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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/valleywag/2008/10/jasontorohappiertimes.jpg” width=”268″ height=”231″ /As a startup, you are now, officially, on your own. You can’t count on your VCs saving you or some magical offer from Yahoo or Google showing up to bail you out. Taurus has laid off Fondue. You need to rewrite mdash; no, not your business model. Your business plan. Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis, in his latest private email, offers this advice:/p blockquotepThe paradox of the death spiral is that many pilots actually believebr / they are stabilizing their plane when they are actually tilting it./p pWhat is “The Death Spiral”?br / ====================br / The death spiral for startups is like the condition that occurs to pilots when they fly into “weather.” The “weather” right now is the massive confusion and uncertainty of the financial and consumer markets./p pWe can now operate past 2012 even if we never make any advertising revenue, and truth be told, building advertising-based companies is my specialty (the last two, Silicon Alley Reporter and Weblogs, Inc. each broke 10m a year revenue between their third and fourth years)./p pPerhaps we’re being too conservative, but I’ve rarely heard of companies that went out of business because they made cuts too early, and I’ve heard of many who have reported the opposite. /p/blockquote pTake notes, Taurus. That’s the new story. Stick to it. Be strong. Profits are so 2013. Did you have a layoff? No? Too late. Now let’s go out there and kill it again! em(Photo of Jason and Toro from 2005 for Wired by Emily Shur)/em/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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RealDVD, the DRM-laden, DVD-copying commercial software from the folks who brought you RealPlayer, has been taken out of commission by Hollywood studios. Luckily you already know how to rip full DVDs to your hard drive for free without the nasty DRM, so you should be just fine. [via]