Leo Laporte Flushes $60,000 Down the Toilet on Vaporware TWiT Apps

Expert business leader, Lisa Kentzell Laporte.
Expert business leader, Lisa Kentzell Laporte.

Leo Laporte got taken to the cleaners again. This time, not by Four Kitchens, but by Indians he hired to write native first-party apps for TWiT.

He has now realized that they “had no idea what they were doing.” After pissing away $60,000 on his first attempt, Soup is simply giving up because there are “great apps” on every platform, including Android where no apps have been updated for 2 years. Developers, like everyone else, are tired of Leo.

Why would a developer choose to work for free, knowing Leo spent $60,000 in an attempt to undermine and eliminate them?

Leo completely wasting $60,000 is unconscionable! That’s almost 3 luxury cruises four Soup and CeHO!.

Leo’s gorgeous wife and CEO, Lisa Kentzell Laporte, is an expert business leader who will shepherd TWiT through its coming expansion contraction into its new office space.

57 thoughts on “Leo Laporte Flushes $60,000 Down the Toilet on Vaporware TWiT Apps”

  1. “I don’t want to undermine…” the apple app creators. Then why try to in the first place? You certainly DID mean to undermine them by creating your own official app!

    We need to bring back the “What they said. What they actually mean” segment.

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      1. That’s one of his “tells” that what he’s about to blurt out or just blurted out is pure unadulterated b.s., put on your boots boys and girls cause it’s real deep and stinky.

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        1. No I think it’s one of his tells for when he’s about to reveal stuff that he shouldn’t really. The pause gives it away too. Sure, there’s lots of bullshit involved, but the tell is about the reveal of “off-air” stuff.

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  2. i still don’t understand why he wants to pay for an app if he has free ones made for him. What is his angle?

    The Android Dev did drop him like a ton of bricks so he is probably getting complaints. That is my only guess.

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    1. His angle is being able to brag about having his own app. That was “hot” back when he started the project, a status symbol. Now, it’s run of the mill to have an app, what with kids writing their own, so of course he’s lost interest, and his rationale is as about as factual and truthful as anything he says.

      Always put his comments and actions in the context of what benefits him the most, especially his ego.

      Same for his website, his constant tech acquisitions, the studio…

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      1. LeoLess said:
        Just use the TWIT.TV web site.It works fine on my Android Moto G. (I checked for testing purposes only.)

        I agree. What is the point of an app for what they need these days? IF their previous developer used web workers for multi threading and all that jazz, it would be a much smoother experience.

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      1. Jimmy Jam said: No loss, can barely stand Leo for 2 minutes now.

        Only see LL on this blog now, even these short snippets make me feel angry, but I love the Total Drama articles and everyone’s comments so I keep coming back.

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    1. Funny Poopy said:
      Lisa doesn’t appear she could even handle being night manager at a 7-11.

      I did some jobs with a crew that worked with her old boss.

      Lisa could run the night shift no problem. Maybe not the day shift. Her nighttime skills make up for the face. She used to have a great body, was always working out. The Tramp never wore panties and flashed the crew on mistake constantly.

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  3. Twit Pro was an excellent android app until the dev shut it down few months ago. It was working flawlessly for a few years and was shut down without any fanfare.

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  4. Every time I see this dipshit piss away money, treat his employees like garbage, brag about his bullshit lifestyle, dote on the “beauty” of his hideous new wife, etc… the 1998 version of me dies another death. I really loved TechTV and I can’t bare this insufferable a-hole any longer. This really hurts.

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    1. The Dark Tipper said: the 1998 version of me dies another death. I really loved TechTV and I can’t bare this insufferable a-hole any longer. This really hurts.

      I believe a good number of us feel exactly the same as you do in this matter.

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  5. I find it hard to believe he spent $60k and got nothing at all. I remember him saying during a Ring Doorbell advert that he used it to monitor his house cleaner so if she left early he would dock her pay. Knowing Leo she would be on the minimum pay rate but he’s taking $60k in his stride. It doesn’t ring true.

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  6. Lease your car, instead of owning an asset that you can still depreciate and deduct over the 10 years of twit, and throw away money on an app with no deliverable. Top business acumen there!

    1) yes, lease, because then I can keep getting that feeling of having a new car and talking about it, because Im really a soulless vapid consumerist who actually does not create or make anything, and derive my income from the propaganda industry that preys on the depression and need to feel included world of other lost soulless individuals buying the lies of your religion.

