HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Watch Jack speak to Alibaba's original employees and you'll find that most of his musings about technology were off the mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up9-C4_8dVo

And yet Alibaba is now worth more than Ebay and Yahoo combined.

He may be ignorant but he's not entirely stupid.

Of course, the irony of him talking about how Alibaba employees should work more hours shouldn't be lost on people.

Semi-related video from 1999 of Jack Ma's early pitch about Alibaba's potential to some friends in China.[0]

His quote about hard work and long hours:

>"Second, we need to learn the hard working spirit of Silicon Valley. If we go to work at 8am and go home at 5pm, this is not a high tech company, and Alibaba wil never be successful."

Apparently, of the 17 people in that room, only 1 joined/invested in Alibaba. Intense startups are definitely not the right lifestyle for most people.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up9-C4_8dVo

⬐ sajid

Ironic, that in the video, he urges his colleagues to emulate the American startup work ethic. Nowadays, it's the other way around.