z on life - Latest Comments

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

Martin Welker — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:05:49 -0000

Forgotten: Link to our own product: http://www.lookeen.com.

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

Martin Welker — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:05:42 -0000

Very interesting Thread! We run a Outlook related company (called LOOKEEN) ourselves. So the options are kind of familiar to me.

1. Outlook integration might (together with marketing) Xobni's only real asset. Other groups in academic stages are far above (e.g. http://www.enronexplorer.com/). If there is no Outlook integration, they can start from the skretch.

2. Own email client? 500mio Outllook users in ENTERPRISES are the only reason why someone would invest in a "plug in"! No company in the world would switch from Outlook to another PAYED service!

3. Fun for mails? That could work - ad based income is essential here. Because NO enterprise would pay for fun. Again, other tools are more sophisticated in visualizing mails.

4. Nice idea but not a blockbuster in my eyes. Person releated information have nothing to do with nocial networking. They are one way!

5. Sounds like 'esoteric matter' to me. Would need serious A.I. engines which Xobni doesn't have.

6. The OS has always better ways to do desktop search because they know the interfaces. If MS starts realizing that there is competition who EARNS MONEY, all DS are gone! Also: Google DS is free!

BTW: Of course there are some other very interesting things to do. But again: I thing the solution lies on focusing on ENTERPRISES!

Cheers
Martin

7.

Re: ~2v2@GoW!!!~

alex — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:38:35 -0000

Ah, man. This post brings back so many memories and feelings. I am 20 now and played War2 on b.net many years ago... I can't remember when I started playing but I know that it was when illegal names were still able to be created. I think I stopped playing regularly in 2003. Warcraft 2 is such a unique game because building placement was so important, and knowing every square on the map. GoW was absolutely perfect for this... knowing how many tree cuts at a certain place would get you through to the other side, knowing where to put buildings in each different position, knowing if you could expand to the position next to you (if it was easy to block off). All of these things were so great. Nostalgia on top of that, makes it some of the best memories ever. I remember waking up really early as that is when bnet was the most active (I am in Australia). I think it always peaked at about 11:00am.

I just got on then and I am absolutely terrible, I can't remember anything... Just each position on GoW...

I remember playing with hl_paco on friends (arguably the best friends player). I remember admiring the user with the #1 ladder trophy on their name - I think I remember getting it once, at the beginning of a new season. I also remember playing on my laptop wherever I could, be it at home in bed at night, or at my grandparents in between swimming and playing basketball at those great parties they had there.

Ha ha, nostalgic overload. This is becoming unhealthy.

Ahh.. great memories.

Re: The man with the golden cookie

hollerith — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:31:59 -0000

This resembles my sexual relationships with women.

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

zellunit — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:25:21 -0000

Excellent point, yeah scarily, I think most could coast. I mean, some people do that in a way right? It's all a matter of degree of personal attention, which is in itself just a continuous scale. That hits deeper ethical, moral, and existential questions though :)

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

zellunit — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:17:12 -0000

excellent point. i didn't want to make a long post even longer by jumping into this, but you are probably correct and there's no way they could have sold.

that said, i still have faith that they are ballsy and would have gone for the homerun had the choice been 100% theres :)

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

immad — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:11:03 -0000

Matt aren't you missing Matt Maroon's (obvious) point that Xobni could not sell even if the founders wanted to. Xobni did a VC round at around $10m post, how could they sell for only $20m?

Either way, I wouldn't consider them that ballsy, if you have done a $5m round and are doing really well by many measure why would you settle for a $20m exit? I am sure they pay themselves more than enough to live happily.

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

gsiener — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:11:32 -0000

Re: #4 I had the idea a few years back (before gmail) that it would be great to track all communications together (email + chat + comments + ?). I believe Microsoft Journal was a shot at showing visual history, but it never took off.

What scares me is you could take your example to the next level: You assign the "Mom" category to your mom's email, and it automatically writes thank yous and that happy mother's day email you forgot to send! How many of our relationships could coast on w/o user input?

Re: Those Xobni guys are ballsy

noah — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:10:12 -0000

My initial reaction would be to cash out.

However, with their vc funding it's likely a 1-2x return would not be significant for the investors. As well, if you are enjoying what you are working then the amount of money really doesn't matter. While at FB, Mark could have cashed out for the billions a long time ago but he was always satisfied to continue working/growing the product. To each his own.

Re: ~2v2@GoW!!!~

Richard Hollerith — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:08:35 -0000

Is it not unethical to deliberately cause a person to develop an addiction to something that does not help him control reality or his own mind in any way but is simply a distraction from reality? Is this not like selling addictive drugs?