, spinning layoffs, Prada mishaps and publicly deep-sixing Recruiting.com, has Goldberg and Jobster passed the point of no return?
You decide. Vote now.
You’ll find jobs online on Cheezhead.com.
Popularity: 17% [?]
March 30th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Jobster’s board and employees are 100% behind Jason. He is a thought leader in the industry and while sometimes controversial, that controversy is expected around disruptive companies. Jason has been and will continue to be both an effective leader for Jobster as well as a vocal change agent for the employment industry.
Contrary to Joel’s question, Jobster is thriving under Jason’s leadership. Over the past four years, Jason has had to make, in some cases, tremendously difficult decisions and shifts in strategy that while not always immediately clear from the outside have set a clear course for those of us inside Jobster.
Jobster is off to a great start in 2007. As an example of our industry disruption, there have already been more than 10,000 free job postings on Jobster in just the first few weeks we have made free job posting available on the site.
We are successfully executing on our strategy and will have more exciting announcements in the very near future.
March 30th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Jason was never qualified for the job – wrong hire.
March 30th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Well, I think your whole cleverly crafted endorsement of Jason is hogwash. But the only point I’ll challenge you on is your erroneous claim that 100% of employees are backing Jason. I challenge you to find one CEO in this country with 100% backing, especially for someone making an idiot out of himself and the company he leads. I couldn’t disagree with you more. I have worked at Jobster and your statement is unfounded and preposterous.
Be careful about statistics—that’s what got this company in trouble—don’t forget about the brutal facts. If you don’t think I know what I’m talking about, ask the sales team what this statement means: “no company has ever cancelled with Jobster after 90 days”—again with the erroneous claims. Look under the hood. If I polled the employees, I’ll bet I’d get a negative response rate of 30% to 55%, and if they turned around and passed that negativity onto 2 or 3 people you would have a whole pipeline of unsatisfied employees. Does that sound familiar? For those of you who don’t understand the last comment, take my word for it. There’s always two sides of the street, it’s just that some are less traveled. Isn’t that right, Christian?
March 30th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Ultimately, isn’t the whole point of the blogosphere to be controversial and transparent? I highly doubt one blog post could do that, or even one CEO blog. The point of no return for Jobster will be if their products stop delivering real results.
March 30th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
How can you make money if nobody pays for your service, or uses it? Oh yeah, put out free trails. Good business decision Jason.
March 30th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
speaking as a former jobster employee, i believe mr. anderson is gravely mistaken.
i have no insight into the mind of the jobster board, but i know that the number of remaining employees ‘behind jason’ are well below 100%. for proof of this, look no further than jobster’s stunning rate of attrition over the past 2-3 months.
jason’s actions are one of the key reasons jobster employees are resigning at a fantastic rate. these include such high-profile talent as dave lefkow and jason davis. in total, jobster has lost over 20% of its staff _since_ the layoffs, including a significant portion of the engineering team. and from my discussions with some of those that remain, it doesn’t seem like this wave of departures is over.
i can assure you that a good percentage of these resignations was, in whole or in part, a vote of ‘no confidence’ in jason and his leadership.
the only way to ensure jobster’s talent hemorrhage ends is for jason to be the next on that list of ‘former jobster employees’.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
There were just nine responses to this blog (including one mentioning a bullet to the head??) and now there are 6. what happenned?
March 30th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Do you really have to ask why a post about a bullet to the head is now gone? Keep the unnecessary personal attacks – especially those left anonymously – off Cheezhead. Any comment left in such a fashion will be deleted. Look, this issue is clearly deeper, darker and messier than someone like me on the outside knows, but I’m not going to let this turn into a circus. If you have a comment, be intelligent and own up to it.
March 30th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
The problem with Jobster is that they did not learn from the dot com bubble burst. Do really need corporate headquarters to be like a luxury mansion? Craigslist is a successful website with only a handful employees? So give the guy some time, he needs to trim the fat.
March 31st, 2007 at 7:05 am
You missed the one on collegerecruiter.com where he implied that facebook is sharing the ad hit data with him:
http://www.collegerecruiter.com/weblog/archives/2007/03/careerbuilder_s.php
March 31st, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Seriously? Did you think that I was kidding? Jason threatened a group of his staff, saying that he would [he} will put a f*ing bullet through [your] head if [he] find out that it is [you] leaking company info. Is that solid management tactics? I think not.
