Sam Sethi vs. Michael Arrington — the 100-word versions
European TechCrunch competitor BlogNation imploded two weeks ago. Yesterday, its founder Sam Sethi wrote a long post to explain how it was all Michael Arrington's fault. Today, Arrington responded. Both are blowhards who love nothing more than to spew verbiage at each other. Logorrhea as a lethal weapon. How to get your dose of schadenfreude without getting bored to death? By reading these 100-word versions of each missive.
Here's to You Mr(s) Arrington, Goodbye and Good Luck Startups
One year ago I resigned from Techcrunch. Arrington never forgave me. For 6 months he's threatened to publish emails I sent him, trying to create fear and doubt with VCs interested in BlogNation. So I decided say blognation had closed funding to put Arrington off the scent. Then, someone in BlogNation sent Arrington an internal email. He published.This spooked the VC. Arrington would love editors to leave blognation, so I chose not to tell them funding was delayed. Last week we had funding on the table, but Arrington published the term sheet which scuppered the deal. I blame myself.
The Fact and Fiction of Sam Sethi
As editor of TechCrunch UK in 2006, he kept talking about revenue until it became clear to us there wasn't any. He quit. Sam started BlogNation. He said he had venture funding though he didn't. Sam continued to take shots at TechCrunch. They tried to hire our writers. I took the gloves off. I posted the death threat from Sam. I didn't post that email to hurt BlogNation — I simply stopped not posting. Marc Orchant had a heart attack because he was working for Sam. BlogNation never received funding, never paid anyone for any work, and did not have a workable business model. Sam claims my posting of that term sheet killed the financing. More likely, that the term sheet was a fake created by Sam. I hope some day Sam expresses regret for the death of Marc Orchant.