bad-ideas

Terrible Idea Punished with Death

Sam Biddle · 01/21/14 03:30PM

Have you ever yearned: I love the physical junk mail I get, but is there any way I could have it intercepted, opened by strangers, scanned, and routed directly to my email inbox, so I don't have to touch paper? San Francisco startup Outbox thought it had the solution. Maybe it did. Now it is gone. Good.

Hot New Startup No One Needs: A Credit Card for Your Credit Cards

Sam Biddle · 11/15/13 11:50AM

One downside of Silicon Valley's ultra-insular groupthink fiesta is that it produces things like "Coin." Coin is a company that sells a product that will solve a fake problem, and soothe a tiny cohort of techie whiners. But when that's all you know, it feels like The Next Big Thing. It's not.

"Hackers and Hookers" Startup Party Is Tech's New Worst Idea

Sam Biddle · 10/23/13 02:21PM

"Beer. Dance floor. Shot bar. Food truck. Girls." Nerds. Obliviousness. Poor judgment. Skewed cultural views. Social regression. Bros. MySQL. Crushing it. A party atmosphere combined with everything that makes the rest of the world hate you, Silicon Valley: this party is not smart.

UNC Student Startup Fakes School Shooting to Advertise

Sam Biddle · 10/16/13 05:39PM

I'm no marketing wizard, but if you try to trick your classmates into believing there is a violent criminal act occurring on campus, the stunt might just blow up in your face. The crew at Bevii is learning this the very hard way.

Yahoo's Big Plan to Become Cool with Kids: Billboards

Sam Biddle · 05/15/13 08:51AM

Yahoo doesn't do much these days except buy silly startups and gather mounds of traffic from parents who don't know how to change their homepage. The company needs a new direction—and it's... more advertising? Oh no.