Clearly the young man has gone off the deep-end. He had a great vision and built an AMAZING team, which he then proceeded to destroy and dismantle. If the recent exodus of several of his founding employees doesn’t tell that story, then I don’t know what will. These were the Jobster faithful, the pushers of the proverbial Jobster koolaid, these folks were the biggest fans of the company’s mission and vision. If the board doesn’t see that it is time for Jason to go (if there is even any chance of saving the company) then they’ve clearly been bamboozled.
I don’t need to give you my name to say that the mill is running strong. A threat of a bullet to the head, yelled at to a group of staff people in the middle of the company will not go un-reported. This is astounding behavior.
Sure, CEOs have to be a little nuts and even a little egomaniacal to run a company, but Jason’s tactics have just gone too far. Exaggerating stats and lying outright, leaking company info in advance of the impending layoffs, forcing out highly intelligent and skilled staff because their intelligence is intimidating, and now threatening to shoot his staff. C’com folks. You are a community of employment professionals here, do we really need to censor this kind of truth telling? The discussion should be about how intimidation tactics involving screaming and yelling of physical threats to employees is no longer an exceptable management style (if it ever was).
March 31st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
WAY TO GO JOEL. YOU TURNED YOUR SITE INTO F*CKEDCOMPANY. Great job!!!
Former Jobster’s: Enough already. Your stories are so petty and come across as whining. Jason Goldberg is doing a great job and those who can’t see it don’t need to.
We’re shipping great code AND THAT will speak louder than the b*tching on here.
March 31st, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I’m happy to say that I’m one of the 20% that have left since the layoffs–and never felt better. Jobster was an incredible place to work until Jason ran out of money and had to return from being on the road all the time. After that, we all saw and experienced far too much of him. If only he could have raised more money to burn through.
April 1st, 2007 at 1:28 am
These comments are false and should be deleted.
The bottom line is: none of this impacts Jobster’s users and customers. Quit the drama, nobody cares.
April 1st, 2007 at 1:29 am
WAY TO GO CHEESE! YOU TURNED YOUR SITE INTO FU*KED COMPANY! CONGRATS!
WOO HOO!
Hooray to all the former Jobster people who lost their jobs and are BITTER at our CEO. BE BITTER AT ME AND MY FRIENDS INSTEAD as we are still here and JUST GETTING STARTED.
Goldberg is not perfect. WOW.
Are you?
JOBSTER IS BETTER THAN ALL YOU CRAZY FOOLS
April 1st, 2007 at 1:33 am
this site KICKS ASS! Rah!
Imagine what the boards look like when balmer throws a chair.
Seriously. Is there any site out there better than JOBsTER right now?
April 1st, 2007 at 1:35 am
current jobster employee: your intentions are admirable, but your execution isn’t the greatest. ;)
It is true, though, that there does seem to be a lot of sour ex’s and dramatic quitters. Good luck to them finding a better place to work.
April 1st, 2007 at 2:10 am
first off, joel, you’ve got some serious stones to bring this issue to light. kudos.
i can’t verify some of the accusations coming up on this board. but as a former customer of jobster who knows some of their employees (current and past) and met jason in person on a few occasions, i can tell you a few things i believe:
first, jason has an enormous ego. it’s not a sin to have a giant ego as a ceo, nor is it really that rare, but when it impedes your ability to listen to reason or the people around you, this is when it becomes a problem. i think that jason crossed this line a long time ago.
second, his attention span is unbelievably short, bordering on schizophrenic. i can’t count the number of different value propositions jobster came at us with to the point that their sales reps started calling jobster a swiss army knife and at times didn’t know what to say when you asked them “what is jobster?” one day it’s about referrals, the next it’s targeted advertising, the next it’s social networking and still the next it’s matching. you’d see the product one day and 2 months later it was a completely different product. i’ll bet they’re probably working on a totally new value proposition and product offering as i write this.
having worked in the software industry i can tell you that the developers there are fed up at working on such a moving target, and seeing all their work go up in smoke every time jason gets a whiff of his own brilliance. this probably explains the attrition rate on the dev team.
third, jason’s ethics are questionable at best. he encourages employees to lie by lying himself. i and others have caught him in several blatant exaggerations (also called lies), from the number of customers they have to the success specific companies have had (who told us a much different story when we checked their references) and more. i can only imagine what he has told his investors.
it is truly shocking that the board at the company has not taken action. either they have given up, are completely asleep at the wheel, or jason has worked some sort of spell on them. if they want their $48 million (!) investment to be worth something, and this is really just a salvage job at this point, they should remove jason from the company before he really kills it or goes even further off the deep end.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:43 am
It’s no surprise that Jason Goldberg wants many of the recent comments left on this post deleted. I’m not going to do that. At least not now. Although anonymous, many seem too insightful and genuine to ignore.
