3 ms·
I've been apart of two failed (or mostly failed) startups. Wesabe closed down recently and they did open source almost all of their code. I think that speaks w
by tonystubblebine 16y ago
I've been apart of two failed (or mostly failed) startups.
Wesabe closed down recently and they did open source almost all of their code. I think that speaks well for their main backers, OATV and Union Square.
Odeo struggled for five of the seven months I was there. I think it was pretty clear we were a bit lost and the board was very kind about it, i.e. they knew they weren't going to come up with the the innovation that was going to turn into a big success. George Zachary from CRV was the primary guy there. I like him personally a lot.
For some reason I feel like the board gets crazier the more success you have, in other words they're not going to fight with you over how you lose your last $100k, but they're damn well going to fight you to make sure you don't blow your $100M valuation. I don't have much more than anecdotal evidence for that though.
- j_baker 16y agoSounds about right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion
- jonknee 16y ago> Odeo struggled for five of the seven months I was there. I think it was pretty clear we were a bit lost and the board was very kind about it, i.e. they knew they weren't going to come up with the the innovation that was going to turn into a big success. Humorous considering Twitter was launched by Odeo (though I'm not sure how the IP ended up, I know there was a clever spin off fairly quickly). When were you there?
- tonystubblebine 16y agoIt supports the idea that boards should be easy going before "product market fit". I think if the board had pushed for milestones we would have locked ourselves into podcasting. I was there for the last seven months of Odeo, which included the first two or three months of Twitter (it was a simple product but we had to wait for the SMS application process).