Xobni - a follow up Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Little did I realise that a commentary on my experiences of a web-app like Xobni could prompt such personal insults. Evidently to express a contrary opinion on the usefulness of an application or add-in is to commit heresy to some folks.
The sad thing is that these more "enlightened" folks elected not to highlight what they found invaluable about the add-in, but respond with comments such as "your photo sucks" - a fault of my face, rather than the photographer I think.
Yet one other theme is reflected in the anonymous comment left via meebo which I've copied below
meeboguest251865: UK venture capital sucks. Your attitude re xobni is exactly why some of us relocate.
Ok, so this one has me confused - I don't find an add-in useful and this is taken to be reflective of UK venture capital? I confess that this isn't a venture I would have put money into for various reasons, not that the opportunity arose. That the venture is apparently valued by Microsoft at over $20m does indeed come as a surprise to me but if one did a quick survey round the investor community on any application/venture you are guaranteed to find a variety of views expressed. Hence, I'm sure you would have found investors in the UK who would have spotted opportunities for it and thus backed Xobni at the time.
Different investors have their own "sweet spots", regardless of country. I acknowledge that geographic factors may play a part in influencing attitudes/sentiment towards making an investment, but investors are not homogeneous in any location. Hence, I'm sure there will be plenty of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who can recount their own rejection stories.
If you've got compelling applications/ventures I remain convinced you can find funding in the UK. Meantime, will someone please educate me on the compelling features of Xobni that I evidently missed.
Labels: VC, VC startup
posted by John Wilson @ 9:20 AM Permanent Link
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1 Comments:
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At 11:31 AM,
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lol - it is surprising to hear such negativity around your post - I too have beta tested it albeit briefly. It could be a great tool but your findings not only matched mine but i found other issues. The stats shown were incorrect.
Now it is in beta so I just put it down to being not ready for primetime yet. I remember reading somewhere someone from Xobni commenting that their beta is not like a web 2.0 beta.
Ending on a positive: much of the hype started out because it appeared on the scene around the time of the EMail 2.0 conversations. Whilst this association with email 2.0 is unfounded from the beta, I wonder if their plans behind the scene are more inline with this. Xobni has the potential to create a socially/work connected
Outlook which would be useful, albeit a possible threat to company IP.
