Funding Friday: Names Are Bullshit

I backed this documentary project on Kickstarter this week:

This film is about a bunch of things that get me going; entrepreneurship, the unlikely winner, rock, reggae, and live music.

I can’t wait until it is made and I can watch it.

#crowdfunding#Music

Comments (Archived):

  1. kenberger

    “Oh look, Honey– there’s an elephant in the room!”

  2. jason wright

    Storytelling.The entrepreneur capable of telling the ‘spellbinding’ story.Tesla is the great contemporary example. The story of world class entrepreneurialism, private capital investment, and yet $5 billion of public money has been given to this company, that struggles to make absurdly expensive electric cars. Other companies make electric cars, and much more cheaply. It feels more like a manipulation with each new day.

    1. sigmaalgebra

      SOOO cynical!! But, but, but, he’s a genius, a visionary, can see the future! Besides he’s saving the planet!! Isn’t the planet worth $5 billion???To those who say, scam, huckster, fraud, California Dream’n, feeder at the public trough, so pejorative, so cruel, how could you be so CRUEL??? That’s like refusing to believe Dr. Ford!!!!

      1. jason wright

        :)Silicon Valley is fast becoming the new military industrial complex, the SV web tech post-industrial complex, only potentially far more insidious in its plundering of the public because it’s the plundering of their minds even before their taxes, and more egregious because government is even more in on the process than the first time around.Musk in a master storyteller.

        1. sigmaalgebra

          > master storyteller.Is that a lot like a flim-flam, fraud, scam, charlatan, huckster, con man, you’d fervently advise your dear daughters to stay far away from??Naw, that would make him sound essentially the same as the NYT, right, THAT NYT, the formerly revered, highly self-esteemed, a giant in their own minds, the house organ of NYC and the Goebbels style propaganda arm of the Democrat party. Did they recently publish “All women must be believed”?? Maybe not, but within just the last few days they did push their favorite fraud, the hideous, act of the evil Devil, a severe retribution of an angry God for the transgressions of greedy, irresponsible, sinning humans on Mother Earth. Of COURSE they did, as led by their highly erudite Chief Climate Scientist Tom “CO2 absorbs sunlight” Friedman. No doubt Tom can exhale and clearly see the CO2. No one else can because nearly all the rest of highly respected science says that CO2 doesn’t absorb sunlight, but Tom has special qualifications — smokes a pipe full continually???? Ah, THAT’S what Tom is seeing when he exhales!!!!! Mystery solved???I mean, who the heck would buy a car from that story teller???The Web and Internet are interesting: I saw them start, and thought “okay”. It was tough to send pictures, sound was worse, and video was not realistic. Then, SURPRISE!!!, the Internet data rates went through the roof, 10 Mbps, …, 200 Mbps, 1 Gbps — TRIPLE WOW! As Stalin said on another subject, quantity has a quality all its own!!! As the most dedicated readers of the NYT would say, “Stalin, very smart man!”.So, Bezos got a little photo studio with a lot of good macro lenses and some photo editing software and was able to put up lots and lots of really informative pictures of what he was selling, then sold a LOT. A lot of retail merchants, long with a strong geographic barrier to entry, got hurt.Now can do a LOT of shopping, etc. over the Internet — Amazon, auto insurance, apartments, etc. Banking.> web tech post-industrial complex,Hmm …. How much bigger could that get? Can’t actually kiss the girl or have her to McDonald’s for Happy Meals. Could buy her a ring. Can’t actually start a family!!!!Can’t kiss anything like the one second from the left in https://uploads.disquscdn.c…Prettiest female I ever saw in person or otherwise — sorry Hollywood, fashion models, etc.Ah, back to my startup — solve a really pressing problem for the future of the Internet!!! So much content, so tough to find more than 1% of the stuff want! E.g., by now Google has figured out what the top searches are and for those and for maybe 80% of what people search for they have worked up custom by hand or some such some good results they present in a special form. So, what people find Google useful for is only a little more than some custom results, that is, maybe only about the 1% I mentioned.

