Congdon Fired from RocketBoom

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1. Matt Grommes
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:14 am

   Wow, something pretty huge must have happened for Andrew to put his own neck in the noose like this. The audience is certainly going to follow Amanda, not Rocketboom. I wonder how Tivo and other partners feel about this?

2. Jason
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:20 am

   Can’t be true… this has to be a joke/stunt.

   Mini-Murdoch/Baron would never let the talent walk out the door… clearly this is a stunt (and a well-played one!)

3. Pascal Venier
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:21 am

   Amanda UnBoomed, Rocketbust! ;^)

4. Jake Ingman
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:25 am

   @Matt Grommes

   No kidding, the first thing I thought when I saw/read this was “who is this twit Andrew Baron”? Maybe he’s a great guy and all, but… wtf? Amanda’s “unboomed” vid is so very sad.

5. Ross M Karchner
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:33 am

   Does she remain 49% owner?

   That’d be awkward.

6. RB
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:33 am

   I agree, I think it may be a stunt. Rocketboom is all about viral buzz — and this gives it even more!

7. Matt Herzberger
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:38 am

   That is really to bad I was just starting to digg that site. I’m sure she will land some where.

8. Ernie Oporto
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:42 am

   If it’s a stunt, it’s a lame one.
   Lame of Baron, nonetheless.

9. Florian Hollender
   

   July 5th, 2006 at 10:44 am

   If this was a marketing stunt, it would be an extremely risky one. Of course, the attention generated right now is tremendous, but the loss of authenticity and the potential loss of previously very loyal viewers could outweigh this effect in the long run. Given the current success of rocketboom, it seems unlikely to me that they would put their business at stake like that. Unfortunately.

10. Mathew Ingram
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 10:47 am

    I’ve got a response from Andrew Baron here:

    http://www.mathewingram.com/wo.....das-video/

11. Drew Olanoff
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 11:04 am

    The Boom has left the building

12. Frank Cefalu
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 11:27 am

    Wow @ Matthew

    So this is all her own doing. This is horrible.

13. Andy Carvin
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 11:29 am

    I wish it were a hoax. It ain’t.

14. Bill Streeter
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 11:44 am

    I don’t think it’s accurate to say that she was fired. According to Andrew Barron this is news to him as well. They were business partners, and partners don’t fire each other. They obviously had differences that couldn’t be resolved so they parted ways. That’s not getting fired.

15. Jake
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:01 pm

    Sounds like the folks at The Soup of the Day had some inside info…

    But not everyone is disappointed. Congdon’s juvenile political posturing will not be missed in some quarters.

16. Frank Cefalu
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:10 pm

    While she did alot of vlogging I did not like her.

17. grant
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:13 pm

    I think people like sexy, pretty, and smart, and funny girls doing show. Unless he can find another similar girl I will not watch one guy talk show, kinda creepy.

18. hugh macleod
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:25 pm

    So…. what are the odds that disagreements about MONEY and EQUITY played a big part of this?

    Like the Denton/Spiers split at Gawker 3 or 4 years ago, perhaps?

19. Alan Wilensky
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:26 pm

    Baron Should get in front of the camera and try doing it Amanda style, with the hair swoosh.

20. garyL
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:41 pm

    It doesn’t sound like she got fired, but that she quit.

    Check out the transcript of Amanda’s announcement and Baron’s reaction.

    Baron sounds like he had no clue this was coming. It doesn’t sound like he canned her, but that she made the decision to move on because she and Baron weren’t seeing eye-to-eye.

    Congdon may be going on to bigger things - but you have to give Baron credit for figuring out how to make this work before anybody else.

21. RC
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:46 pm

    Oh, please. Amanda was an idiot, and she is what made me quit watching. Now that we are going to get some fresh blood, perhaps I’ll give Rocketboom another try.

22. Spammy McGriddle
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 12:51 pm

    Your title is inaccurate. What makes you think she was fired? You’ve only portrayed one incomplete side of a story… The one where Amanda fails to mention she voluntarily moved across the country in search of something bigger/better. It’ll be another David Caruso-goes-to-Hollywood failure.

