Open Letter to Greg Gopman

Greg Gopman is a San Francisco techie and the founder of Angelhack, a startup that can generate a lot of good code quickly (or so I guess). He made the news recently not for his company but for taking to Facebook to denigrate the homeless and other "street people". A decent synopsis of the story can be found here.   

Dear Greg, 

You made a mistake. I don't need to rehash it in detail. You're being demonized, probably even getting death threats. People you thought were your friends are pulling away. People you probably don't want as your friends are embracing you. You're having to explain yourself to people from all walks of your life, past and present. Though they may not say so, investors, clients, employees and other business partners are surely nervous about being associated with you and your startup. Suffice to say this has not been a good week for you.  

I don't know you -I've never even heard of you- but I'll bet you aren't the complete asshole you're being portrayed as, the one who lacks any sympathy for the homeless, the drug addicted, the mentally ill, and those who are just down on their luck. You made the mistake of voicing your frustration, recklessly and insensitively, via social media. And truth be told, there are few among us who haven't shared a similar feeling of frustration with the "homeless problem" at one point or another (though the vast majority of us have learned to filter our thoughts before they become fodder for social media, you probably need to work on that skill there big guy). I'm willing to bet you are a guy who would much rather embrace a solution that helps "homeless people" than simply ship them off someplace out of your way, as your recent Facebook rant suggests.  

But the reality is that the damage is done. Your statement is a hot topic on the internet and isn't likely to go away simply because you issued an apology, genuine or otherwise. The end result of this though doesn't need to be that you live the rest of your life as "that over-priviliged asshole techie who hates the homeless". You have options. Here's two: 

1. You issue your apology and then lay low, knowing that the 24/7 news cycle will replace your story with another at which we can all scream and yell. Then you can just forge ahead, hoping nobody Googles your name and looks too deeply into your past. 

2. You can take the lemons life has handed you (or well, you handed yourself, but let's not get caught up in semantics) and turn them into lemonade.     

It's the holiday season and you sir, as crazy as it sounds, have just been handed a gift. Your infamous post has given you a platform and a voice that you can choose to use, with not just a little humility on your part, to raise awareness, money, and resources to solve the root issues that contribute to the "homeless problem" in San Francisco.  

A quick aside: I use quotes for "homeless" because the vast majority of the "homeless" in San Francisco aren't homeless due to a lack of affordable housing. The people you railed against on Facebook aren't a bunch of unemployed bankers and dot.com workers. In a very real sense we don't have a homeless problem in San Francisco as much as we have a mental health problem, an addiction problem, and a physical disability problem. That isn't to say that there aren't otherwise healthy people living on the streets who are just down on their luck, there are. But it's important that we not lump every street person into the same bucket, as the helping hands they need from the rest of us are all quite different.  

Anyway, if you were my son, my brother, or my friend, here is the advice I would give you on how to turn this debacle into something positive, and something that just might transform your own life.

Step 1: Own this authentically. Don't make excuses or blame your behavior on some external factor like alcohol or stress. 

Step 2: Disavow the crowd that is embracing you for your comments. They are not part of the solution. Engaging them will only lead you to a life of social isolation, surrounded by angry people who are always willing to complain but offer no real solutions to the problems we face. 

Step 3: If you are truly sorry, keep saying it, publicly and privately. An apology isn't real unless you own it, mean it, and commit to trying to rectify it as best as possible.  

Step 4: Devise a plan - a business model if you will- on how to take every second of media attention you can derive from this and funnel it all towards raising awareness, money, goods, services, and other forms of capital for viable solutions for the "homeless problem". You are a smart guy. I'm sure you could even come up with a web-based solution that is a conduit for people to get involved, raise money, and identify problems and solutions. 

Step 5: Contact TechCrunch, Venturebeat, Valleywag, The Examiner, The Chronicle, the local news, hell even the NY Times and promote the hell out of the idea that you are turning a moment of voiced frustration and humiliation into a meaningful solution for good. It might even be the best PR your startup ever gets. 

So there it is, you've got your 15 minutes of fame (well, imfamy). You can use it for something positive, or let it define you. Few people get the opportunity to really make a difference in life. Here are your lemons, now what are you gonna do with them? 

The friend you've never known,

Brad