Flaming Wreckage Of Clinkle Rebuilds As A Referral Service
Summary
Clinkle imploded after employees quit en masse in May, protesting how its young CEO Lucas Duplan was mismanaging the $30 million-funded payments startup. Emails received by TechCrunch show Duplan propositioning other mobile startup founders to integrate Treats, and pointing them towards TreatsSDK.com (password protected with “treatme”). As proof of the dopamine released into the brain by the temptation of variable reward, Treats cites this Robert Sapolsky talk which says “it’s not about happiness, it’s about the pursuit of happiness.” For example, an on-demand car service could offer $5 discounts for referrals, but also enter users into a contest to win a year’s worth of free rides. If Treats can escape the shadow cast over its parent company, it will still have to compete with similar referral rewards providers like ReferralCandy, ReferralSaasquatch, VouchFor and others. When questioned about the seven employees voluntarily quitting, Duplan tried to play it off to me as a “planned staff restructuring.” Sources close to the company pegged the CEO as dishonest, prone to outbursts, and quick to break ties with those he disagrees with.
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