23. Tonii 2^22
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:17 pm

    Honestly, I never liked Amanda and from this episode she seemed even more childish & irresponsible.

    I don’t think Amanda “is” rocketboom. It’s like a lead singer leaving a popular rock band. If the band’s got the songwriter & producers, they’d continue thriving. Of course, this means they need to find a decent replacement. My opinion’s biased because I don’t think Amanda is hard to replace.

    But you guys are right. This is indeed generating a lot of buzz. What will happen? More people know about Rocketboom! More people know about Amanda! Both of them will be more popular in the future! (perhaps I should do something similar to hype up my http://www.2tothe22.com experiment )

    Some how this situation reminds me of what Arrington and his UI designer had a while back …..

24. Michael Arrington
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:18 pm

    Spammy - Title is based on what Amanda says in the video. Did you watch it? Information about the other side of the story was not yet available when I published this story.

25. Angel
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:19 pm

    Where did you get the info that she was fired?

26. Michael Arrington
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:21 pm

    from the video

27. foo
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:27 pm

    She never uses the word “fired”. She never says “I was fired”. She says, “no longer interested in being my partner” and “I’ll have to live with that.”

    Where in the video does she say she was fired?

28. Michael Arrington
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:35 pm

    when a majority partner tells a minority partner that they are no longer interested in being partners, the minority partner has been canned. Fired. Let go. etc.

    Now that Andrew has said his side of the story, after my post, and note that I said we only had one side of the story, things look a little different.

    Now go away and troll someone elses site.

29. Anon E. Mouse
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:43 pm

    Presumably they’re incorp’d, perhaps with no shareholders agreement, and because of the 51% Andrew controls the board, grounding his authority to terminate her. But assuming her 49% is not unvested or otherwise subject to being clawed back on termination, this could be challenging. Sooner or later Andrew is going to want to hand out more equity. And Amanda’s piece is a whole lot of dilution, for no future value.

30. Anon E. Mouse
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:46 pm

    Oh, and AFAIC, Amanda was a mediocre interviewer at best. The Soros thing was an unmitigated disaster. Rocketboom traded then, as it does now, on novelty. They key issue now, with or without her, is whether they can do something with the buzz they have. Replacing her will be easy. A nationwide call for the next face of Rocketboom would be awesomely buzzy and would surface a lot of talent far superior to Amanda. No offence to her, but she was in over her head.

31. Neal
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 1:51 pm

    GeekBrief.TV has Andrew Baron’s side of the story.

32. foo
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 2:18 pm

    looks like Dave W. is trolling you too then.
    http://www.scripting.com/2006/.....Rocketboom

33. Dave Winer
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 3:02 pm

    Mike, I thought you were on your way somewhere.

    And I did listen to the video. Very carefully. The only phrase that could possibly be taken to mean “I was fired” was “I was unboomed” — which is hardly a technical term. If she was complaining about being fired, she could have (and should have) said “I was fired.”

    All in a video in which she claims to be transparent. Heh. Not very.

    Love, Crazy Uncle Dave

34. brad
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

    so…either Andrew is a liar or Amanda is an impatient, manipulative diva. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

35. Jim Posner
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

    “Oh what a tangled web 2.0 we weave, When first we practice to deceive”. modded Sir Walter Scott

36. pwb
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 3:11 pm

    I’d have to agree with the “trolls” that two roughly equal partners splitting does not constitute “firing”.

    The real quesiton is: what is Rocketboom and who is Amanda Congdon?

37. sirshannon
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 3:38 pm

    I watched the vid again after seeing your note to Dave Winer and I still don’t think she was fired. It sounds to me like she had a condition (or set of conditions) that needed to be met in order for her to continue at RocketBoom and those conditions were not met. “If you want to continue being my partner, then you have to do [something].” [Something] was not done and so she tells us that he no longer wants to be her partner. She can not fire him, so she leaves.

