Postmates Has Raised $5 Million to Expand Into Seattle And Beyond (opens in new tab)

(techcrunch.com)

13 pointsshibboleth13y ago5 comments

5 comments

I think it would be nice if TC disclosed Arrington's involvement with SoftTech VC, which has invested in Postmates.

Michael Arrington is a Limited Partner in SoftTech VC meaning that, he's an investor in the VC firm. He doesn't make the decisions on what they invest in that's down to their team who you can find at: http://softtechvc.com/team/. In otherwords a disclosure isn't necessary as he has no influence and/or potentially even knowledge on what SoftTech VC have invested in (some VC firms don't list all of their investments on their portfolio pages).

shuzchen13y ago

Yes but in this case, they (TC) know that Arrington is a partner at SoftTech VC, and they also know that SoftTech VC is investing in this particular startup being covered (They mention them specifically in the article) so the ignorance argument is invalid.

Since someone within TC stands to profit from the company they are writing about, isn't a disclosure a good idea? I agree that it's not entirely clear-cut what to do here, but IMO to build any sort of journalistic integrity a media outlet should err on the side of disclosure.

1 more reply

2pasc13y ago

You may be right, but being a tech press darling does not make them less or more successful. Some great consumer Companies are succeeding with very few tech press mentions (Tango, WhatsApp come to mind), while others get a lot of tech mentions (Foursquare, Taskrabbit), and it is debatable whether they will be real success in the long run.

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