> You are a troll.

> -John

> On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Sean Bonner <seanbon...@gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> Wow, this is the douchiest e-mail I've seen all day. And that is  
> saying a lot.

> http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanbonner/4234089909/

> Pro Tip: Pretty much the two worst things you can do when promoting
> something are talk shit about previous partners, and talk shit about
> other people with similar projects.

> Also, if your new project is for mobile phone users in Portland, why
> are you sending it to a group in Los Angeles?

> -s

> On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 5:36 PM, John Pratt <jpra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I used to run Fundable.com until a few months ago, when I decided to
> > shut it down against the will of my business partner, who allowed  
> some
> > serious programming errors and customer service issues to take place
> > without informing me.  The final straw was when he said, "John, you
> > should sell your part of the business to me because the Austin  
> Police
> > department is thinking about filing charges against Fundable.  Get  
> out
> > while you can."  That's when I shut down the credit card processing
> > and took the domain away from him.

> > For those of you who insist on thinking that the truth always lies  
> in
> > between two accounts of a situation, I urge you to drop that  
> misguided
> > notion, especially for this situation.

> > I feel that this story is important to tell you because
> > Kickstarter.com copied us.  I tried for 4 years to get people to  
> take
> > Fundable seriously, traveling across the country, even giving a
> > presentation to FBFund, Facebook's fund to stimulate development of
> > new apps.  It was a series of rejections for 4 years.  I really felt
> > that I presented myself professionally in every business situation  
> and
> > I dressed appropriately and practiced my presentations.  That was  
> not
> > enough.   The idiots wanted us to show them charts with massive
> > profits and widespread public acceptance so that they didn't have to
> > take any risks.

> > All it took was 5 super-connected people at Kickstarter (especially
> > Andy Baio) to take a concept we worked hard to refine, tweak it with
> > Amazon Payments, and then take credit.  You could say that that's
> > capitalism, but I still think you should acknowledge people that you
> > take inspiration from.  I do.  I owe the concept of Fundable to many
> > things, including living in cooperative student housing and studying
> > Political Science at Michigan.  Rational choice theory, tragedy of  
> the
> > commons, and collective action are a few political science concepts
> > that are relevant to Fundable.

> > Yes, Fundable had some technical and customer service problems.
> > That's because we had no money to revise it.  I had plans to scrap  
> the
> > entire CMS and start from scratch with a new design.  We were just  
> so
> > burned out that motivation was hard to come by.  What was the  
> point if
> > we weren't making enough money to live on after 4 years?

> > During those 4 years both of us had to take full-time jobs from time
> > to time.  Neither of us were that well-connected in the tech  
> community
> > or Fundable would have grown a long time ago.  It wasn't for lack of
> > trying to reach out to people.   The company was making barely  
> enough
> > money for us to cover expenses and pay ourselves on the side.  Our
> > server space was donated during the entire 4 years.

> > I cannot tell you how painful it is to watch 5 assholes take your  
> idea
> > and run with it and not even give you credit.  I hate all 5 of them
> > for that.  If I see them, I may punch each one of them in the face.
> > If you have never started your own company and then had someone else
> > steal the credit for what you worked hard to develop, you don't
> > understand.

> > The Fundable/Kickstarter fundraising model matters.  It's huge.  It
> > could change the development of funding the arts as well as the
> > political process.  We had an idea of this 4 years ago, but it was
> > very difficult to bridge theory to practice.  To be honest, I didn't
> > even know if it was going to work most of the time and I sometimes
> > wondered if I was wasting my time.  We laid the groundwork for
> > Kickstarter to exist.  Don't forget that when you use it.  If you  
> were
> > in a similar situation, I would remind people of your  
> contributions as
> > well.

> > If you have met me in L.A. and you dismissed Fundable before or you
> > failed to return my calls or you flaked on me in person or just  
> said,
> > "oh that's a cool idea" and then left our conversation, don't make  
> the
> > same mistake this time with my new project, located at PDXCell.com.

> > PDXCell is an entity that will produce a decentralized wireless  
> phone
> > service for the city of Portland, where I now live.  The goal is to
> > establish a very low cost wireless system that provides quality
> > unlimited internet access and local wireless phone service for  
> around
> > $10 month, very likely through WiMax.  That's the goal.

> > The details can be found at PDXCell.com.  You are welcome to help,  
> as
> > this is not a web startup or a non-profit.  This project is not a
> > startup.  It will require the collective desire of many people to  
> make
> > it come into being.  I think, however, that if you read the web page
> > you will become and advocate.

> > I got burned with Fundable in a lot of ways, but at those times I  
> get
> > a better perspective on the situation I am not very bitter because I
> > realize how much I learned and how much I got to experience.  More
> > importantly, all Kickstarter projects are Fundable projects, I just
> > don't receive any money from them.  The Kickstarter founders know
> > this.  The web community knows this.  Now you know this.

> > I won't be making the same mistakes with PDXCell.

> > Be a part of it.

> > -John

> > --
> > BarCampLA Wiki: http://barcamp.org/BarCampLosAngeles
> > BarCampLA Blog: http://www.barcampla.org/
> > BarCampLA Group: http://groups.google.com/group/BarcampLA?hl=en

> --
> Sean Bonner
> http://www.seanbonner.com - homebase
> http://www.metblogs.com - get local
> Unless agreed upon, assume everything in this e-mail might be blogged.

> --
> BarCampLA Wiki: http://barcamp.org/BarCampLosAngeles
> BarCampLA Blog: http://www.barcampla.org/
> BarCampLA Group: http://groups.google.com/group/BarcampLA?hl=en

> --
> BarCampLA Wiki: http://barcamp.org/BarCampLosAngeles
> BarCampLA Blog: http://www.barcampla.org/
> BarCampLA Group: http://groups.google.com/group/BarcampLA?hl=en