Instead, I’m going to spend some time over the next few days to hopefully help substantiate (or not) these allegations and report my findings. In the meantime, I ask you to take these comments for what they are: unsubstantiated allegations.
If you have any information regarding this evolving story, whether on or off the record, feel free to contact me at joel[at]cheezhead.com. Though not a professional reporter, I promise to do my best to bring you an unbiased, balanced story.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
A virtual Scenario…
I’m the COO of Monster.com.
These guys at Jobster, they scrape our jobs to provide content on their site (30% of their jobs are from monster) while at the same time allow companies to post job openings for free on Jobster. Hmmm, now we we might interpret that as an attack on our core business model, and yes, they do brag about being “Disruptors” and seem intent on upsetting our model. I mean at least the other Vertical search engines are smart enough not to allow direct job postings on their sites..
Oh yeah, they also go around calling our “product crap” that’s not nice when you need our job content is it?
And look here, a search for “Linux” jobs on Jobster shows a “office manager” (part time) as result 4 http://www.jobster.com/find/US/jobs/for/linux
And look here, a search for “java” jobs is showing “ASSISTANT MANAGER” and “Store Manager” in the first page of results! http://www.jobster.com/find/US/jobs/for/java
And you said these guys raised how many millions in financing?
Holy Crap Batman! Did someone say crap ?
April 1st, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Does anyone else find it suspicious this post hasn’t showed up on Jobster’s Recruiting.com? They wouldn’t be censoring it now would they?
April 1st, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Hey Ragin, if you would like, you can upload this to recruiting.com. It is easy to do. The post did show up on the RSS feed on Recruiting.com
April 1st, 2007 at 11:17 pm
This is all complete nonsense. It’s funny that you bring the attack on Jason, Joel, since he is your fellow blogger and does a decent job of bringing his mistakes to light on that blog. Do you do the same here? Is Jason an egomaniac? Is he ruining Jobster? The real question is, who cares? Nice blog post.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
It is understandable that those who are still working at Jobster would want to defend him. Would one really admitt all the wrong doings of Jason and still WANT to work there? The true “tell tell sign” is the fact that once Tracy B left in Dec, who was the voice of reason everything fell apart. IF Jobster is really doing that well then why would all the “founders” leave?? As menitoned previously many of those who started the company with Jason have left on their own accord. Why would they all leave IF Jobster is “off to a great start in 2007″???
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
Oh Great Cheez, the link to Wired does not go to a specific article and I couldn’t find it by using their search engine. Could you relink?
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 am
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_ceo.html
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:57 am
Ok, I think things are getting a tad bit out of hand here on your site Cheez! It’s one thing to disagree with a CEO’s vision or actions, but at some point, people just have to get over it. I know other CEO’s for a fact that have done the same things, worse things actually, but aren’t being called out on the web for it. Why is JGo the sacrificial lamb? You know why? Becuase he puts himself out there. Atleast he has the balls to do so. Most CEO’s that are 100% guilty of the charges Jason is faced with are too scared to put themselves out there and hide behind their own glass house, throwing anonymus stones.
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Jason did a great job at raising money and keeping a company with a very limited value proposition alive as long as he did. While all of the flash around Jobster was a little over the top, and the burn was insane, the investors kept buying the story.
When your dream collapses, or at the least doesn’t live up to your expectations, it’s only natural to get a little unhinged. I don’t know Jason well enough to comment on his ego, but as someone who spent years developing early stage ventures from a talent perspective, I’ll be more than happy to attest that the lack of a consistent value prop has everything to do why Jobster will not survive.
If you combine a rudimentary understanding of human and consumer behavior with some decent research into employee referral, it isn’t hard to figure out that Jobster will not work as the god send referral sourcing application. Several factors impact the success of organizations seeking to maximize referrals, the most powerful of which is dedicated management of the initiative. The communication channel, the networking engine, and the administrative backend have very little to do with driving activity into the pipeline.