    At least, that is how I read it. Her lack of transparency makes it pretty hard to glean the real facts but I have been in this situation before and, from what she said in that video, I think I recognize it.

    I could be wrong, of course. I am wrong at least once a day.

38. Jason
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 4:32 pm

    Seems to me like she said the show had to be done in LA, and her partner wasn’t up for LA. That’s it, game over. So, one person would see that as being let go another would see it as an ultimatium. Frankly, talent rules in this world so my position has always been let talent live where they want and work around them. Folks on my team live all over the world and I let them do that under the condition that we do some face time every 4-8 weeks… folks love that.

39. Michael Arrington
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

    The funny thing about the “fired” argument is that it’s irrelevant now that we have Andrew’s side of things. But the way I saw the video, she was saying she was fired. The more interesting question (than whether she said she was fired or not) is who will win the pr game.

    Dave - On my way to amsterdam, at the airport.

40. Paul
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 5:50 pm

    The argument that “unboomed” doesn’t mean fired is ridiculous. What does it mean, then?

41. Sas Gordon-Walker
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 6:13 pm

    Hot dog! This leaves the door wiiiiiide open for http://www.truegritz.com !

42. Sundroid
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 6:30 pm

    So now, the term, “unboomed”, is becoming a mysterious cultural buzz word, like “rosebud” in “Citizen Kane”, or “so dark the con of man” in “Da Vinci Code”?

    Somewhere, Amanda is having a good laugh, as in, we have been suckered into her clever PR move. The lady is not as dumb as some of you may think.

43. sirshannon
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 7:10 pm

    Amanda has now posted a full account of her side of the story and my comments above were wrong: http://amandaunboomed.blogspot.....ecord.html

    As you said, Michael, our “fired” guesses were (and are) irrelevant but you were still correct in your reading of her initial comments.

44. Paul
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 7:32 pm

    Andrew is so gonna stiff her of her 49%.

45. Pauline
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 7:55 pm

    Send lawyers, guns and money…. to us.

46. pwb
    

    July 5th, 2006 at 10:59 pm

    Yep, clearly not fired. Two equal partners disagreeing on direction. Happens all the time.

47. Charles
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 12:52 am

    Now she can move on to an unhealthy career in Hollywood. What a drama queen. I would have to agree that they are both more than likely full of crap - especially her. They’re both backed-up septic tanks. How does a company like this succeed? Says a thing or two about the faction of society that support them.

    UPDATE: I swear I had no idea she moved to Hollywood when I was writing the above. I won’t spell out the tremendous laughter it brought me to see the announcement that she actually is, but it should have come as no surprise to anyone. …*LOL*

    Oh, when will they ever learn. This is business, not a party. I give the company 5 months without her, and don’t take that the wrong way, folks, it’s not at all complimenting her. If she makes a return I give it about the same amount of time after that.

    Don’t expect to see a 2.0 Bubble on the scale of the 1.0 several years ago, but this fat balloon is full of puke and fecal matter and you can count on it not holding for long. Prepare for 3.0, the likes of which few can imagine.

48. Boxed Fresh
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 12:55 am

    How did Rocketboom make $40,000 a week.. they must have made millions in the past few years!!!

49. Xopher
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 1:02 am

    Sad news for me I quite enjoyed rocketboom. After reading both sides of the story it seems like a crap-ton of miscommunication to me. Either way I hope amanda continues to be successful, and I hope the split doesn’t mean the death of rocketboom. Anyone else notice the map was upsidedown in the video on amanda’s blog?

50. me
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 4:20 am

    Its all a scam people, how do I know? Well, I left a very professional blog entry in her favor, basically telling her to move on to bigger and better things but she did not publish it. Its as if she is herding her blog to a certain premeditated outcome.

51. mz
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 5:56 am

    michael: welcome to amsterdam. looking forward for tomorrow’s program.

52. Dave Alpert
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 6:42 am

    While I agree that it has gotten “even stupider”, I find it all far more interesting than Rocketboom ever was. I can’t look away.

