Don MacAskill

No longer use Twitter/X. Now: CEO & Chief Geek at @SmugMug + @Flickr. 1st on AWS. Anti-hate. he/him.

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

I've only used Twitter/X ~twice since @lindayaX shit the bed onstage at @Recode Code Conference in September 2023. Unlikely I'll return. I can't be on a platform that's full of hate, esp for its creators. Please find me elsewhere. I miss y'all! 😭 https://t.co/n1Sp5xCZdB

[Francessca Vasquez @Francessca_V]

There is nothing like spending time with @awscloud first customer @SmugMug and CEO @DonMacAskill . We’ve learned so much about building impactful customer experiences and product innovation thanks to he and his leadership team.

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

Came back briefly to mention that I'm now at https://t.co/sGxdQqjreZ - see y'all there. 👍

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

I've only used Twitter/X ~twice since @lindayaX shit the bed onstage at @Recode Code Conference in September 2023. Unlikely I'll return. I can't be on a platform that's full of hate, esp for its creators. Please find me elsewhere. I miss y'all! 😭 https://t.co/n1Sp5xCZdB

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

Guess I can cross @cartainc off the list. I was interested. Bummer. Why can't businesses just treat their customers well? They are the revenue stream... 😭

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

Getting back to this now. Was making dinner (American beef stew by Kenji btw)

Henry if you insist I’m happy to share details or my version of the call. This is why I hate doing these calls because everything becomes I said/you said.

First of all, I posted this publicly because I suspected there is a broader systematic issue with Carta. A company that is dealing with extreme trust, corporate cap table and other private matters, should take safe guarding confidential information seriously .

Since then I’ve learned from multiple companies that this has been going on for months or even years where investors or employees of private companies are solicited by Carta employees to put their shares on sale. These people haven’t opted in to this and companies haven’t approved these sales.

If Carta and Carta Marketplace employees have free access to company information and cap table information in order to generate secondary sales (which companies often don’t want) it all starts to seem rotten.

My comment was about losing trust in Carta to safeguard our corporate matters. Nothing you or Carta has done so far has been able to return that trust. The simple fix here is to state that this is not the practice of Carta going forward.

The call:
- I share my disappointed and surprise that Carta is doing this after 10 years of using the product in other companies. I’ve been approached by other companies in the space but I always believed Carta is the best in class in the business. I ask him to explain what happened.

- Henry starts explaining Carta Marketplace is a separate business from Carta. They have investors that come to them with their portfolios in order to offload shares, mostly with growth companies. He mentions several companies who they transact with “all the time”.

- He claims that in this case our existing investor "a fund they deal with time to time” was interested buying Linear shares (I reached out to handful of our investors who have funds or potential to do funds but so far everyone said they didn’t do this and wouldn’t consider going around our back like this. Unconfirmed.)

- He explains commonly Carta Marketplace looks for sellers and buyers in their platform who have opted in to it. But in this case the employee in question, again not employed by Carta but a separate business, Carta Marketplace, was able to access our cap table data by their “break the glass” system which requires approval to see customer data. He didn’t know how it was done, he offered that potentially the employee self approved the request. The employee in question was put on administrative leave.

- Henry acknowledges that mistakes were made.

- I commented that since I’ve heard from multiple founders and companies that their investors and employees have approached, that it seems there is a culture or integrity issue with the company if these things keep happening. I asked Henry if he plans to do anything about it. He answered that he will reflect on it.

- He continues saying that they will still want to pursue liquidity even if they make mistakes now and then. It’s new and people don’t get it. He also mentioned that most CEOs are happy to hear that there is demand for their shares. They were also supposedly planning to contact us but it just didn't happen.

- At the end Henry blames me making a big deal out of “an email” (so far I’ve heard from 6 investors where contacted over the months and other companies had this happen to investors and employees as well)

After the call I’ve learned Henry has been trying to explain this as “isolated incident” over tier 1 VC email group and saying the only way this to happen is if the company has opted in to CartaX.

My trust in Carta is lost and the only fix I see here is that there are controls put in place between the marketplace and the Carta cap table management.
Information shouldn’t flow freely and companies should be asked for approval or given heads up when there is activity.

[Francessca Vasquez @Francessca_V]

Going for the re:Invent Purple and Gold. First customer sighting with @DonMacAskill at @awscloud re:Invent 2023.

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

@rchrdbyd @gmail This is my operating theory. If true, imagine how bad things will get. 😱

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

If the current generation of AI is so incredible (and I believe it is!)… why is my Inbox still so filled with spam? 🤔 (Looking at you, @gmail)

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

@jp2e Thanks! Guess I’ll wait. 😆🤞for Matter power strips, too.

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

Hey @jp2e can you answer 2 Matter Qs for me? 🙏 1) Why aren't there any Matter power strips? Seems every location I put a smart-plug, I then connect a non-smart-strip. 🤦‍♂️ 2) Why aren't there any in-wall Matter smart-plugs? They exist for 💡. Don't love wall warts. Who does? Thank you for this, and keeping it updated. I check it regularly. https://t.co/sJXDKxACZh

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

@LasseRafn @jetbrains @phpstorm 👀

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

I want this. /cc @jetbrains @phpstorm

[zack @zack_overflow]

Added gratuitous explosions and particle effects to the code editor I'm building

[zack @zack_overflow]

Added gratuitous explosions and particle effects to the code editor I'm building

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

I largely agree, but you didn’t touch on the cost of scraping. We bear high costs for all who scrape Flickr. We have to pass those costs along to creators and-or their visitors somehow (or die). Many of those creators don’t want their work scraped (will send them your article 😉), so they perceive this as double-bad. Thoughts?

[Talia Ben-Ora @taliaotg]

UPDATE: Received this image from Mr. Hallett, owner of 1911 BBQ, for their newest special, the “D Brooks.”

As promised, it’s a cheeseburger, fries, and double whiskey — for $17.78.

@nytdavidbrooks does this influence what Americans think of the economy?

[Wu Tang is for the Children @WUTangKids]

The restaurant now has a David Brooks special….burger with fries and a double shot of whiskey for $17.78 🤣

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

@Scobleizer @alejoswp Awesome! Traveling away from home, so can’t try it yet, have a link to details?

[Molly Jong-Fast @MollyJongFast]

Again @taylorswift13 continues to use her enormous power for good

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

@cperciva @rchrdbyd I’m not. It’s never come up until now. 😆🤷‍♂️

[Don MacAskill @DonMacAskill]

@SwiftOnSecurity Heisenbug!