    2. _miki_1774

      “Other companies make electric cars, and much more cheaply” – lol, this is Nokia vs the iPhone all over again. We all know how the story ends.

      1. jason wright

        you’d like to drive the iphone of electric cars?A Tesla is an iphone with wheels?Silicon Valley is becoming a thought one party state.

        1. _miki_1774

          Features like OTA updates are game changers. Their technology integration has no par in the market. So, yes, in some aspects they are closer to an iPhone than to a conventional car.

          1. jason wright

            I’ll go for the Android version, or better, an open source version. Until then i’m sticking with my feet and my bicycle.+1.

          2. PhilipSugar

            Ummmmm, you think other car companies don’t have OTA updates? I say you need to do a little more research.

          3. _miki_1774

            Only Chrysler and Ford are currently doing OTA updates, and on a limited basis, nothing comparable to Tesla cadence or approach. What they mean with OTAs is basically infotainment system upgrades.Teslas are designed to fly-by-wire, so to speak. OTA updates can upgrade every single subsystem in the car. That’s why you don’t see a single knob, lever or mechanical switch inside a Tesla. They were able to fix the braking problem they had a few months ago that way. Braking distance was shortened by 19 feet.In my book that’s a game changer.

          4. jason wright

            It’s next tech, and something tells me that Japanese and German car manufacturers are quietly but remorselessly working it all out at their research facilities and test tracks as i write.https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…Tesla read many works, memorizing complete books, and supposedly possessed a photographic memory.[228] He was a polyglot, speaking eight languages: Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin.[229] Tesla related in his autobiography that he experienced detailed moments of inspiration. During his early life, Tesla was repeatedly stricken with illness. He suffered a peculiar affliction in which blinding flashes of light would appear before his eyes, often accompanied by visions.[228] Often, the visions were linked to a word or idea he might have come across; at other times they would provide the solution to a particular problem he had encountered. Just by hearing the name of an item, he would be able to envision it in realistic detail.[228] Tesla would visualize an invention in his mind with extreme precision, including all dimensions, before moving to the construction stage, a technique sometimes known as picture thinking. He typically did not make drawings by hand but worked from memory. Beginning in his childhood, Tesla had frequent flashbacks to events that had happened previously in his life.”Nikola Tesla was a hyper genius. Elon Musk isn’t.

          5. _miki_1774

            The way I see it is that Tesla is a Software company, and all these legacy car makers are just that, car makers. They have 0 chances to compete with Tesla in Tesla’s own game.I’m of the opinion that all geniuses have two sides. Musk and Tesla have their own share of mental issues or character disorders. It is the price we have to pay if we want to have things like induction motors, the Melting Watch, Falcon rockets or Starry Night, to name a few.

          6. jason wright

            Well, i tend to agree with the assessment as disorders, but here i see it as an ego fracture.Musk has now come to a settlement with the SEC. He needs to get back to nuts and bolts basics.

          7. PhilipSugar

            Wrong. Volvo who now makes cars in China and is owned by a Chinese Billionaire where they make all of those batteries and said they are going offer all electric in all of their models by the end of 2019 does.

      2. JLM

        .Hold that thought.The US SEC just sued to have Elon Musk removed from Tesla and any other public company.Their success on such suits is 103%.JLM http://www.themusingsofthebigredca...

        1. _miki_1774

          Even if Musk is hit by the proverbial bus, Tesla products are so superior that the company has enough inertia to continue leading the charge for at least a decade. Musk rejected a deal with the SEC yesterday night (which BTW, didn’t involve him to resign as CEO), so not totally sure the SEC will get him to walk away. I think your numbers don’t check out regarding the SEC success rate. Ask Mark Cuban.