53. mgbeers
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 7:01 am

    All My Children, anyone? Does anyone else see a soap opera coming together? Maybe someone should put together one based on this.. LOL. I don’t think their show’s dirty laundry ought to be on the net, but hey its their show! Tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth that she would post that vblog whether its a scam or not.. its just tacky, IMO. If I could have ever been a fan, I won’t be now! :::crashing sounds:::

54. Sundroid
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 8:10 am

    A better analogy of this drama is “divorce”.

    What is happening between Amanda and Andrew is a classic case of business divorce, and like in every variety of divorce (martial, relationship, or business), two elements are evident: 1) it started with some petty issue, and 2) it will get uglier.

    I live in Southern California, and I have an affinity for Hollywood, so I welcome Amanda to come over and dig her own gold. But let’s remember what an old movie studio head used to say, “Every day, a blonder, thinner and prettier gal steps off the bus at the Los Angeles Greyhound station, with dreams ready to be shattered.”

55. Bernie
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 9:23 am

    Who cares. Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Thank god.

56. John
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 10:08 am

    This is certainly more interesting than the show.

57. Alan Wilensky
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 10:26 am

    “I can’t quit her, she got hold on me, got a hand on my shouloder ..can’t quit her…..” from BST

58. Greg Furry
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 10:59 am

    Just a little comic I threw together about the rocketboom soap opera.

    ttp://dazilgroup.com/blog/?p=684

59. Erik
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 11:03 am

    Did RB regularly have $40K a week in ads, or did RB sell one week of ads for $40K?

    I haven’t seen any ads on RB since the week of those lame ATM ads they did.

    My guess is both of their 15 minutes of fame just ended. Amanda was quirky and cute, but the schtick was getting old. Andrew may or may not be able to recognize the talent necessary to replace her. Did Andrew “luck” into her, or did he spot what made Amanda appealing and can do it again?

60. Mykel
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 11:53 am

    $40,000 per week? Why has she moved into her parents house, then? Why would Andrew be saying, “Okay, see ya!” when it’s obvious she is the driving force behind the site?

    It doesn’t make any sense.

61. Michael McCorry
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 4:13 pm

    They way I “read” Amandas video, after seeing Andrews message was:

    Amanda: “I’m, like, WAY famous now. I could be famouser if I were in LA, shmoozing with the other famouses. Lets go!”
    Andrew: “How can we just up and move to LA. We need a plan.”
    Amanda: “We gotta go now. My stardom awaits! I’m getting oooold.”
    Andrew: “Umm, I don’t think that’s fair. Let’s just…”
    Amanda: “Well you obviously don’t want to be my partner any more. KTHXBAI!”

    I don’t mean to to put words into their mouths. That’s just how it came across to me.

62. John B
    

    July 6th, 2006 at 7:32 pm

    The quick anonymous death of a vlog star

63. Jake
    

    July 7th, 2006 at 8:06 pm

    Wow, this is strange in relation to this story.

    http://www.soupmovie.com/Article17.phtml

    This clip was published at the end of May… wowza. Too funny.

64. thechickentest
    

    July 7th, 2006 at 8:55 pm

    At tonights CaseCamp in Toronto instead of giving a presentation Andrew told the group his side of the story and explained the challenges of the situation and some of his ideas about moving forward. I am pretty confident that Rocketboom will be better then ever. I shot a video with my digital camera but the sound in the first 60 seconds is weird. I will try to fix that and repost. Check out the video.

65. Aibek Esengulov
    

    July 8th, 2006 at 5:19 am

    Amanda left… as long as there is better looking chick in front of the screen with some acting skills I think whether her name is Amanda Congdon or not would not really matter, after all it is male techie audience mostly watching it. Or you guyz really think that the shows are incredibly interesting???

66. Zennie
    

    December 16th, 2006 at 3:30 pm

    Well, the fur’s still flying over this as Andrew’s upset over Amanda’s ABC success. Check out my latest blog post:

    http://zennie2005.blogspot.com.....manda.html