Chad's Miniblog

Oh, so you’re a ‘startup’?

I get extremely suspicious when a well-established company says “we are going to run our new division like a startup.” What this usually means is that they want young, hungry technorati to work excruciating hours with low pay and limited resources.

The problem with this line of BS is that it ignores the real reasons that kids who go to work for startups are willing to work long hours for low pay under less-than ideal circumstances. The startup kids work their asses off because they are doing something truly exciting and innovative and because they have a strong likelihood of becoming quite wealthy if the startup succeeds. Niether of these is likely to be the case working for some fake startup division of a big company. It is unlikely that some new idea that an executive in the big company thought of is truly innovative or interesting, and it is unlikely that the people slaving away in the startup division will gain anything substantial financially from the future success of their project, as the equity in the business has already been distributed among the shareholders or partners in the parent business.

Running a contrived startup division is more like a halfhearted, half-assed attempt by businesses to get talent on the cheap than a clever business that was launched at Techstars.

My iPhone Options

So, my iPhone has reached the end of its useful life. The sleep button doesn’t work, and the microphone has become non-functional. Yuck. After being told there was nothing I could do by the Genius at the Apple store, I have isolated these options:

1. Get a replacement 3GS from the Apple Store for $200 with no contract extension. Purchase a theoretical iPhone 5 in July for $299. Total Cost: $499 
2. Buy a new iPhone 4 from AT&T for $499 and reset my contract. Total cost: $499
3. Pay my $105 ETF to AT&T, then switch to Verizon, pay a $35 activation fee and buy a new iPhone 4 for $299. Total Cost: $439