    2) yes, we agree to pay software developers an upfront payment of $60,000 with no milestone delivery because hey, we know the business, an we know tech, so what they told us is right on, and lets not hold them up with any silly preliminary milestones attached to payments. oh , and then when we are ripped off, we can talk about it endlessly so our fans will feel a little bad for us, while I fondle my $7,000 leica, and pretend to be humble.

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  7. Pretty pathetic a supposedly tech-centric media company can’t even write their own app
    P.S Leo you are never getting an invite to another Apple Event. I wrote it in my will.

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  8. Sad, instead of looking at all the TWiT apps that are currently available then contracting the author of the one they found to be the best to further develop the app, they said f’you too everyone and off shored the job? This further insults the USA and the audience that is paying for their lavish lifestyle. they give nothing back as a thank you.. just to save a buck.. all those millions and they can afford to give a little back to their audience. People who still support these assholes viewership numbers are truly brain dead.

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    1. magic said:
      they said f’you too everyone and off shored the job? This further insults the USA and the audience that is paying for their lavish lifestyle. they give nothing back as a thank you..

      Good point

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  9. To “Dimitri” I say yeah do stop by and visit LL at the build conference and show him how great your twit app works, then kindly ask for $40k for your hard work. Now that you know he allegedly blew away $60k on a previous failed twit app lol. What people get out of producing software for “free” for this dude is way beyond me. SMH!

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      1. You are missing the point, this is about Elgan and other tech journalists being gender/race/sexual orientation Nazis – not Trump. Tech journalists like Elgan consider themselves virtuous despite their bigotry towards male tech workers and the last person they’d consider voting for is Trump – well in fact they have a lot in common.

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    1. Mach said:
      With everything going wrong with Twit, shouldn’t the CEO be replaced? Or at least take a pay cut? Is she not accountable for anything that happens at Twit?

      No I am sure she earns every dollars she makes. It may not have anything to do with Twit. But she earns it.

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    2. Mach said:
      With everything going wrong with Twit, shouldn’t the CEO be replaced? Or at least take a pay cut? Is she not accountable for anything that happens at Twit?

      Not when you are fucking Leo…

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      1. Anti-twit said: CEO be replaced? Or at least take a pay cut? Is she not accountable for anything that happens at Twit?

        Not when you are fucking Leo…

        Yes,, fucking him with a strap-on. Let’s not forget.

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  10. Any other twit employee would have been fired, yelled at and humiliated live on stream for making the company lose 60k. But it was the ceo’s fault, so “thats ok, honey”.

    Thats why you dont make your sex partner the CEO of your company.

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    1. DarkTriangle said: Any other twit employee would have been fired, yelled at and humiliated live on stream for making the company lose 60k. But it was the ceo’s fault, so “thats ok, honey”.

      That’s ok… “It’s only Money”

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  11. The problem with “everything going wrong at Twit” is that it probably is still growing even while it burns. The amount of advertisers on podcasts is still expanding, and I bet they’re still able to sell all their ad slots.

    The issue here is that he is building a toy, something he will have to put away at some point, when he could’ve built a proper network, a proper studio.

    If you look at Twit as the plaything of Leo, then the actions of Leo and Lisa make sense, as does his inability to stop these ridiculously bad things happening.

    I mean, when you commission an app, especially if you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars, you don’t just pick people you like the sound of. You look at their track record – and you investigate to make sure that track record is real: many tech people simply steal templates, graphics and examples from other people to claim they made things themselves. That’s how the $500 website business works. So you do your due diligence before you spend $60,000

    Except if it’s just a plaything masquerading as a business.

    As long as the business provides all the tech toys Leo needs and the money & status to enjoy them, he doesn’t need to do anything else. But that means the business is going to have to be shut down at some point, because of the stuff we all know – the failure to develop any new talent, the failure to build a sustainable model for launching new shows, the failure to employ people who hunger to get things right and develop their own skills. Leo and Lisa don’t do that because they don’t see the need.

    And Lisa isn’t to blame here. I bet if Leo really was providing the kind of leadership this business needs, she would be forced to act like a CEO (and might therefore be found wanting, and have to give it up).

    But she’s not there to run the company. She’s there to run the world for Leo. Big difference.

    The real people who are probably angry and scared at the employees, who must surely know and see what’s happening, and must realise that this is a 2-3 year gig at most.

