It also blows hiring. I was eating lunch with the CTO on my interview loop, and he was pitching me hard on the company. He treated the waitress (who gave us perfect service) so poorly that I instantly knew I would never want to work for this guy. Thinking back to every profoundly bad manager I've ever had (not bad in terms of 'ends' but bad in terms of 'means'), they all correlated with crapping on anyone they encountered in the service sector.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way that he treats waiters, waitresses, janitors, clerks, and other lower paying service jobs.

The more important point isn't that you look like a jerk, it's that you are a jerk.

I just wanted to comment on the excellent picture choice. Didn't realize it was a cup of coffee until I read through the article.

I then imagined myself as the entrepreneur, staring down into his coffee on the table, pondering the deal. I don't think I would've had the same visual response with a stock photo of a coffee cup. Not sure if that was your intent, but good job either way.

Along a similar line is one of my favourites: "if you lend a friend $20 and then never see him again, it was money well spent"

There was a saying, something in this style: "A person that is nice to you but not to the waitress, is not a good person."

Don't yell at anyone.

Figure out the mistake and help them to correct it. If you're impressed by who someone is and that sort of thing then don't do it because you never know where they will be in 5 months, let alone 5 years.

If you're just a decent person don't do it because it's disrespectful and you bring disrespect to yourself by treating others that way. It also shows you to be out of control with your emotions.

One of the things that struck me most in the past few days was while waiting in line to get into Hipmunk party @ SXSW to see Alexis outside handing out bottles of water. Out of all the people I've met, ideas tossed around for startups, everything @ SXSW, Alexis had the most impact on me in terms of his dedication to helping people out.

$40k for 15% post means he was screwing you to begin with, unless it was money which came with a technical cofounder attached, or someone with huge industry connections in a non-tech vertical product company, or happened in 1975.

You should thank the investor for giving you another obvious sign to warn you away.

The title of this bothers me. It suggests that you shouldn't yell at waitresses because it blows investments but, really you should not yell at waitresses and it also happens to blow investments. Don't put on a shoe for people you are doing business; be the person you would pretend to be.

Don't tell everybody. It's a great way to identify people I want to avoid, and you ruin it by telling everybody.

Also known as the "Swanson's (CEO) waiter test" -

A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-04-1...

You can also do this with driving. A maxim I once heard was during a deal/hiring/etc process suggest going out for lunch and having the other person drive you both there.

You can learn a lot about a person by the way they drive and they way they eat lunch (esp interacting with service people).

This story is often repeated in all types of business - it is a really useful tool when recruiting any kind of talent, or, for that matter, any kind of relationship.

It's an absolutely remarkable character test! Useful when dating someone, interviewing someone or any number of other scenarios. It baffles me that people treat others in such a rude and public way - and moreover, it's stunning how frequently it occurs.

I just hope they reminded the VC exactly why they were leaving, so he had a chance to think about his attitude.

I do not believe that anyone is saying that you should judge an individual based on one mistake, or one interaction with a waitress. However, the advice is to look at this incident in context, seek out trends (or the lack of trends), and add this to your perception of the individual.

I generally live by the words "people suck." Then when you see such disgusting behavior as this, it is not surprising.

Even better though, is when you meet truly kind people, it is a surprise and pleasure to work with them.

> "We will take over the world together and I will make both of us very rich"

That doesn't sound like a smooth talker, it sounds like a tacky sleazeball. Great story, though.

How you treat a waitress or janitor says a lot about your personality. IMO, it's an asshole litmus test.

Perhaps this advice transcends "investments" and "entrepreneurs" and even "waitresses."