Had Jobster spent just a little more time on building in a service organization to augment the competencies of client staff, and focusing on manipulating human behavior, the product/service offering would present value beyond the first six months.
All of the technology that is Jobster isn’t hard to piece together. The intellectual property will survive and make sense as a feature in a much larger offering, but the business as a stand alone entity does not know nor did it ever make sense.
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:18 pm
My official disclaimer- I am President of SocialMediaSystems.com, we market through social media and search engines, and my sibling was the VP of Exterprise Accounts at Jobster before the January lay-off when she lost her job. She is now doing her own thing and seems to be happy with it. I think of her as an out-standing executive, and thought Jobster’s decision to let her go along with a few other individuals was a bad business decision.
I am actually much more interested in the ramifications of the story in WIRED. The coverage of Jobster is somewhat the highlight of the “dark side” of social media. In the same article Glenn Kelman (CEO of Redfin) was accredited with saving his company through his blogging efforts. I think the downfall of Jason’s case is that he doesn’t grasp the industry and the audience as well as Kelman did in the real estate side. Indeed, many of the things Kelman and Goldberg have done or stated over the past 18 months are oddly like-minded… one just fell on angry ears and a different market.
A lot of CEOs and execs are playing in a very complex public relations audience, and I think the primary difference that separates success vs failure in blogging was that Kelman had a more consistent message and he didn’t change course as often. He was also more brutally honest on his own actions, with statements about bad expos and poor decisions.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
From Clerks: “I hate crowds but I love gatherings….”
I can’t resist a thread with so much action. I once wrote that Jobster was the Anna Nicole of the recruitosphere; we can’t stop looking at what often appears to be a flambo train wreck that hit the lotto. 48 million dollars. Most of us want to live our fantasy biz lives with Jobster’s bank account. So what if nobody knows what they did /do/ will do ?
Hell, with that kind of money I could start a bizjet airline for affluent children to visit their cross-coast parents or do a health insurance company for endangered species !
Jason was at the right time, in the right spot, with the right front running idea. I dont think there is much mystery behind any of this. If Jobster survives and prospers, it would not surprise me. If it spins into the deadpool or gets bought up in a face-save for the investors, it would not suprise me. The only thing I would really be interested in knowing about Jobster is what Jason’s comp package looks like. Is he set for life from this deal or not ?
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I don’t know exactly whats gone on at Jobster but I do know a lot of people that have worked there. They all have mixed emotions on what happened (as you can see here with the comments).
All I wanted to add is that it is very easy to criticize people when things aren’t going as planned. Also it is very easy for people to claim a portion of success when things go well.
Obviously there is something to J GO he has raised a lot of money from a lot of smart people.
I hope the best for him and his team.
Remember the tide rises all ships. Lets try to be like the tide and not a bunch of crabs in a bucket. There is criticism and there is constructive criticism.
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
One thing that I think is getting lost in the dialog is the very thing that I think is generating so much of the venom that is being evidenced in threads like this one all over the Internet.
Jobster was a great place to work. People are dissapointed it didn’t go further and they did not get to enjoy seeing their coleagues and friends there enjoy more success.
If you had asked in October of 06 a few short months before the layoffs, I think most (and I mean that) employees there would have told you it was the best place they had ever worked. If this was just another start-up stumbling on hard times, the laid off employees (of which I am one), and others involved would have certainly moved on and forgotten all about it by now.
I’m not here to defend or villify Jason, or analyze why Jobster didn’t meet with more success, I think enough has been said on that. It should not be forgotten however that many of us got to be a part of something special for a while and gratitude for that should be given where it is due.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:10 am
Yeah, you’re right, Ryan and Jim. There have been a lot of negative things said about JG. As a former employee I have heard many and have seen enough to believe most of what I have not experienced.
Simply stated, JG is not a nice guy. It doesn’t go any further than that. Layoffs, churn, even poor decisions are all forgivable actions if someone is willing to look you in the eye. The way information is leaked at Jobster is demoralizing and classless. All too often it’s not run as a business but a fraternity.
JG is very gifted in PR and very charismatic and was once believable, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter. His interpersonal skills are really bad. And you can bet that if you have offended a line of people and then you make yourself public, you’re going to get kicked where it hurts.
