Who says Twitter has lost relevance? A vociferous debate erupted on the social network today when Y Combinator founder Paul Graham fired a tweet criticizing startups who’ve appeared on Shark Tank, a popular reality show in the US where entrepreneurs pitch to investors.
Startups: Instead of appearing on Shark Tank, spend that energy fixing whatever makes your product so unappealing you think you need to.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) January 28, 2016
The tweet drew sharp rebukes from prominent investors who’ve appeared on the program as judges, namely, Chris Sacca and Mark Cuban.
@paulg Yeah, because a free 10-minute pitch to 7 million Americans is something every startup should turn down.
— Chris Sacca (@sacca) January 28, 2016
@paulg you mean like the sense of entitlement and arrogance they get when they become part of a YC class ? It’s hard to wash it out
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 28, 2016
Bluster aside, the debate raises the eternal question of how startups should best spend their time.
Some deciphered Paul’s tweet to mean that startups should spend time refining their product and figuring out if people need it first, before marketing it in places like Shark Tank. That is, of course, what Y Combinator teaches.
Others defended the show as a place where startups can get instant exposure to an audience of millions – great if you’re a consumer-facing startup. Picking the right marketing channel is important, and Shark Tank is a valuable platform for certain companies.
Of course, it helps that there are actual investors to pitch to on the show, so it’s not just a marketing channel.
Paul has been stirring up a lot of attention lately. He wrote a controversial essay on income inequality a few weeks ago, again drawing critical reactions from startup folks (including one of our colleagues).
Twitter seems to have found a new supply of public spats to keep itself in the headlines, the most epic one being Kanye West’s rant against fellow rapper Wiz Khalifa.
Maybe Twitter will survive its recent departures of high-level execs after all. Or maybe not.
This post was originally published on techinasia.