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AJ Sadauskas

Hi, we're a tech startup run by libertarian Silicon Valley tech bros.

We're not a newspaper, we're a content portal.
We're not a taxi service, we're a ride sharing app.
We're not a pay TV service, we're a streaming platform.
We're not a department store, we're an e-commerce marketplace.
We're not a financial services firm, we're crypto.
We're not a space agency, we're a group of visionaries who are totally going to Mars next year.
We're not a copywriting and graphic design agency, we're a large language model generative AI platform.

Oh sure, we compete against those established businesses. We basically provide the same goods and services.

But we're totally not those things. At least from a legal and PR standpoint.

And that means all the laws and regulations that have built up over the decades around those industries don't apply to us.

Things like consumer protections, privacy protections, minimum wage laws, local content requirements, safety regulations, environmental protections... They totally don't apply to us.

Even copyright laws — as long as we're talking about everyone else's intellectual property.

We're going to move fast and break things — and then externalise the costs of the things we break.

We've also raised several billion in VC funding, and we'll sell our products below cost — even give them away for free for a time — until we run our competition out of the market.

Once we have a near monopoly, we'll enshitify the hell out of our service and jack up prices.

You won't believe what you agreed to in our terms of service agreement.

We may also be secretly hoarding your personal information. We know who you are, we know where you work, we know where you live. But you can trust us.

By the time the regulators and the general public catch on to what we're doing, we will have well and truly moved on to our next grift.

By the way, don't forget to check out our latest innovation. It's the Uber of toothpaste!

#startup #business #tech #technology @technology

79 comments
Wouter Tebbens

Thanks, @ajsadauskas, for summarising extractivist platform capitalism strategies. The patterns are so clear that mainstreet is getting aware these days. At least partially. Time to rebuild the economy and the internet with collective & public interest first.

@technology

redcalcium

Investors: shut up and take my money!

Refurbished Refurbisher

Wow. You just somehow accurately summed up the modern day result of late stage capitalism in one post. Nicely done

David Megginson

@ajsadauskas @technology The one thing I don't sympathise with in that list is the taxi services — at least here in Ottawa, they were even more exploitative than Uber or Lyft, with a small number of plate holders acting as feudal lords for the drivers, and extracting rent from their vassals even on a bad shift with few fares.

The city could have fixed that by issuing more plates, but the plate-owner lobby was too powerful.

#Taxis #Uber #Lyft #Ottawa

markr

Yes ‘medallion systems’ have huge problems. One reason they were implemented to begin with was that an unlimited fleet put everyone out of business. Uber is reintroducing that problem.

Chuck Fry

@Eka_FOOF_A @david_megginson @ajsadauskas @technology The taxi business needed disruption. But the cure has been worse than the disease.

David Megginson

@SVChucko For Ottawa, I think the cure has been less-bad than the disease, but that will obviously vary from city to city depending on how well the taxi service was run before.

When I've talked to Uber drivers who used to drive taxis, they've told me that they earn about the same, but the big improvement is being able to choose when they drive rather than having it dictated by the plate owners (who often forced them to drive inconvenient or low-paying shifts).

socsa

Not sure if I agree there. Even with all the problems they have, ride-sharing apps are still way more convenient than how taxis used to work.

CriticalMiss

Sounds like a great startup! Where do I buy shares?

NotSpez

Amazing work. Aren’t you the person who guessed exactly what Elon was going to do with Twitter?

CaptObvious

In fairness, actual libertarians are pretty cool folks. It’s the big-L “Libertarians” (i.e. anarchists) who need to head for Mars.

Lemmylefty

“It’s all on the blockchain now, so it’s not even us who’s doing it.

What are you gonna do, arrest me and these 7,000 graphics cards?”

green (DM TO REQUEST FOLLOW)

@admin @ajsadauskas @technology then all the techbros doing exactly this and calling themselves libertarians are doing it wrong, I guess?

CannaVet

"Michael was driving a car from a company that shows every private residence in the country. But it’s also a company that won’t let us show the car that takes those pictures. In fairness to them, it is their property. If you want to know what the company is, all you have to do is ‘something’ it."

- Arrested Development Narrator

Full Metal Accountant

@ajsadauskas @technology
And we'll change our TOS and user agreement to our advantage whenever we feel like it but won't tell you what changed or why or how it'll effect you. But legally we told you so f*ck off if you have a problem with that.

Sanctus

The changes should just be highlighted like a fucking git commit.

Shoq

@ajsadauskas @technology

This could be one of the more important social media posts of all time. And not one in 100,000 people will have enough information to appreciate a single word of it.

Source: @ajsadauskas
mastodon.social/@ajsadauskas@a

brendan (ジャンク品)

@ajsadauskas @technology

you're not a wealthy passenger bolted into a recklessly dangerous tourist submarine going to a mass grave, you're a mission specialist in an experimental submersible embarking on an expedition

bouriquet

@bnys @ajsadauskas @technology mission specialists are crew, which gets around rules and requirements for passenger carrying vessels, right?

Trae

Trying to make someone crew and also have them pay a quarter million dollars to be crew without any training at all doesn’t seem like the magical loophole they think it would be in contract law. Especially when it’ll be comically easy in court to prove gross negligence with all the videos that doofus made about how much he hates maritime safety regulations and training.

katy ✨

Had us in the first half not gonna lie

gcvsa ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭

@ajsadauskas @technology These guys are not "libertarians", at all. They are, in fact, the antithesis of libertarian. They are authoritarians who believe in liberty only for themselves.

GarlicBender

Seems like a fair description of many who would call themselves “libertarian”, even if not the going definition.

yesman

There are no “true” libertarians. There are more libertarian denominations than their are people who identify as libertarian. And all denominations are orthodox. A group of libertarians is called an impasse.

It’s not an accident that people who identify that way are incapable of getting along: the individual is the weakest political unit. Add in the fact that libertarians will eschew government benefits for themselves just to spite those lower on the ladder, and I can’t think of a better friend to the ruling class. What can we say about people who’d rather live in a fiefdom than a democracy? That they all imagine themselves as lords I guess.

(I’m told people in Europe identify as libertarians and oppose government power to hurt people. I’m talking about US libertarians who oppose government power to help)

There are no “true” libertarians. There are more libertarian denominations than their are people who identify as libertarian. And all denominations are orthodox. A group of libertarians is called an impasse.

It’s not an accident that people who identify that way are incapable of getting along: the individual is the weakest political unit. Add in the fact that libertarians will eschew government benefits for themselves just to spite those lower on the ladder, and I can’t think of a better friend to...

Aceticon

Liberatianism is all about the Freedom of the Power Of Money from the Power Of The State (which in Democracies is yielded by the elected representatives of all citizens in a system which is way more even in the power each person has than Money).

It was never about Freedom For People, which is why, for example, Libertarians want Private Education (a major gatekeeper into being monetarily better off), they absolutelly do not want communal Land Ownership (as it stands, most people are born landless, so having to pay for a place to sleep in and for food to eat - rather than having the chance to build their own house and grow their own food - so they are forced to work and do so within the constraints of the system, to pay the owners of the land (directly or indirectly) for food and shelter, both essentials, the very opposite of being born Free) and they certainly don’t want Money to loose its ability to buy different outcomes in the Justice System being in countries with such systems strong defenders of defunding things like Public Defenders.

Libertarianism is all about freedom for the larges yielders of the Power Of Money from the power of the elected representatives of citizens in a Democracy, not about freedom for the riff-raff.

Liberatianism is all about the Freedom of the Power Of Money from the Power Of The State (which in Democracies is yielded by the elected representatives of all citizens in a system which is way more even in the power each person has than Money).

It was never about Freedom For People, which is why, for example, Libertarians want Private Education (a major gatekeeper into being monetarily better off), they absolutelly do not want communal Land Ownership (as it stands, most people are born landless,...

imaqtpie

Wow. This is a Mastodon account posting to Lemmy and we are getting cross platform engagement and it’s all working pretty seamlessly. This is the first time I’ve seen this kind of thing on Lemmy. The Mastodon users don’t get to see the upvotes though, right? The @ thing when they reply is kind of annoying but it seems like a fairly easy fix to hide those when browsing from Lemmy.

Sergio

@ajsadauskas @technology congratulations on this great post! I am now a follower of yours! Enjoy your Sunday/Monday! #mastodon

Snipe_AT

honestly i’ve started to realize that startups are the modern day robin hood. they take and burn money from VCs and turn them into very low cost services. then they try to turn a profit and everyone runs away to the next new startup that is there to “disrupt the competition” but in reality is just the same company in a younger phase.

fucking lol

XPost3000

Yooo Mastodon post on Lemmy let’s goooo

Arctic

@ajsadauskas @technology don’t forget the fact that a good amount never turn a profit

PeleSpirit

Turning a profit and making a lot of money for yourself are 2 different things.

dream_machine

These services are interfaces for interacting with data that YOU create

cousinofjah

Wish I could upvote this 1000 times.

Dubious_Fart

It took longer than I care to admit to realize this was satire.

Which says something about the world and life.

Mahmoud Az

@ajsadauskas @technology

We are not just a startup. We are a mix of dreams, passions, and a ton of passionate slogans.

vd1n

When we aren’t drinking craft beer…

enchantedsleeper 🌈⭐

@ajsadauskas That last line really nailed it 😂 💯💯💯

14mission

@ajsadauskas @technology One factual point I'm not clear on--how exactly are Lyft/Uber getting away with operating unlicensed taxi services? Are they just ignoring the law but getting away with it because city governments are tech-enthralled? (But could, theoretically, bust every uber driver for operating a taxi without a license)? Or do they actually have some legal basis for not needing medallions?

jrs100000

It totally depends of the jurisdiction. In some parts of the world calling up a ride sharing app with get you a totally normal taxi at normal metered taxi rates. In other parts of the world its pretty much they do it and nobody can stop them. A private citizen can pick up anyone they want and the laws all assumed that a taxi would have to find passengers and handle money in person. By the time politicians get around to doing anything about it they’ve already taken over the market and voters would take it personally if they had to go back to regular cabs.

It totally depends of the jurisdiction. In some parts of the world calling up a ride sharing app with get you a totally normal taxi at normal metered taxi rates. In other parts of the world its pretty much they do it and nobody can stop them. A private citizen can pick up anyone they want and the laws all assumed that a taxi would have to find passengers and handle money in person. By the time politicians get around to doing anything about it they’ve already taken over the market and voters would...

NuPNuA

They’re not in the UK, they all have to be registered and lisenced here like any other minicab.

Dragon-sided D

@ajsadauskas @technology
> By the time the regulators and the general public catch on to what we're doing, we will have well and truly moved on to our next grift

Fortunately, sometimes the grifters get justice served

decrypt.co/148288/lbry-token-p

Default_Defect

Sounds great! Please take all of my savings, my kids’ college fund, and the money from mortgaging my house. I’m sure you’ll put it to good use and I’ll get any sort of return at all.

Flying Squid

You left out, “once we get the IPO, we’re fucking right off with our billions.”

Pseudo Nym

@ajsadauskas @technology

Torment Nexus (tm) now with an extensive library of add-on modules.

Installing "Uber of toothpaste"

atwerp

This sounds just like every startup’s pitch to venture capital firms :)

AgentOrangesicle

Yo, you looking to recruit? I’m unabashedly brazen with sharing my search history.

Furries have to get to space somehow.

Zuzu

@ajsadauskas @technology sadly true. This speech has to be famous (congrats). I share it

Alexander Janßen

@ajsadauskas We are technofeudalists. Resistance is futile.

bigiain

@ajsadauskas @technology "By the way, don't forget to check out our latest innovation. It's the Uber of toothpaste!"

From: noreply@tøøther.com
Subject: Account closure

Dear User,

You have been rated 3 stars or lower by our toothbrushing partners in the last 14 days. For this reason we are closing your Tøøther account and revoking your toothpaste access. This decision is final and there is no appeal process.

Best regards,

Tøøther Trust And Safety Team.

@ajsadauskas @technology "By the way, don't forget to check out our latest innovation. It's the Uber of toothpaste!"

From: noreply@tøøther.com
Subject: Account closure

Dear User,

You have been rated 3 stars or lower by our toothbrushing partners in the last 14 days. For this reason we are closing your Tøøther account and revoking your toothpaste access. This decision is final and there is no appeal process.

Don Hawkins - W7DAH

@ajsadauskas @technology Libertarians are just Republican’ts that smoke pot. 😎

Mina

@ajsadauskas that's a level of cynicism i've had… 2 years into working in this industry.

so, for a long time now.

ShantiS

@ajsadauskas @technology And don’t forget their enablers - the investors who pour in billions of dollars of other people’s money, the marketeers who hype these “disruptive” technologies and the copycats who naively follow them. “Disrupter” used to be a bad word - how that became a badge of honor is another of Silicon Valley’s mysteries. #disruptors #SiliconValley

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