No former employee of Jobster (including myself) has any reason to throw unsubstantiated fuel on a fire as big as this. Having said that, I can honestly say that I had many dealings with JG and walked away more unimpressed every time. I hope Jobster makes it for those I still know, but for Jason I have and never did (even when it was great, Jim) have any respect for him. Good luck playing by you’re own rules Jason, since I know you read these comments.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:54 am
The whole problem is probably that ping pong table at the kitchen at jobster HQ. Get rid of it and things will be fine again.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
Holy sweet cracker sandwich!
Ok time to put things into perspective for all of you. Like many, I have watched Jason “prada-elton-rocketman-tmobile-worked-for-clinton” Goldberg from afar…watching Jobster with a keen eye since its launch at a bygone ERE conference.
Here is the timeline:
The Early Days:
Jobster is formed by a group of Seattle based folks and begins to assume a ton of VC debt—for those with a keen eye, you should have noticed that one of the investment firms was also spearheaded by someone named *gasp*… Goldberg! Possible relation?…coincidence? Anyway, I digress. The Early Jobster was a referral based hiring platform…a secure linkedIN, based on the “I might know somebody who knows someone” theory. Things in this timeframe were a little shaky, but Sumser once called Jobster the “Golden Haired Child” of the industry.
The Middle Period:
More and More and More VC money. Freakin Dot-Com Web 2 point oh-hell no. Let us all not forget that this could be assumed as the time management started reaching..trying to come up with an identity…er, to come OUT of the closet. This is the time period that Jobster started AQUIRING everything and everyone in its path. Jobby (what the hell was that?). Work Zoo so that Jason jobster could compete with the other aggregators. Further, Jobster purchased recruiting.com. Then there was the beginnings of social networking, as well as a botched partnership with Craigslist. Jobster began trying to be something for everyone. But alas, as you mom always said, you can’t bee all things to all people and not everyone is gonna like you…unless you admit
The End Time/The Dark Days:
Firings, restructuring, promises of profitability, TV interviews, myspace for the workspace! The day of reckoning and judgment when we all make a collective cry “So WTF does Jobster DO?”. New Staff, old staff, cutting of services. Everything done via phone. Promises, Cocaine, Madness in every direction…of course when it is all said and done Jason will be a Caricature of the industry like Jeff Taylor was. But Who knows. The rise and fall happen in dog-years. In Jason’s world he may not know what jobster is gonna look like when it grows up, and the fact of the matter is, either do we…but it sure is fun to watch.
I love you,
WorkFarce
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
My guess is that Jobster will be gone and prbably sooner rather than later. I don’t know JGo at all, I’ve only seen him in the “Monster is Crap” video and I wasn’t impressed. I called to talk with someone in sales at the company to find out about the product and how I might be able to leverage it for more success in my business… they didn’t get me. Again, I wasn’t impressed. Then came JGo’s post about recruiters going the way the the dinosaur (to which I responded with http://www.cecsearch.com/WordPress/2006/12/03/will-recruiters-become-extinct/.) It showed me that JGo had very little idea of the value prop of recruiters… I wasn’t impressed.
As of now, I’ve spent too much time on JGo and the jealous sniping about all of his strategic blunders while holding a checkbook with $48MM in it. I will have to give him this, he raised a pot full of money with what I think is a crappy idea…. now, I’m impressed by that.
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:08 pm
There are some who are upset at Cheezehead for contributing this information to the public. I wonder why? When Tyco, Enron and other CEO’s were caught with their friggin pants down to their ankles after being called the Darling CEO’s the media and public could not get enough information.
Why? Investors were hurt, employees were harmed, public trust was lost. What makes this any different? Maybe it isn’t to the tune of billions of potential dollars lost, and maybe it isn’t going to make that significant of an impact to the industry. Okay, maybe there isn’t any fraud involved. Depending on what may consider fraud.
BUT, should we not consider something here, isn’t this information not news worthy? Do we the public not have a need to know before we invest in something that may not be a viable product? Shouldn’t future employees have a right to know what they are getting themselves into before considering employment there?
There seems to be no concerns about investigating employees personal backgrounds before considering hiring them. Social Networks are the hot spots for recruiters and employers. These individuals go there to have fun, speak to friends, and without concerns for the personal lives being considered to be fair game. Jason Goldberg on the other hand allowed himself to be fair game by publicly broadcasting what many consider to be not very honest or accurate information for the world to see. So, who really should be considere a victim here? The former employees, the investors, or is it really Jason Goldberg?
