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.
zellunit
· 1 year ago
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 :)
noah
· 1 year ago
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.
Graham S.
· 1 year ago
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?
zellunit
· 1 year ago
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 :)
Martin Welker
· 10 months ago
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!
All Comments
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.
that said, i still have faith that they are ballsy and would have gone for the homerun had the choice been 100% theres :)
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.
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?
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.