    Luckily for Leo and Lisa though, we live in the age of advanced capitalism, where we all believe we’re going to have to get a new job in a few years cos there’s no security and you can be fired at will, and so it wouldn’t come as a surprise to any of them to have to start again somewhere else.

    So Leo wins all round.

    As much as I hate him and what he’s done, the truth is that he is likely to be able to retire into the sunset with some/all of his money, after closing down his network and ruining even more people’s lives.

    The only thing that stands in his way is his own dishonesty and duplicitousness: can he keep going before he drives everyone away, and will his huge emotional efforts to act as if this is all going to plan cause him to keel over and die before his time?

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    1. I’m not sure… if either of them knew what they were doing they’d have set up a proper network and sold it a la Rev3. As the sole owner Leo would make a ton more than he stands to make shilling ads for razors and matteresses until he’s 75.

      And I disagree that Lisa is not to blame. Leo isn’t there to lead, that’s why he has a CEO. He was smart in realizing he wasn’t a leader, but he was dumb as shit when it came to picking the person to lead his company.

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      1. No what I’m saying is, Lisa ISN’T there to lead – she is there to run Leo’s hobby. Twit is a toy, that’s what I’m saying. In that context, you can see why they haven’t built it up and sold it on, and why I’m not blaming Lisa. She’s taking her cues from Leo, and he is just using this as a big Lego set.

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      1. Donald I’m praying for you to save your country and please have Leo Laporte ‘taken out’

        Phat phuck dev null said:
        You are forgetting something Leo values more then money. His ego and it’s legacy

        more [than] money
        and [its] legacy

        Grammar Nazi says “you’re welcome”

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  12. PS the comment about the app development being an ego thing is spot on.

    Look at this page and you’ll see lots of apps for viewing Twit content. It is a messy list, but it’s a testament to the loyalty and breadth of talent out there. Some of the apps are for everyone, some were created by fans just for Twit. Doesn’t this look good?

    Shouldn’t Twit be the network where the fans make the best things for everyone? Shouldn’t this page be a celebration of the popularity of Twit? And shouldn’t Leo simply have issued some quality control guidelines and given grants to developers to implement them?

    That’s what the Leo who he claims to be would’ve done. But his ego wouldn’t let him, hence the absurd “Twit API”, hence “headless Drupal”, hence $350,000 websites and $60,000 app development.

    Right there on that page you could see how things could be: Twit is made up of “people you trust”, and you can tell how much Twit is trusted by how hard its fans work to create compelling, excellent apps.

    But no. No, let’s bring it all in-house and waste all our money.

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    1. Why does the twit website need an API? Published shows are available by RSS feed, live schedules are available by Google Calendar API, live stream is a fixed address, IRC is fixed address… What other interaction is needed with the Twit website?

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  13. Legendary Business Insider columnist did an article that may or may not be directly about Leo Laporte and TWiT.

    19 signs your company doesn’t care about you
    Jacquelyn Smith
    1) Your boss doesn’t offer any support, guidance, or feedback
    2) You’re not compensated fairly
    3) You’re passed over for a promotion you deserve
    4) They never ask you for input or ideas
    5) Your calls for help or resources are ignored
    6) There’s a lack of inherent trust
    7) Plum projects no longer come your way
    8) Your boss bullies you
    9) You rarely find out about project outcomes
    10) They don’t include you in any decisions
    11) You get important company news after everyone else
    12) Your boss isn’t interested in your personal life — at all
    13) You hear only from your boss when you screw up
    14) Nobody wants to accept your help
    15) Your boss turns down your requests for a more flexible schedule or better work-life balance
    16) It’s hard to know where you stand
    17) They make demands of you during holidays or your time off
    18) They blatantly tell you they don’t care about you
    19) They don’t fight to keep you

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  14. This is not Leo. This is Leo accepting and repeating what he was told to do by someone. Nobody other than a financial genius CEO would follow this line of reasoning. I know men who have purposely lost money for tax purposes, but I don’t know if that’s her angle.

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  15. On this past week’s episode of TWiT, at the 1:14:02 mark, Leo explained his plan for TWiT. He says “I’m not trying to build a media company. I’m not casting around for the next big thing. I’m merely riding this particular wave into the ground.” In the end, Leo doesn’t give a shit. Leo will continue to buy his toys and go on expensive vacations until the shit house burns down.

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