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:31 pm
DORON: Finally! Someone who clearly sees what I had said all along about that ping pong table and the time people spent on the ever hallowed ping pong ladder.
Jim Holland is correct though and I think we all felt very proud to be working at Jobster at the time and I definately thought I’d be there for along time. I guess we should all just remember all the great times we had, the fun and how Jobster did provide us with a pretty darn good place to work.
I definately think that the layoffs have helped to solidify many of the relationships that were started there and I am glad to call many “firedsters” my friends and I know I will have them for life.
I myself at times have been pissy at those that got to remain and even feel slighted by JGo some. But I think Jobster will always hold many great memories for me and I am ever thankful to have been able to work with so many great recruiters, at great companies as well as getting to learn from all my talented co workers.
I hope Jobster pushes on and is successful. Id rather have that happen then to get a refund check for my options.
Best of luck to us all!
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I’m really hoping that people who read this blog are smart enough to separate Jason Goldberg the person from Jobster the company.
Jobster the company has some incredibly bright people and some very innovative and revenue-generating components – and actually accomplished a lot of amazing things over the last few years that a lot of people are proud to have contributed to (including me). You may not like Jason personally or agree with the decisions that he’s made, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t value in the service the company provides or that it’s the recruiting equivalent of the Hindenburg.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Joel:
Excellent post.
Richard Becker posted an excellent write-up on RecruiterBloggers.com. Richard writes from a PR, corporate communications and transparancy perspective and his insights are a insightful, a growing body of analysis. His post “Knowing When To Hint” can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/38cba8.
Below is my comment to Richard’s post which has relevence to the original topic of transparency and touches on some the comments above:
“Richard:
Your post is an excellent summation although those who don’t know that you are writing a “living case study” on Jobster’s sometimes-odd CEO might think that you have it on for poor Jason Goldberg. Those who have followed your posts in the last four months might take the view that you are giving him tens of thousands of dollars of free consulting. I guess you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him think. For the rest of us, thanks for the schooling.
There has been talk in the bubble in recent days about transparency, citing Jason Goldberg as a case in point. Hmmm. Being able to see the emperor in the altogether does not mean his cloak of fine linen is a “veil of transparency.” It means he is parading around in a delusional state of high-fashion. I’m afraid its time for Jason Goldberg to look in the mirror and conclude for himself that talking-the-talk and walking-the-walk requires more backbone that jaw. He might then see he appears to some of us to be exposed and choose to cover up – I mean in a way that is less transparent if you follow my inverted thinking there!
To the quote in your post:
“A lot of CEOs and execs are playing in a very complex public relations audience, and I think the primary difference that separates success vs. failure in blogging was that Kelman (CEO of Redfin) had a more consistent message and he didn’t change course as often. He was also more brutally honest on his own actions, with statements about bad expos and poor decisions.”
Let me suggest this:
It seems to me that the transparency gig blogging enables is the simplest game to play. It doesn’t need a thesis from Dr. Becker. All that it requires is that you are prepared to be honest no matter what and that you are willing and able to correct whatever you mess up, doing it with a sincere subjugation to the process. You can’t game transparency and authenticity without someone eventually stepping up and singing: “Look at the King! Look at the King! The King, the King, the King! The King is in the altogether, the altogether, the altogether…” Of course, simple rarely means easy and therein lies some of Jason Goldberg’s problem.
I will be the first to concede a certain naivety in this matter, but I do so want to believe. I want to believe in the underlying good that can come from social media and the attendant values of authenticity, trust, transparency, reputation, integrity and so on. Those of us who have been around long enough to see that “business as usual” sucks — those of us who have not lost the passion for cutting deals and spinning dollars — so want to believe. The sorry shame of it is that so many want to believe in Jason Goldberg as a champion for this cause that his opacity — read: business as usual — makes us scrutinize him even more. Doesn’t he get it?
As Jason Goldberg becomes unraveled – assuming he is being duplicitous and trying to game the process, guaranteeing that he will – I hope he revisits the advice many have generously offered and grows in the process. I also hope those of us who bear no ill-feelings to his Mother’s son will remember we are all fallible human beings and reconciling the weaknesses we carry as such is not a task for Jason Goldberg alone. I also believe that the social media-inspired change in the way we do business will help us do that. God, I hope so!
