Woot Writes Ode to Qwikster CEO Andy Rendich

Woot has some of the best copywriting, and tonight they wrote an ode to Quikster CEO Andy Rendich in the copy for a Lenovo Notebook computer. 

You Did The Best You Could

This Lenovo Intel Dual-Core Laptop with 15.6” LED Display? It’s dedicated to all those who never got their shot.

Andy Rendich. CEO of Qwikster for about a week. You didn’t ask for the media frenzy. You just woke up and came into the office one morning to find out your boss had gone insane. But instead of walking away, as a lesser man might do, you took one for the team. You put your name on that disaster-in-progress and told the world… well, nothing really, because you didn’t even have time to figure out a business plan. But you were gonna do it, pal. You were gonna bring the heat. It was your moment to shine.

And today, you’re just back to the old office, because Qwikster is no more.

Andy, it’s not your fault, okay? You’re like this refurbished Lenovo Intel Dual-Core Laptop with 15.6” LED Display. It’s got a sweet 2.13GHz processor, and 2GB of DDR3 memory, and a 320GB hard drive, plus Window 7 Home Premium, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 15.6” widescreen LEDdisplay. It’s ready to work, and work hard. But nobody gives it a chance, do they? Just like you, man. Just like you.

You can read the rest of the copy on the Woot website.

It's interesting to note that Woot is now owned by Amazon, a Netflix competitor.

Comments

[UghBadName]

the tone of the ode is about spot-on, and its probably true for not just andy but most of the qwikster people who worked their asses off for the last few months to create a real company from practically nothing, only to see their dreams dashed and employment terminated on monday.

and amazon is not entirely a netflix competitor - its also one of netflixs strongest partners, given that virtually all of netflixs production systems run on amazons cloud.

[Walt D in LV]

it continues...

But don’t you worry, Andy Rendich. Now your name is out there. Maybe not as out there as a Reed Hastings email, but out there nonetheless. When you go to your next job interview (probably on Tuesday if you’re smart) people are going to say “Rendich? Aren’t you that guy who almost ran Qwikster?” And when you say yes, they’ll shake their head, and maybe even give you a big hug.
Because you’re every kid who was open but didn’t get the ball. You’re every musician who had the chops but couldn’t get airplay. You’re Brando in On The Waterfront, you’re Dave Mustaine, you’re Takeru Kobayashi being dragged away by the cops just before the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. You were there and ready and wanted to go, but someone else took your moment before you could prove yourself.
That dream is gone now, Andy Rendich, but it’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. Don’t blame yourself.

Awesome.

[Robert Emmerich]

Hil-arious.

Seriously though, did that guy get a $1 mil golden parachute or anything? I mean it's not like this was some hidden backroom handshake, the guy was in a video being lampooned on SNL. He couldnt walk into Reed's office Monday asking about his job and Reed said "I don't know what your'e talking abut, I never offered you a CEO position."

[Rob]

I don't think anybody got hired to create Qwikster and I don't think anyone got laid off when Qwikster died. Andy's been at Netflix for years running the DVD operations, and as far as I know, everyone building Qwikster was just the same people that have been working on the hub & logisitics software since the dawn of time.

[moviegeek]

Was this sponsored by Lenovo? The same company with the annoying commercials on Hulu?

[David]

@Rob: I disagree. Splitting a company would require duplicate positions for both. That would mean 2x finance, legal, hr, it, engineers. etc. The only thing I see being unique to one side would be the warehouse operations.

Some people most likely lost their jobs.