Founder of Fandango Dies After Plunge From Manhattan Hotel (nytimes.com) 39
J. Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango, died from suicide this week after falling from the twentieth floor of a Manhattan hotel. The New York Times reports: Mr. Cline, who was 64, co-founded Fandango in 2000 and left the company in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company -- familiar to many from its splashy logo, an orange "F" in the shape of a ticket stub -- was later acquired by Comcast and is currently owned by NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. For years, the company dominated movie-ticket sales, handling ticketing for several major theater chains and making money by charging a processing fee for online ticket sales and by selling advertising on its site.
At the time of its launch, Mr. Cline offered a pithy explanation for the company's name: "A Fandango is fast and fun," he told Variety. "Fandango is the perfect match to a service designed to make going to the movies easier and more enjoyable than ever before." Art Levitt, the co-founder and former chief operating officer and president of Fandango, remembered Mr. Cline as brilliant, creative and loyal, sticking it out even in "tough" times. TechCrunch provides additional information about Mr. Cline: He left the company in 2011, roughly four years after the company was acquired by Comcast. Some early investors in the online ticketing service were General Atlantic and TCV. Cline was also managing partner of Accretive, a venture capital firm he founded in 1999. He built startups throughout his career, including R1 RCM, Accumen, Accolade, Everspring, Dresr and Insureon. Starting in 2018, Cline served as the executive chairman at the venture firm Juxtapose, which invests in technology businesses. During his time there, Cline enjoyed investing in healthcare companies, according to his staff page. Some of Juxtapose's portfolio companies include Tend, Nectar and Great Jones.
At the time of its launch, Mr. Cline offered a pithy explanation for the company's name: "A Fandango is fast and fun," he told Variety. "Fandango is the perfect match to a service designed to make going to the movies easier and more enjoyable than ever before." Art Levitt, the co-founder and former chief operating officer and president of Fandango, remembered Mr. Cline as brilliant, creative and loyal, sticking it out even in "tough" times. TechCrunch provides additional information about Mr. Cline: He left the company in 2011, roughly four years after the company was acquired by Comcast. Some early investors in the online ticketing service were General Atlantic and TCV. Cline was also managing partner of Accretive, a venture capital firm he founded in 1999. He built startups throughout his career, including R1 RCM, Accumen, Accolade, Everspring, Dresr and Insureon. Starting in 2018, Cline served as the executive chairman at the venture firm Juxtapose, which invests in technology businesses. During his time there, Cline enjoyed investing in healthcare companies, according to his staff page. Some of Juxtapose's portfolio companies include Tend, Nectar and Great Jones.
Paywall (Score:5, Insightful)
For the love of god can Slashdot editors STOP permitting stories where the primary link is a paywall.
Re:Paywall (Score:5, Informative)
agreed! how hard is it to provide an alternate link?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fandango-founder-j-michael-cline-dies-apparent-suicide-new-york-city-l-rcna162538
oh, apparently not that difficult.
Why? (Score:2)
The brain is stupid for needed constant dopamine, can't you logic yourself to stay alive?
Did you mean... depression? (Score:3)
The brain is stupid for needed constant dopamine, can't you logic yourself to stay alive?
There's a lot to unpack here.
Firstly, you're assuming his suicide was due to depression, but nothing I could find indicates that he was depressed.
Secondly, getting your brain to generate dopamine is trivially easy, I know of several techniques to do it and... do you know any techniques?
It's not like everyone knows everything about everything. I meet lots and lots of people who come up with problems they could trivially solve by a little research, and are baffled. A friend is having trouble raising his kid a
Re: (Score:2)
Secondly, getting your brain to generate dopamine is trivially easy, I know of several techniques to do it and... do you know any techniques?
Jerking off?
I mean, sure, but once you realize how much better this is with a woman, you will be depressed again!
Re: (Score:2)
Depressed? Dont get me wrong, sex with a partner is better but why on earth would I feel depressed after wringing my own rag? I'm always in a great mood afterwards, maybe a little drowsy though.
Jerking off = Serotonin (Score:2)
Secondly, getting your brain to generate dopamine is trivially easy, I know of several techniques to do it and... do you know any techniques?
Jerking off?
Nope. Jerking off is serotonin.
Serotonin is, roughly speaking, the what you get when you have a victory of some sort. Winning a fistfight, or getting laid will give you a dose of serotonin and this will up your confidence level for future events.
Dopamine is when you are on the path to a goal.
Re: (Score:3)
If you have a problem with your brain, you've got a catch-22: the only thing you have to fix your brain with is your brain.
