For whom the bell tolls…it tolls for thee -John Donne

What happened?….tick tick

As I begin this post it is currently 33 minutes past the much anticipated launch of Wahooly and the Wahooligans (social media influencers) who were selected based upon their high Klout scores to become minority shareholders in as many as 200 startups are sitting around idly waiting.  Yours truly is waiting here wondering if he should go down and get himself some lunch.

As you see by the screenshot….Now means at least half an hour..maybe more.

Such is the hype machine of the internet.  Sometime it works.  Other times it might be better to underpromise and over-perform.  I’m sure I’ll eventually get into the site, sign up for a few start-ups and tout their failures and successes as well as the value I think they can provide.

Is this a novel idea?  In a way yes, and no.  Most internet ideas and services are just online versions of what you see in the real world.  That is, the world you can touch.  About 15 years ago with the new batch of start-ups such as Amazon, AOL, NBCi, etc, those who were considered tech insiders were given what is known as “friends and family” stock, small stock portions for being associated with the company.

As a business development professional I used to receive shares in companies like these.  My 25 shares of AOL split, split and split again turning itself into a value of over $30K at one point.  not bad for just supporting a company in those days.  Now Wahooly is saying that all I need to do is support these companies through social media channels.

So the bottom line is…unless there are multiple wins in the pool of startups (2-3 Amazons) that Wahooly makes available, expectations should be managed.  A big return?  Not likely.  A chance to say you heard it first?  Yes.  I sure hope I come out of this finding at least one good company that makes it to commercial success.  The problem is the process is getting in the way.  Hopefully the process doesn’t drown the perception of these start-ups.