This is good to know. I originally signed up for the Home-Account after seeing his recommendation and was very disappointed with the service. It seemed to have changed its tune from when it first started up. And then they started billing me monthly without sending an email or any sort of notification. Their refund policy requires sending in a whole bunch of documentation that would be a big pain in the neck.
I cancelled right away and still occasionally get emails from them. Odd! Anyway, I really think they have become a Scam service now. Has anyone had any good experiences with them?
When I used their recommendations for lenders to apply for lower APR home refinancing (the core service they offer). I did it twice and neither bank ever even got back to me. It was like the form I filled out on the home-Account site just went to no where. Scary stuff when you're submitting a lot financial data. Anyway, I cancelled my account after that and changed some passwords elsewhere and moved on.
I then had to ask them three times over the next few months to stop billing me. Finally had to get someone on the phone which took several calls. I will say the CSR I spoke to was great, but the product is so hopelessly broken otherwise it doesn't factor.
So... Terrible experience with Home-Account. It's too bad, too. They're stated business model really solves a problem a lot of people had/have, their execution is just awful.
I was also a Home-Account customer. We cancelled after a month or two.
A lender did get back to us, but promised a rate they couldn't actually get, and eventually stopped calling. We also have really good credit, so perhaps that's why I at least got an initial call back.
He really has gone down hill since that great movie he had "Triumph of the nerds", was really interesting seeing the history of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates starting their companies. Probably one of the better things I've seen on PBS
He also had a very interesting follow-up series "Nerds 2.0.1" http://www.pbs.org/opb/nerds2.0.1/ which is the history of the early internet. Make sure to watch that too!
No, probably it was never released on DVD. I always wondered why he didn't continue the series with, say, Nerds 2.1 (The Fall of The Nerds) covering after-the-bubble internet and Nerds 2.5 (A New Dawn) about web 2.0
It looked like a solid and successful storyline, so much so that he could eventually become a nice cliche. Really pity he stopped working on the series.
Did he ever give any explanation as to why he never made another sequel?
How does a founder get fired? So, the CEO says "you're fired". Well, I'm guessing that if you're a founder then that means you're a co-owner. So, don't you just tell the CEO, "um... no"?
Sure, if you hold 51% of the equity, and even then it would get messy.
The power to hire and fire is (usually) the CEOs, devolved from the board. The board is (usually) appointed by the equity holders.
For some set ups reversing a CEOs decision might require 50%+ of the shareholders deposing 50%+ of the board and replacing them with tame board members who fire the CEO and appoint someone else.
That's going to look pretty bad to the staff, any investors who don't agree, anyone you might try and hire as the new CEO, customers and any potential future investors. And after all of those people have run away as fast as they can how much of a company is really left?
In many venture-backed companies, the Series A (and B, C, ...) shareholders are guaranteed a certain number of board seats--solely by virtue of holding preferred stock. The founders (who hold common stock) have no control over how the preferred shareholders use their board seats.
If the preferred shareholders have an outright majority on the board, it's black and white that they can effectively fire the founders.
Almost all founder agreements - especially one signed by Cringley who has a lot of experience - is going to have ways for the board to get rid of a founder. Either outright firing, or a buy-out or something.
Just because a founder, for example, doesn't mean you don't have to come into work because you're busy at home eating cheetos and playing xbox (which is definitely not what Cringley did, but an extreme example of why you'd want such a clause).
I cancelled right away and still occasionally get emails from them. Odd! Anyway, I really think they have become a Scam service now. Has anyone had any good experiences with them?