Bootup Labs' Danny Robinson: "I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned."

Bootup Lab's reputation has still been badly damaged.<p>An entrepreneur's commitment and sacrifice to their business is very serious and they took a very nonchalant approach to handling this situation until the PR blew up.<p>Of course Danny is sorry now. I'm sure Bootup will continue to do fine with finding new startups since entrepreneurs in need of cash are always in high supply.<p>But competent entrepreneurs look for competent investors and the real test now is if Bootup labs is capable of getting/being either of those.

This is just damage control, nothing else.<p>Bootuplabs have egg all over their faces and pretty much deserve to be ignored by any serious startup.<p>An apology doesn't go far enough, if half of what I read about this is true they should send those guys some money to cover the costs they made to move to Vancouver. The thing they're probably really sorry about is that it got as much play as it did, I don't think they expected a not-so-spectacular startup to get that kind of PR on being axed, more so than they probably would have gotten during a launch.

Danny, Words whisper, Actions scream. In order to combat this situation, offer the cut teams tangible help. And, don't let it be something like:" If I could help in anyway!" Jesus Christ man, you already know how you could help; these guys need money. Use your connects to link them with some angel investors/ VC.<p>After, this am sure everyone would forgive and applaud you. And the publicity and the goodwill gained goes a long way. It is just too easy to say am sorry.

As Danny says, Bootup Labs has a long road ahead of them to regain the community's trust. I'm willing to give them that chance.<p>At this point, I certainly couldn't recommend that a startup from outside of Vancouver move here to work with Bootup Labs, but for a startup in Vancouver -- treading carefully and making sure that money is in the bank and that legal agreements don't say anything evil -- I think Bootup Labs might still be an option.<p>And if Bootup Labs has a few years of success stories, well, that might just redeem them.

I don't think proceeding without "money in the bank" is THAT unusual for startups. There is a certain minimum buffer, but once an investor signs up, and paperwork/etc. is executed, most people would go ahead with signing leases for buildings, hiring, etc. with even only a few months more of cash on hand.<p>Maybe you don't want your incubator/investor to behave like a startup, though.

I think it's pretty easy to take shots from the sidelines. It's fairly obvious that the vast majority of you guys know very little about the start-up environment in Vancouver. We need guys like Danny and Bootup to take some risks in order to develop our ecosystem.<p>In this case, an error resulted. They didn't want that to happen, but it happened. Crucifying these guys after the fact helps no one.<p>If there's value in Status.ly, either someone else will step in and fund it or someone will buy it.<p>Entrepreneurial risk takes many forms.<p>As for the "slick PR messaging", you guys obviously don't know Danny.

Anyone got a good round up of what happened? The post provided links to parts of the previous conversation but I'd rather read a good article summing everything up.

Looks like statusly is for sale. <a href="http://statuslyforsale.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://statuslyforsale.tumblr.com/</a><p>The post that talks about this: <a href="http://livejamie.com/post/522093261/booted-out-of-bootup-labs" rel="nofollow">http://livejamie.com/post/522093261/booted-out-of-bootup-lab...</a>

This kind of thing really makes me sick. At the very least we should see an offer of monetary help for the startups that were dropped. Ie he should help out the people he financially hurt even though they dont matter to him anymore. That action would win him points and get him on the way to regaining his credibility.

He failed but he didn't fail fast. :) but the important thing is he learned a lesson and wrote about it.

Too little, too late.

Whoa, I would not like to be this guy right now.

Though it does not help Jamie now, it indeed <i>sounds</i> a honest apology (especially #3). Glad to see that Jason.

"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence" - Napoleon Bonaparte.

Would this scenario have broken laws in the US?

Why is this guy any more trustworthy today after issuing an artfully written apology, that was clealry crafted by a PR professional skilled in crisis management communications?<p>Don't forget, "actions speak louder than words." Startups do yourself a big favour and steer clear of this underfunded, unprofessional slow motion train wreck.

Human nature makes us want to forgive and forget. Donlt get sucked into this. Keep a lear head and select your incubator and mentors based on facts, not emotions.<p>Bootup sucked young entrepreneurs into their "cool clubhouse" mystique, when there was no substance or cash. The total funds raised by BUL in 2 years is insufficient for even one decent startup - how are they going to fund 11 or 12 companies in any viable way? Don't get sucked into the hype, stay clear of this bullsh*t.