I don’t like to bring up these little lapses of judgement (or, in this case, horrendous lapses of reason) but it’s an interesting story and deserves at least a brief mention. An entrepreneur, who shall remain nameless, wanted Jason Calacanis and Tim Ferris to invest in his startup. Instead of emailing the two, the founder spoofed a phone call from Ferris to Calacanis, assuming that Calacanis would immediately pick up if his friend called.
“Unfortunately, after 30 seconds of adrenaline and angst his phone sent us to voicemail,” wrote the founder.
So I spoofed Calacanis from his own number which allowed me to trick the system into sending me straight to voicemail set-up. Being the good Samaritan I am, I of course set up his voicemail for him (but with a special message of my own). I figured the kind of people calling Calacanis would be the ideal demographic to target for our seed round.
The founder called this an “Investment Hack” (you can find his post using those words). It is not. It smacks of desperation at best and immaturity at worst.
This sort of thing isn’t OK. In the early days founders used to walk in on Michael Arrington while he was sleeping, bearing coffee, but that was a full seven years ago. These days human interconnection is far simpler and, barring an inability to buy a plane ticket, you can probably spot Calacanis or Ferris at a start-up conference/Creamery near you. Playing stupid games doesn’t get you noticed. Instead, it can get you arrested.
Cyan Banister posted Jason’s surprisingly kind response:
