“Startup DNA” is the idea that the world’s best entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, have some inherent talent they were born with that made them successful. The DNA is comprised of characteristics like “resilience” and “ability to accept risk.” Another characteristic many top entrepreneurs share is arrogance. Or worse, just being a huge jerk. Recently, I met with a lot of people to discuss rising Silicon Valley star, Travis Kalanick. He’s the CEO of Uber, and his car-sharing service was recently valued at $3.4 billion. Friends have compared him to great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison. But Kalanick is a polarizing figure. He’s frequently described as both “awesome” and a jerk. “Sometimes,” one acquaintance said of Kalanick, “–holes create great businesses.” Another person noted how strange that concept was. How can people both both marvel at and dislike Kalanick? “If Travis Kalanick is the Michael Jordan poster that young entrepreneurs have hanging on their walls, that’s sad,” this person said. “Being a jerk isn’t ‘awesome’ or ‘badass.'” Kalanick did not respond to a request for comment. Outside of Silicon Valley, most people would agree. But inside, arrogance runs rampant and investors seem to reward ruthless behavior with piles of cash. There are numerous examples of founders who have had moments of terrible behavior that later became infamous. The founders might not be jerks all the time, of course.
Everyone has moments when they behave boorishly. But sometimes the stories are so unbelievable, it can leave a lasting negative impressive of the person — that whether criticism is deserved or not. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg, who is now worth about $20 billion, famously ousted his friend Eduardo Saverin from Facebook. He also stole his business idea from the Winklevoss twins. “Yah, I’m going to f– them,” he told a friend over IM about the pair. “Probably in the ear.” Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is in the middle of a lawsuit with his former Stanford friend, Reggie Brown. Spiegel lost his temper with Brown and locked him out of the app shortly after it launched. Once, Spiegel was so angry with his parents, he reportedly cut himself out of family photos. Twitter’s co-founders back-stabbed each other repeatedly: Founder Noah Glass was booted out of the company. Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey were both given, and then stripped of, the CEO title.
And Jeff Bezos, who runs Amazon, wreaks havoc in his organization by sending a single-character email: “?” Even Steve Jobs, one of the world’s most-praised entrepreneurs, was said to have two sides. Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, portrayed the late Apple CEO as “Good Steve” and “Bad Steve.” An example: Jobs once stormed into a meeting and called everyone “f–ing dickless –holes.” Robert Sutton spent a lot of time conducting research for his book, “No –hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t,” What he found was disappointing. “Even people who worked with Jobs told me that they’d seen him make people cry many times, but that 80 percent of the time he was right, ” Sutton said. “It is troubling that there’s this notion in our culture that if you’re a winner, it’s okay to be an –hole.” It is troubling that there’s this notion in our culture that if you’re a winner, it’s okay to be an –hole. The Atlantic’s Tom McNichol agrees. He wrote an article titled: “Be a Jerk: The Worst Business Lesson from the Steve Jobs biography.” ( By Alyson Shontell from www.sfgate.com )