          1. JLM

            .The Mark Cuban case was an “insider trading” case based on an unrecorded phone call. The other party to the call was a Canadian citizen who was beyond the ability for the SEC to subpoena.Cuban’s defense was that the info – a planned PIPE deal – conveyed to him did not rise to the level of “materiality”.Cuban had a great expert witness – former US SEC big dog – who convinced the jury.Cuban never denied he received the info or that the call took place or that he sold the stock.Cuban outlawyered the SEC.Musk is charged with garden variety fraud.SEC wins the vast majority of those cases. He will regret not settling. He still has a good chance of settling. One should expect him to be banned from public companies for 5 years at a minimum.JLMwww.thwmusingsofthebigredca…

          2. _miki_1774

            The SEC will probably win and it will probably be just a fine. FYI, Musk’s attorney is the guy who defended Mark Cuban.

          3. jason wright

            The SEC is quite conservative in its actions. For it to do this suggests good reason and firm evidence.

  3. Vendita Auto

    Wow “Venus in Furs”

  4. sigmaalgebra

    Gee, startup entrepreneurs, any investor who would back such a project would back nearly anything!!!!! Clearly, EEEEEze, freebie money for everyone!!!! So, do not wait, do not rest, do not walk, instead run as fast as possible to get your pitch deck in the queue!!!!

  5. Jeremy Shatan

    Very cool! This Manhattan boy heard the ads on WLIR and wanted to get there…but never did. Now I can get a little bit of the experience!

  6. awaldstein

    Too cool.Never heard of it actually and it must have paralleled Cafe Wha chronologically.

  7. Salt Shaker

    I grew up in Roslyn, NY, home of “My Father’s Place.” In many ways, the club helped define the small little village, which also had several cool restaurants and bars. The club undoubtedly helped define my childhood. When you saw a show at MFP you had to park under a viaduct (in essence, a small bridge). There was always the risk your car would be bombarded w/ pigeon shit or maybe a bit of broken glass would capture a tire on the way out. If you were real lucky neither would happen, only the experience of hearing really good ‘live’ music. Michael “Eppy” Epstein, the proprietor, was a musical genius. A little rough around the edges and somewhat unkempt, Eppy turned the small club into a treasure. Springsteen, Aerosmith, Petty, The Police, are just a few “up and coming” bands that played there. I started going to MFP at about 15 w/ fake ID. Saw many, many shows there. It’s one of those things where you didn’t appreciate how special the place was until it was gone. Its legacy has only grown over the years, and rightly so.

    1. LE

      That is a great first hand account. I wonder if they will interview people like you for the film.Amazing that a guy like Epstein is still around. Honestly a testament to modern medicine. [1] When we were growing up a guy like that wouldn’t last into his 70’s no way. (If you watch videos of him on the web redoing the club you can even see he has the signature hip problem (I am assuming) hobble back and forth.)Interesting if you haven’t seen it:https://www.newsday.com/enthttps://www.timesofisrael.c…[1] And certainly part of the reason we all pay so much for healthcare.

      1. Salt Shaker

        Thanks LE, had not seen. Eppy never was a picture of health, frankly. The club, other than the bar area, only had really long tables where you often sat w/ strangers. Didn’t matter, everyone was there for the music (and party). In its own way, MFP rivaled CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City, two legendary NYC clubs.

    2. awaldstein

      Lucky you!Live music pre stadiums was the best part of my youth from Cafe Wha to the Fillmore East.

      1. kenberger

        Cafe Wha was started and owned by David Lee Roth’s uncle !

        1. awaldstein

          Cool, didn’t know that.In my very early teens it was the era of being able to see Hendrix at Cafe Wha and line up outside the Psychodelicatessan for–well, what it was there for.The Blues Project, Junior Wells, Even Dozen Jug Band, Buffy Saint Marie, Richard and Mimi Farina, the Fugs, Richie Havens, Janis and being an usher at the early Fillmore. Too cool honestly and makes me smile to think of it.NY downtown before stadium rock was something I look back at very fondly.

    3. jason wright

      “…you didn’t appreciate how special the place was until it was gone.”- pin that for each new day.

  8. Guy Lepage

    Such a punk rock name! Awesome name and great branding..