Found+READ: Comments by Abdullah Anwar

Abdullah Anwar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:04:47 GMT

Dear Mr. Benayoun,

Please don’t target my account, I created an account with a picture and a short bio so that I could sound credible to reply to your comments. With all due respect, Found+Read is a renowned portal that I wasn’t aware of until an editor contacted me saying that there were members of the community wanting to see the story of TrialIPO on the site. In fact, we have received an email from a few users saying that they read your comment and were surprised because they signed up only because they found the article worth reading about and wanted to see it on Found+Read and if you read some of the comments you can see users mentioning that they liked the idea and signed up.

I was astonished myself when I visited the Found+Read website when an editor emailed me to learn that its a startup experience website and why would any start up experience website would write about a start ups service offerings. The editor then asked for my startup experience, which then made sense.

You can’t automatically assume that TrialIPO got people to blog about the article so that it could be cited in a startup experience website. And I know about TechCrunch and other startup review websites and I didn’t submit my startup to any of those websites because we are expected to launch in a few months and knowing that the website is not yet live, I would never submit it, because I believe in creating innovative products and it takes time to develop something spectacular and the name follows, it doesn’t go the other way. It could be that some fan of our yet to launch website liked it and decided to blog and get more people to blog, in short, word of mouth marketing. That is a possibility.

In the post above, its mentioned that there was no information about the companys management. Well, its quite obvious and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we didn’t submit the article. If I were to submit it, I would’ve provided my information, some background and much more.

I have done enough marketing for a few companies and for my early start ups, and I know it doesn’t work this way, I would never use cheap marketing tactics you suggested that we used.

Also, before you comment on any website, any article, check your grammar. Its always good to revise. Just an advice.

In addition, I don’t mean to be harsh to you or anyone on this prominent website either.

If you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

Abdullah Anwar
Founder & CEO
TrialIPO

Abdullah Anwar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:48:05 GMT

Dear Mr. Benayoun,

Thanks for your response. We have started to search our database for names that were used to comment on the story. We have found one potential suspect and the search is still progressing. If we find any similarities we will kindly email the person and tell them to apologize for creating conflicts of interest and will allow him/her to sign up on our website only if they apologize openly and based on responses from the community we will decide if we should grant him/her the account back.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Abdullah Anwar

Abdullah Anwar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:47:30 GMT

Dear Mr. Benayoun,

We have found the person. We have given him until 4 PM EST to apologize openly, if he does not post a message by then, I will personally post his name.

With regards to the questions posted above I would say that nowadays user generated content has been rising and at times it can be trusted and sometimes its people trying to bring down a companys reputation or promote it in such ways that it either makes the brand or creates a little negative response. Its always upto the individual to decide what is best.

If you have any questions or comments let me know.

Abdullah Anwar

Abdullah Anwar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:12:55 GMT

Mr. Razvi,

I would like you to email me the list of other websites where you have submitted our company. Because, I don’t want a similar negative response. I am astonished. I would like the Found+Read community to decide if Mr. Razvi should be given his account when we launch or not. The decision is yours. And Mr. Razvi, It takes a lot to expose yourself for your unethical behavior. You made the right decision. Let the community decide.

Abdullah Anwar