<story><title>Powa: The startup that fell to earth</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35860814</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Twirrim</author><text>That article reveals a story that&amp;#x27;s one &lt;i&gt;facepalm&lt;/i&gt; after another. An example of the worst &amp;quot;rockstar founder&amp;quot; attitude backed by apparently clueless investors.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Powa occupied two floors of the prestigious Heron Tower at the heart of the city of London, and had equally lavish accommodation in Hong Kong, New York and across Europe.&lt;p&gt;Before having established proper cash flow?! When all their &amp;quot;sales&amp;quot; were just &amp;quot;letters of intent&amp;quot;. How were investors even remotely convinced it was a good deal?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; One of the more printable comments is this: &amp;quot;You don&amp;#x27;t employ intelligent, highly experienced people to treat them like something unpleasant under your shoe by telling them to forget everything they know, as your way isn&amp;#x27;t working&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I wonder what the staff turnover was like? The only time I worked for a CEO who treated his employees with that little respect, they had a 90%&amp;#x2F;2 years turnover. No one was prepared to stick around and support someone who would send motivational emails saying &amp;quot;Ask not what your company can do for you, ask what you can do for the company&amp;quot; as the CEO was screwing up sales deals.  I always wondered if he&amp;#x27;d ever figure it out. Even burned my bridge there trying to help him understand what was going on during the exit interview.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; According to several former employees, at one Christmas bash in Mayfair, strippers were hired to perform, to the discomfort of many present.&lt;p&gt;Grew up idolising the worst aspects of Yuppie culture?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;While the company was going under, he&amp;#x27;s fooling around in a photography studio pretending to be Ziggy Stardust. The guy is a narcissistic idiot.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Certainly sounds like it...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>klenwell</author><text>Fooling around in photography studio pretending to be Ziggy Stardust? I had to RTFA just to see this. Was not disappointed.&lt;p&gt;The caption is delivered with perfect English understatement:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; One member of staff described Mr Wagner as an &amp;quot;idiot&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>Powa: The startup that fell to earth</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35860814</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Twirrim</author><text>That article reveals a story that&amp;#x27;s one &lt;i&gt;facepalm&lt;/i&gt; after another. An example of the worst &amp;quot;rockstar founder&amp;quot; attitude backed by apparently clueless investors.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Powa occupied two floors of the prestigious Heron Tower at the heart of the city of London, and had equally lavish accommodation in Hong Kong, New York and across Europe.&lt;p&gt;Before having established proper cash flow?! When all their &amp;quot;sales&amp;quot; were just &amp;quot;letters of intent&amp;quot;. How were investors even remotely convinced it was a good deal?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; One of the more printable comments is this: &amp;quot;You don&amp;#x27;t employ intelligent, highly experienced people to treat them like something unpleasant under your shoe by telling them to forget everything they know, as your way isn&amp;#x27;t working&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I wonder what the staff turnover was like? The only time I worked for a CEO who treated his employees with that little respect, they had a 90%&amp;#x2F;2 years turnover. No one was prepared to stick around and support someone who would send motivational emails saying &amp;quot;Ask not what your company can do for you, ask what you can do for the company&amp;quot; as the CEO was screwing up sales deals.  I always wondered if he&amp;#x27;d ever figure it out. Even burned my bridge there trying to help him understand what was going on during the exit interview.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; According to several former employees, at one Christmas bash in Mayfair, strippers were hired to perform, to the discomfort of many present.&lt;p&gt;Grew up idolising the worst aspects of Yuppie culture?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;While the company was going under, he&amp;#x27;s fooling around in a photography studio pretending to be Ziggy Stardust. The guy is a narcissistic idiot.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Certainly sounds like it...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rm_-rf_slash</author><text>Just curious, how did things end up at the company you worked at?&lt;p&gt;I had a similar experience with a startup out of college. On reflection, I should have noticed that among all the photos on the &amp;quot;mentioned in the news&amp;quot; billboard, the only familiar faces were the founders...</text></comment>