Mar 17, 2008
Jobster’s 2007 Losses: $11 Million; Out Raising More
Well, it would be bad sport for me not to at least recognize paidContent.org’s headline having been one of the early adopters of Jobster-related content for a little SEO lift.
With the company’s likely implosion at hand, better to make hay while the sun shines, don’t ya fink?
But then again, hold on — I’m in stealth mode! Am I really ready to start drawing attention to myself?
And what about my beloved Recruiting.com, Jobster’s love-child? We don’t want to tick off the new sugar-daddy, do we?
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
Joshua Letourneau
Shame on the investors for dumping so much $$$ into this idea. That’s comical that a CEO would burn through a cool $45 Million USD . . . and then either be removed by the Board and/or cruise over to start something new. Haven’t we seen this before? Sure, we have. And the funny thing is that it’s just as easy for the original ‘CEO’ (used loosely) to raise funding for a new company after failing with an old one . . . because investors see that as a positive (I know—it’s counterintuitive, but true.) At an investor presentation I made for a client back in 2004, I had a VC say he wanted to know more about our (the founders) failures than our successes. Odd, but true.
If you know anything about the VC world, it can often be more about “who you know” than the viability of your business plan and ability to execute. I’ll tell you who really got screwed in this debacle: the high net-worth individuals and angels that put their $$$ under the control of Ignition Partners, Mayfield, Reed Elsevier Ventures and Trinity Partners.
So can you blame the bad idea itself, the lack of execution, the mismanagement of upper mgmt, fiscal irresponsibility, or the “greater fools” willing to keep throwing good money after bad?
It’s tough to put a finger on, but if there’s one thing we know, it’s this: external capital & investment geared toward our industry will come under much greater scrutiny going forward.
P.S. There is one thing I’ve learned about early-stage tech companies that is a much-kept secret on the outside: from a personal finances standpoint, there is often as much $$$ in failure than there is success.
Apr 6th, 2008
Joshua Letourneau
Amitai, I thought of you and this post this morning when I logged into Facebook and saw, “Why venture capitalists give more money to entrepreneurs who have failed”. I kid you not that the timing of this article couldn’t be more ironic given my response to your blog yesterday night. Check it out…
Apr 7th, 2008
Amitai Givertz
Josh – both your comment and the article are good reads, thank you.
Apr 7th, 2008
Amitai Givertz
Just found this on paidContent.org: Social Networking Jobs Site Jobster Raises Another $7 Million
Apr 25th, 2008
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