So, Richard thanks again for raising the tone of conversation to include things that transcend the importance of any one person or business or position.
Somewhat related, please check my post on Bells & Whistles which argues that the character of an organizations’ CEO can impact that organization’s ability to maximize its opportunities: A Conversation with Laurence Haughton…http://tinyurl.com/2wrz32
And last, in the interests of full-disclosure: I voted 56 times on the Cheezhead poll representing the 14% who answered “Jason who?” and the 3% under “Other.””
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I was the CEO of a start-up. I laid people off. By definition it was because I was incompetent: I didn’t hire anybody with the intent of laying them off. I played the part of the big man shrugging it off, but it took years off my life (literally).
I was an employee of a Silicon Valley start-up. I got laid off. I hated the company, and I hated the people who did it to me. I burned a lot of my time thinking of innovative ways to disable brakes on my boss’s car. I pondered the perfect crime.
I knew that the people I laid off were thinking the same horrid thoughts when I faced them alone in that conference room. I thought (and still think) I deserved every ounce of their unreserved loathing. I put their families at risk, traded on their good will and confidence and tore at the heart of their self-esteem. I didn’t intend to do any of that, but who really cares? Results matter, and mine were bad.
I don’t know what Jason is thinking or feeling, but I can bet it isn’t good. He will never get to live this down. Even after all the people he laid off get other jobs and move on, he still has to go to look in the mirror and know that, when all is said and done, he steered the ship into the reef.
If people like Jason (who I believe is a better CEO than I was, although I may be damning him with faint praise) don’t take the risk to raise money and start companies then the rest of us will need to learn how to farm and kill wild animals to eat. To those of you who are deeply indignant over what he did, I recommend that you give it a shot and see how failure feels. And since 90% of all start-ups fail, you have a good chance of learning some empathy. It is easy to armchair quarterback this thing.
My personal feelings for Jason aside, I honor what he has accomplished as I honor anyone who strives to build something, and I will continue to admire that spirit until he has proven to have been unethical or illegal in his actions, which I don’t see people accusing him of just yet (although, given the passions running, I would imagine that is not far off).
Finally, I will leave you with this thought, spoken by someone who pissed a lot of people off:
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Finally – no, I am not talking to Jobster about a job, nor do I have any Jobster stock, nor do I use Jobster products, nor have I gotten paid by them nor do I get any kind of perks out of this statement (so please save your puerile fantasies). If you have reached this point in the comment, then I thank you for your time.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 pm
I am a massive tool.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:40 pm
To the person who left that last remark (which I hope Joel leaves up)… I see you and I go to the same gym. I prefer to think of it as well proportioned. And to share the same name… what are the odds?
April 4th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Jeff, you’re completely missing the point here. No one would fault Jason for trying and failing. Even his worst critics would say that they admire him for starting Jobster. The real question is, given his behavior, obvious failure to inspire loyalty among his employees and his decisions, is he the right person to lead Jobster or is he killing it?
April 4th, 2007 at 10:17 am
As usual, my comment became too long and turned into a blog post.
In brief, what I said was this is all history repeating itself.
For more detail, see the rest of the post:
http://www.fracat.com/blog/2007/04/04/how-to-know-if-your-startup-is-sinking/
Dan
April 4th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Comments on this blog have gotten way out of hand. I have been a Jobster employee for 2 years and continue to work with my team to make this industry more effective. Mistakes happen. Lay-offs are part of business. These are the risks we take when we take a good idea and try to make it into something solid. The Jobster technology is why we came to work here. The people are the reason we had fun doing it.
As for Jason… like him or not, he is deeply involved with this product, our customers and continues to climb in on the front lines with his employees in order to understand what our customers and prospects need.
He has made some mistakes, but what CEO hasn’t?! There is no real process when you are putting a new product/service out on the market. We may not have it figured out yet, but we will.
A lot of the comments on this blog are really petty and childish.
April 4th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Sad to say, but I have read almost all of the above posts, and I’m confused as to why people want to spend time purely discussing Jason and his ability as a CEO. What about how all of this trickles down to Jobster’s clients that have recently signed on and are trying to get employee buy-in to utilize the tool for referral purposes? Shouldn’t this also be about Jobster as a recruiting tool???
