Public Statements Become Depositions

Sean Frank shares his perspective on being outspoken and authentic online, weighing the risks against the benefits of maintaining a strong public personality.

On Being Outspoken Online:

• Legal Consequences: "The only tangible negatives of being a public personality on the internet is if and when you get sued because you will be sued right everyone gets sued"

  • "It's the cost of doing business they will read your tweets in depositions"
  • Personal experience: "I got deposed I told someone I was gonna drop a nuclear bomb on them and they read that"

• Benefits Outweigh Risks:

  • Direct revenue: "My twitter has sold like $300,000 worth of wallet so definitely it's a net positive"
  • Media opportunities: His personality led to an ecom podcast that "pays you a bunch of money"
  • Building community: "I used to have a community of people who talk about e commerce and then they've all moved so I was just by myself"
  • Finding like-minded people: "Through that I made a bunch of great friends because it's a very lonely thing running a big business"

• Authenticity Matters:

  • "You should be yourself and authentic"
  • Being relatable to other entrepreneurs who understand unique business challenges
  • Difficult to discuss business challenges with friends in different fields: "Imagine trying to tell them being like yeah man I spent $8,000,000 on meta"