Kind of weird that hours after posting about the sell of Cork’d and being happy for them and for what it might be a sign of, I read about Derek and Heather. A completely opposite result to a great project that I mentioned a number of times and subscribed to. Why, just last week I was showing it to a client as an example of fun friendly design and a good example of community creation.
You should read their posts but the quick version; they created a nice community produced magazine, found a financial partner, turned the mag into a promising new kind of media venture, had fun, got screwed. It’s a real shame, not only as an outcome that would be sad for anyone involved but also because in this case you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer couple of people than Derek and Heather.
For the last huh…. way too many month I’ve had in mind to post about companies I find cool, places I’d consider leaving freelancing for and 8020 was high on that list, now I’m wondering if I won’t try to have my membership canceled. Really, really bad, dumb move by Paul and the rest.
When writing about Cork’d I said it might be a promising new direction for development and I think this is another lesson in that same “guidebook”, add Derek’s list from the bottom of his post to it and highlight, again, the extreme caution required when choosing/deciding to get backers and how it’s important to structure everything financial, even between friends. You never know what will happen when business inperetives or pipe dreams get a hold of someone.