Regardless of how you use Jobster (and I can second the person who said that they received various sales pitches on what the product does), it is a recruiting tool whose ability to be effective is being threatened. Instead of not playing nice in the sandbox, what about coming up with suggestions on how to rectify this situation? No, that does not mean how to redeem Jason if you fall into “Evil Jason” group — thought the clarification was necessary. How can Jason, Jobster, or both take this situation use it to strengthen what it offers to the recruiting community?
April 4th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I thnk Jeff Hunter has it right. Like Jeff, I’ve been there, done that and have a fair idea of how it feels to let your reach exceed your grasp.
Whether the lay-offs were handled well or poorly, the fact remains that Mr. Goldberg and his team succeeded in building a brand. None of us who operate outside of jobster are in a position to answer the question that Joel posed. We have opinions, but we do not have facts.
While many may envy the opportunity that $50,000,000.00 in venture funding might afford, no one who has been through cancerous growth in compliance with a use of proceeds statement and agreed upon sales targets followed by retrenchment directed by one’s investors can imagine that Mr. Goldberg feels he is leading a charmed life at the moment.
jobster has been good for our marketplace. Whether or not Mr. Goldberg remains as CEO, he will always be the founder. He and his team built a brand that may yet prove to have enduring value.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Look… this is jobster: 2 years ago- business model A. Ironically, probably their best. 1 and 1/2 years ago… buisiness model B. 1 year ago, business model C. 6 months ago, business model D. Now… some sort of an anarchist’s dream of giving it all away for free. Emperor? Clothes? Ever? Along this entire process?
April 5th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I have been with Jobster for a couple of years and have concerns that the blog conversations have really gone off track.
What was a relatively minor incident has now turned into blog fodder and silly speculation.
It is my opinion that the personal attacks on Jason Goldberg are not only completely inappropriate but really don’t have a lot to do with Jobster as a company. We are a tight knit group of talented people who are here because we want to be here. We are here because we enjoy working with each other.
As for Jason, he may have lost his cool for a moment; however the situation itself was blown completely out of proportion. I was 1’ from him at the time of the comment and was also 1 ‘from him when he sat down with everyone who wanted an explanation. He apologized profusely and bravely talked it out with the employees who were angry with him.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Are personal attacks news?
We love it when the high and mighty fall from grace don’t we? Well, it’s too bad that what’s been an intelligent discussion on changing an industry is now the New York Post.
Newsflash: CEOs in start ups — especially young ones — make mistakes. Smart, dedicated employees get laid off. VCs and employees who invest learn that their investment is risky.
Let’s predict the future: CEO learns from mistakes. At some time, a new CEO is brought on that is of the current CEO’s choosing. Founder CEO becomes head of ’strategy’. Company has liquidity event that’s positive (IPO!) or negative (shuts down). Founder CEO leaves to start new company. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Life is too short, folks. Get over it like so many ex-Jobster employees have.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Let’s predict the future:
“CEO learns from mistakes.” – hasn’t yet, at least not obvious to outside observers
“At some time, a new CEO is brought on that is of the current CEO’s choosing.” – new CEO will not be of Jason’s choosing, it will be of the VC’s choosing. Hardly ever is the new CEO the choice of the exiting CEO.
“Founder CEO becomes head of ’strategy’. ” – not likely, he’ll be more likely parachuted out, with a stake in how well the company does. Since Jason isn’t a technical master with IP that he owns, he isn’t a necessary part of the company.
“Company has liquidity event that’s positive (IPO!) or negative (shuts down).” – doubtful there will be an IPO, company is still burning cash. High burn rates aren’t the ticket anymore.
“Founder CEO leaves to start new company. ” – I wonder who would give him another $50MM if the liquidity event is negative. I doubt that we will see Mr. Goldberg at the helm of any more companies.
“Lather, rinse, repeat.” – we will see
July 5th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
i haven’t talked to jason goldberg in months, but i remember him as a nice guy :-)
so um BTFO
~jer
http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profile/jeremylanghans
February 25th, 2008 at 5:22 am
clearly, what is the difference between JOBSTER and his competitors? in terme of offered value? in terme of Marketing strategy? business model?
thank you for letting me know. (i think i missed a part with all that).
Jobster has a crucial position in some comunities like facebook (sponsored group, interaction with members, etc.) but what is his concrete involvment in term of Web2.0 approach?
thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.
Yann Levy
eMarketing Strategist
http://www.efairjob.com