Valleywag
Wallstrip, the CBS-owned stocks videoblog, interviews Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic, the blog software maker. Host Lindsay Campbell, as always, asks Schneider whether he's "long" or "short" a number of hot topics. Schneider shorts Facebook and Apple's iTunes, but, curiously, says that he's long Meebo. Curiously, because the Web-IM startup's buzz is mild at best, and Schneider, in the clip, doesn't disclose that he's an investor in Meebo through True Ventures, the venture-capital firm where Schneider moonlights as a partner. (While we're disclosing, I should mention that Schneider's company hosts my personal website, Ditherati.)
Automattic's Toni Schneider touts an investment
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3:01 PM on Sat Aug 4 2007
By Owen Thomas
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Hi Owen,
I'm long on Meebo because they are in a proven market (IM) and their user base is steadily growing at the expense of the incumbent providers. Seems like that should lead to a positive outcome.
But yes, True Ventures is indeed a (very small) investor in Meebo. So I should have probably just said "no comment" or "I'm an indirect investor" (the rapid fire "short" "long" question format makes this a little challenging).
@tonischneider:
Doing disclosure at the end of the segment or end of the show would be adequate.
i suppose he should have said "long meebo, literally" but this desire for disclosure everywhere is a little nutty in my book.
long/short is a fun game that they always do at the end of wallstrip's friday chat. it's not meant to be anything more than fun.
@tonischneider: And you may have been distracted by Campbell's considerable charms. I think you actually flummoxed her when you gave your reason for shorting Wallstrip.
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