Don’t stop believing — Silicon Valley lip-synchs while market burns

October 9, 2008 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

Updated

Tech stocks are plunging and venture capitalists are telling their startups to hunker down for an extended downturn, but a group of Silicon Valley techies still found time for a nice little retreat to Cyprus. They also produced this amusing video set to Journey’s classic song “Don’t Stop Believing.”

Among those featured are Facebook platform manager Dave Morin, Facebook product designer Aaron Sittig, Drop.io founder Sam Lessin and Blip.tv founder Mike Hudack.

Is it just me, or does the video (first spotted by Silicon Alley Insider) scream “frat party”? Look, I don’t begrudge overworked tech types their vacations. Heck, the Saturday after AIG and Lehman Brothers collapsed, I got on a plane to Martha’s Vineyard. And I don’t agree with bloggers who say Silicon Valley has been living on a bubble, thinking it won’t be affected by the crash. But posting videos of your fun Cyprus vacation — on a public site, even if it wasn’t meant for wide distribution — while the market crumbles is a classic facepalm moment. It plays into that stereotype. The sight of startup executives goofing off in bathing suits while carrying around giant cans of beer reinforces the idea that Silicon Valley needs adult supervision.

Then again, maybe I’m just cranky because all the cool kids forgot to send me an invite.

Update: Looks like they’ve made the video private, but the genie is already out of the bottle – the video is now up on YouTube, and I’ve embedded it below. To be honest, I felt like a little sheepish when I saw the video had become private, but I do think it does have a larger cultural significance/symbolism. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington did a great job of boiling down why the video was worth writing about:

They leave behind an absurd video that would have gone unnoticed a month ago. But this week, with the walls tumbling down, they look like a bunch of jackasses who have no idea what’s going on back at home. And this video will always be associated with the end of Web 2.0.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • Blogger
    This video belongs on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
  • Bobby
    Am I the only one a bit perturbed that the WSJ's tech reporter is with them?
  • Yeah, I was a bit puzzled then I remembered this: http://valleywag.com/392068/wall-street-journal...
  • Bobby
    Wow, I was expecting some really shady stuff after reading that Vwag article. Once I read the actual piece, I wasn't as upset. It seemed like turned to her colleagues for sources, and it happened to be Jessica's BF. Is it completely clean? No.

    Still, where do you draw the line? It's hard to not mix business and pleasure - but shouldn't a journalist go above and beyond to clear conflict of interest, or even the perception of it?
  • Yeah, I'm not really comfortable talking too much about the WSJ article in particular, since it was actually written by a friend of mine; I was just pointing to the Valleywag post because it basically explains why a WSJ reporter would be in the video.

    Not sure I'm completely on-board with the idea that journalists should go above the "perception" of conflict of interest, though -- I mean, that would be ideal, but it's not always possible, and ultimately I'm more concerned about *real* conflicts of interest.
  • whoa, who's the guy with the chubby at 1:23-1:28 or so? did that REALLY need to go on Vimeo?
  • Actually, I think it's a pretty good-looking crew overall. Another VentureBeat writer pointed out that we should really give them points for the coordinated swimsuits.
  • That's not "chubby" as in "fat" ...
  • Oh, you kids and your slang.
  • devahaz
    That place has a pretty sweet pool.
  • I know! Totally jealous.
  • Real Web 2.0 Entrepreneur
    Who cares if they are taking a vacation during a down economy. The problem is they look like total douchebags in that video! They give real Web 2.0 entrepreneurs a bad name.
  • Umm is it only me but I want to one-up them on this trip ... they are going down ...
  • It's so interesting that they spent time to plan something like this out and execute it.
  • dude. seriously.

    they're on vacation.

    most of them work for facebook, which has several hundred mil in the bank, and is generating another hundred mil in revenue this year. most all of them have been busting their ass working 60-80+ hour weeks for several years, and now some of them have stock options that may be freeing up, options which are seriously in the money.

    why SHOULDN'T they be partying?

    again, a reminder for all you folks who love to wail on facebook because they're not the next google, most FB employees & all-but-last-round investors are laughing all the way to the bank / market.

    deal with it.
  • Yeah, I probably overreacted a bit, and also failed to make the post as clearly tongue-in-cheek as I would have liked. But I do think that the juxtaposition (of video/circumstances/general economic context) is interesting and unflattering, even if that's not really the fault of anyone actually in the video.
  • and by the way, that was a pretty damn good one-shot amateur video.

    also, as noted by andrewbadera above joe green does appear to be somewhat excited. (good eye ;)
  • david
    Jees, leave them alone - people can't even have fun anymore?
  • If you're jealous you can have a vacation like that, and you think it's disturbing, then you shouldn't go and rub it in.

    The Web 2.0 is far from over, I just see a bunch of successful people that took the time to make a really fun video (choreographed and all in one shot). If anything we'd all should try to reproduce something like this, at times where others are struggling, that even makes it more cool.

    Stop hating people that do well, we're not a communist nation.
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