Tunguz blames Zenefits' troubles on media magnification and regulatory missteps
Tomasz Tunguz · 20VC: Tom Tunguz on Why Now Is The Best Time To Be Investing and The Effect of Late Stage Valuations on Startups · Mar 7, 2016 · at 12:00
Tom Tunguz, Partner at Redpoint Ventures, analyzes the public controversies and execution issues surrounding HR startup Zenefits.
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“No, no company's execution is perfect, but if you have the media's microscope on you, your imperfections or your errors in judgment, or they get magnified. And so I think that's what happened in this case. Compounding factor is that Zenefits operates in a regulated industry. There are lots of laws that have to do with consumer protections, and so it's better to operate with respecting those laws, and I'm not sure about the internals, but it seems like they might have run afoul of those, or at least their investigations, and so that little speed bump is magnified for them.”
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