4 ms·

Xobni Acquires IP From Failed Web 1.0 Startup FireDrop

39 points by brett 18y ago

prakash 18y ago
Wow! I remember talking to one of their employees way back in 2000, that guy mentioned how cool Zaplet (the technology) was. Never thought about it till today. Note to self: Revisit all the companies that went belly up including the ycombinator ones
redorb 18y ago
low 100k's ... for 10 patents and not to be sued later when your worth 50-90mm , sounds like a solid move.
- axod 18y ago
  Still a shame people have to do this to implement blindingly obvious ideas.
  - bluelu 18y ago
    or move your company to a country where software patents are not legally enforceable (eg. the rest of the world) Also you can not be sued for using someone's patents. You can be sued if they give you notice that you are using their patents, and you then continue violating their patents.
prakash 18y ago
Adam/Matt/Gabor: Who brought up the existence of Zaplet and the idea of buying their patents -- was it Vinod since he was at KPCB at that time or Jeff? BTW: Good move.
- brezina 18y ago
  This has been done for several months. I finally got off my ass and closed the deal when Vinod woke me up at 7am with a phone call saying "buy those patents, they will do big things for Xobni."
JayNeely 18y ago
Xobni has been an excellent utility, and these patents could both enhance that strategy, or allow them to bridge into a medium strategy. As a utility, Xobni works for any user, and with all of their stored e-mails, regardless of whether any of their contacts also use it. They could use FireDrop’s tech to add better visualizations for information contained within the e-mail, which has been their core focus so far. If they instead start offering functionality that only works between contacts who both have Xobni, then we’re seeing a big shift in their business strategy; it suddenly provides an incentive (other than, “hey, this is awesome”) for users to encourage their coworkers and friends to add Xobni. The best thing they could do to enhance that strategy is streamline the installation process even further. That strategy may also provide hope for Xobni compatibility for Thunderbird, as their business goal becomes adoption, rather than having strategic value for a specific platform.
epi0Bauqu 18y ago
I used Zaplets in 2000 to help pick a name for my first startup. I remember using them and then seeing the Venturebeat 100M thing and thinking what the hell?
skmurphy 18y ago
key quote for me "Bonforte says reducing email threads down to a single active message is a key factor in solving the email...he thinks Xobni will eventually be able to do that with the IP they’ve just acquired" There are a lot of ways to do this, e-mail widgets is just one.
Tichy 18y ago
Just enable Javascript in emails. Seems like Microsoft was on the right track after all. Or wait - wasn't that the main reason why everybody hates Microsoft now?

39 points by brett 18y ago

Wow! I remember talking to one of their employees way back in 2000, that guy mentioned how cool Zaplet (the technology) was. Never thought about it till today. Note to self: Revisit all the companies that went belly up including the ycombinator ones

redorb 18y ago

low 100k's ... for 10 patents and not to be sued later when your worth 50-90mm , sounds like a solid move.

axod 18y ago
Still a shame people have to do this to implement blindingly obvious ideas.
- bluelu 18y ago
  or move your company to a country where software patents are not legally enforceable (eg. the rest of the world) Also you can not be sued for using someone's patents. You can be sued if they give you notice that you are using their patents, and you then continue violating their patents.

prakash 18y ago

Adam/Matt/Gabor: Who brought up the existence of Zaplet and the idea of buying their patents -- was it Vinod since he was at KPCB at that time or Jeff? BTW: Good move.

brezina 18y ago
This has been done for several months. I finally got off my ass and closed the deal when Vinod woke me up at 7am with a phone call saying "buy those patents, they will do big things for Xobni."

JayNeely 18y ago

Xobni has been an excellent utility, and these patents could both enhance that strategy, or allow them to bridge into a medium strategy. As a utility, Xobni works for any user, and with all of their stored e-mails, regardless of whether any of their contacts also use it. They could use FireDrop’s tech to add better visualizations for information contained within the e-mail, which has been their core focus so far. If they instead start offering functionality that only works between contacts who both have Xobni, then we’re seeing a big shift in their business strategy; it suddenly provides an incentive (other than, “hey, this is awesome”) for users to encourage their coworkers and friends to add Xobni. The best thing they could do to enhance that strategy is streamline the installation process even further. That strategy may also provide hope for Xobni compatibility for Thunderbird, as their business goal becomes adoption, rather than having strategic value for a specific platform.

epi0Bauqu 18y ago

I used Zaplets in 2000 to help pick a name for my first startup. I remember using them and then seeing the Venturebeat 100M thing and thinking what the hell?

skmurphy 18y ago

key quote for me "Bonforte says reducing email threads down to a single active message is a key factor in solving the email...he thinks Xobni will eventually be able to do that with the IP they’ve just acquired" There are a lot of ways to do this, e-mail widgets is just one.

Tichy 18y ago

Just enable Javascript in emails. Seems like Microsoft was on the right track after all. Or wait - wasn't that the main reason why everybody hates Microsoft now?