Of course it's a big leap of logic to assume suicide is caused by a faulty brain. I'm not a huge of evolutionary psychology; it smacks somewhat of non-negatable hypothesis spinning. But the idea that suicide is an evolutionary aberration is an evolutionary psychology hypothesis too. Anyhow some people who indulge in this stuff have come up with something called the altruistic suicide
Re: (Score:2)
There's no indication he intended to do anything so evil, Fandango is more like a Shopify just for movie tickets.
Re: (Score:2)
There's no indication he intended to do anything so evil,
So somewhat evil is OK so long as they are not entirely evil? That's a really low bar.
Re: (Score:2)
There's no indication he intended to do anything so evil,
So somewhat evil is OK so long as they are not entirely evil? That's a really low bar.
We live on a planet with millionaire church pastors and six-figure charity managers. And Third Worlds full of the starving and suffering.
Watch for that bar when stepping in your new car after leaving the restaurant where the waiter threw the food you more photographed than ate, in the garbage. You might trip on it and spill your bottled water on a smartphone.
No mod points at the moment, but exactly this.
Re: (Score:2)
We live on a planet with millionaire church pastors and six-figure charity managers. And Third Worlds full of the starving and suffering.
Watch for that bar when stepping in your new car after leaving the restaurant where the waiter threw the food you more photographed than ate, in the garbage. You might trip on it and spill your bottled water on a smartphone.
Poking around some various statistics suggests that starvation is on the decline. I'm not sure we can credit charity managers, but they'd be pinned with failure if it wasn't falling. That said, I don't have a problem with well paid charity managers - I don't have to give if the charity isn't well run, and the alternative may be the managers finding high pay elsewhere and the charities are left with less capable people.
Re: (Score:3)
Excuse me if I don't mourn the guy started a wannabe Ticketmaster.
Be sure to let us know your contributions so we can decide whether to mourn you. I know someone whose 16-year-old step son shot and killed himself, maybe we shouldn't have mourned him because he wasn't yet wildly successful? Or... maybe every death, and especially a suicide, is a tragedy -- no matter the/their circumstance, if for no other reason than the paths that let them there.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow. Using a child's suicide just to create a straw-man argument on the internet is really low. Please behave better than this in the future.
Re: (Score:2)
Please behave better than this in the future.
You started, so you first.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow. Using a child's suicide just to create a straw-man argument on the internet is really low. Please behave better than this in the future.
Not as low as some moron on the internet equating random people's achievements with evil corporations (ignorantly since the companies have nothing to do with each other) and suggesting he doesn't deserve to be mourned.
The parent doesn't need to be better, he's already above you in every way. Please be better in the future. Behave like a normal person before you attempt to criticise others.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, you need to invest in a mirror.
Re: *eyeroll* (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, good for you. I notice you're not even attempting to have any part in this conversation so I will now ask you to fuck off with your completely nonsensical contribution. Thankyou and have a nice day.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow. Using a child's suicide just to create a straw-man argument on the internet is really low. Please behave better than this in the future.
Sir, you are the one misbehaving. Thank you, in advance, for behaving better than this in the future.
Re: (Score:1)
But Ticketmaster needs competition. Monopolies sucks rotting eggs.
Suicide? (Score:2)
Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango, died from suicide this week after falling from the twentieth floor of a Manhattan hotel.
Or Putin?
Re: (Score:1)
He was obviously a Russian dissident.
Re: (Score:2)
Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango, died from suicide this week after falling from the twentieth floor of a Manhattan hotel.
Or Putin?
This one’s more our turf, Vladdy. - MAAFIA
Re: (Score:2)
Sharee'ah law prescribes punishing homosexuals by throwing them down from the roofs of tall buildings. In countries like Afghanistan for example, they do this regularly.
Just saying, not suggesting that it has anything to do with this suicide.
Re: (Score:2)
This was my first thought. What 20+ story hotel has windows that open? Or was it a balcony situation?
Russia does love their defenestrations though...
Re: (Score:2)
This was my first thought. What 20+ story hotel has windows that open? Or was it a balcony situation?
Russia does love their defenestrations though...
I'm not sure about this particular building, but there was a recent law in NYC (or state wide?) that all residences must have access to fresh air, which means even the tallest buildings - like the ones on Billionaire's Row - have windows that open.
I stayed in Arlo Midtown hotel about a year ago, and I'm pretty sure our 18th floor room had windows that open (it was January, and cold, so we didn't open them...)
Defenestration (Score:2)
Thought that was a Russian thing
disrupting the pavement in front of the hotel (Score:2)
A startup builder going out in style.
Suicide? (Score:2)
I didn't read the paywalled FA, but I haven't read anything that would indicate suicide.
It's completely possible to get drunk, sit in a hotel window for fun and then an accident can easily happen.
If there's no specific evidence for suicide, it may still be the likelier explanation but for all we know it could've been an accident.
Pretty grim story if you ask me (Score:2)
If there's one thing I've learned, it's this: nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might as well enjoy the trip.