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> Everything about contracts was frustrating, both at those startups and the larger companies that acquired us.

In Hollywood, a lot of stuff is agreed upon without a contract. How does that work?

If your instinct is to say "it's a disaster," this will fail.



I don't have experience with contracts (or the lack thereof) in Hollywood, and that's interesting to hear.

One guess is that it might be a relatively small community where the same people and companies do business with each other over and over. In a community like that, some of the jobs that contracts do in other industries might be done through norms and relationships.

I enjoyed "Why Trust Matters" by Ben Ho (https://www.amazon.com/Why-Trust-Matters-Economists-Guide/dp...) and it talked about a sweet spot where contracts shouldn't try to over or under-specify the deal in order to optimize for trust. I'm sure that some industries, like Hollywood, have less laid down in contracts than others.

If you're open to it, I'd love to hear more about how you've seen this work in Hollywood.


I signed up, it's valuable to me at AppMana. Trust resonates with me.

> If you're open to it, I'd love to hear more about how you've seen this work in Hollywood.

There's so much to say. But maybe the most important thing to you is that entertainment lawyers are customarily paid 5% of the transaction's value to their client. So you get quality and often creative legal advice, with aligned incentives, whether you're Leonardo DiCaprio or some nobody.

Every startup is a nobody.


Oh interesting, I could see how a percentage of the transaction's value could totally change the incentives and behavior compared to hourly billing. Thanks for sharing that and for signing up


It's only a disaster when there's a non-simple failure on one part or the other.

That's the set of contingencies that contracts are supposed to address.




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