Gawker
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ooma
How Ashton Kutcher killed a startup guy's Hollywood dream
It was a fantasy left over from the last boom: Hire a movie star to pitch your startup, and the dusting of tinsel will turbocharge sales. Those William Shatner ads sold plane tickets for Priceline, right? But the career of hard-partying entrepreneur Andrew Frame did not follow that script. We hear he was just fired as CEO of the Internet-phone startup he cofounded, Ooma. His most notable decision, hiring actor Ashton Kutcher as "creative director," did not pan out; Kutcher made a few incomprehensible videos, and then faded from the scene. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ElvisWorley: $250? When I can buy a Magic Jack for a fraction of the price and get the same free service. 2 Responses | Other threads
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startups
VCs dump $16 million more in Ooma
Ooma, the voice-over-IP phone company, has received a hot cash injection of $16 million from existing investors, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson. This is on top of $26 million already sunk into the company and, of late, convertible bridge loans which have kept the lattes flowing at the office. Sales at Best Buy stores should really pick up when customers learn their new $399 might become useless when the company's money dries up again. [TechCrunch] -
venture capital
SaysMe latest startup to flirt with the curse of Ashton Kutcher
Startup SaysMe, which will produce generic, re-brandable commercial video spots for local businesses and small-town politicians, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of venture firms, including Katalyst Films, home of male model-turned-VC Ashton Kutcher, as well as Intel and Prime Capital's funds. SaysMe's most direct competitor is Spot Runner, another production house which makes stock ads, customized to feature small businesses and placed on network and cable television. It can't possibly have a worse business plan than VOIP hardware maker Ooma, another startup anointed by Kutcher, can it? -
deathwatch
Ashton Kutcher-backed startup Ooma is falling apart
Hold the phone: Voice-over-Internet startup Ooma is flailing, despite — or perhaps because of — a viral-video marketing campaign directed by Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher. Ooma launched its product, a $400 device which offers unlimited phone calls, last year, with a splash of press. Starstruck tech bloggers like TechCrunch's Michael Arrington gave away Ooma gadgets to readers in exchange for some facetime with Kutcher — and asked few questions about its nonsensical business model, which had it charging high upfront prices for hardware and giving away phone service. Now, we're told, its high-school-dropout CEO, Andrew Frame, has seen a host of executives leave. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by SuprabhaNoppit: Looks like there's some additional people leaving and layoffs at ooma. ooma has decided to terminate their entire... more » | Other threads
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party report
Party correspondent confronts ghosts of Yelp parties past
Yelp, the local-reviews site, is as infamous in San Francisco as it is nonfamous anywhere else in the country. Its parties, always hedonistic rampages of drunken conversations, burlesque troops, and makeout sessions in the photobooth, helped establish its local reputation and cement the loyalty of hardcore users. (Even the founders get in on the action!) Last night, Yelp held its holiday party at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Upon entering, I was greeted by a mass of San Francisco Yelptards, each louder than the next, all laughing, cajoling, flirting, and hugging each other. Self-congratulations were clearly in order. More » -
michael cerda
Ooma creator says startup founders are "f—--d"
Jangl CEO Michael Cerda faced down a crowd of entrepreneurs at a Stirr event in Potrero Hill, and, in an unusual moment for Silicon Valley, spoke the truth. "How many of you guys are founders?" he asked. Cerda waited a beat, looked at the raised hands, and said, "You're all fucked." Until that moment, no one had really been paying attention to the "Founder's Hacks" program, even with Twitter's Evan Williams and Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams on the stage. Stirr founder Sanford Barr had been walking around shushing people like we were naughty sixth-graders. With the crowd's attention, Cerda launched into the tale of a previous startup — and most in the audience assumed he was talking about Ooma, the VOIP gadget company he started in 2003 with George Oscar Bluth II lookalike Andrew Frame. More »
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Comment by janglex: The unfortunate truth is that Michael wasn't talking about a former company. He was talking about very current events at... more » | Other threads
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geeks gone wild
New England geeks get best chance to score
Ashton Kutcher's greatest contribution to geek culture — and no, we aren't referring to Internet telephone startup Ooma — is coming to Boston. Fulfilling every nerd's wildest fantasies, the guilty-pleasure reality show Beauty and the Geek is coming to Beantown on Saturday . Producers are searching for dweebs and bimbos willing to provide the CW network's viewing audience with endless entertainment at their personal expense. And the specifics of the casting call? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Tim Faulkner: @sample032: you definitely out nerded me, sample032. more » | Other threads
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clips
Ooma gets creepier
So, you thought that yesterday's video from telecom startup Ooma was bad? Oh, it gets weirder. More » -
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voip
Say hello — and goodbye — to Ooma
Ooma, the voice-over-Internet gadget maker founded by entrepreneur and celebrity doppelganger Andrew Frame, finally makes its official debut. Starting today, the $399 box, which routes calls from regular phones over the Internet, goes on sale to the general public. Now you won't have to rely on blog giveaways to get your hands on the device. Assuming you want to. More » -
explainer
Red Herring displays its ignorance
Still on deathwatch, Red Herring, the once-storied tech publication, is displaying its straitened circumstances even in its copy. The few articles on its website that aren't Reuters wire stories seem to be written by a skeleton crew, with equally skeletal thought behind them. Take, for example, Cassimir Medford's puff piece on Ooma, the also-doomed VOIP startup. Medford, ostensibly Red Herring's "telecom and wireless reporter," includes this doozy:The name Ooma was chosen because it invokes curiosity, Mr. Frame said. Also it has four letters and the IP address was readily available.
Here's what's wrong with that — and what it shows is wrong with the Herring. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @Joe Clark: I'd like to issue a public apology to Medford for suggesting that he might be able to learn... more » | Other threads
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overheard
"TechCrunch giving away Oomas? I'm seriously over tech. I'm moving into pork bellies or something less sad." -
separated at birth
Ooma's arrested product development
Valleywag has already noted the curious resemblance of Andrew Frame, the founder of VOIP startup Ooma, to "Arrested Development" character George Oscar Bluth II, a failed magician. But that's not the only curious resemblance we've spotted, now that Ooma's launched its long-delayed product. It turns out that Ooma's Hub, a $399 pice of hardware for making cheap Internet calls, competes with a $99 product that does the same thing and is already on the market. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @Matt_: Hate to call you out again for your poor reading-comprehension skills, but you don't have to buy the box... more » | Other threads
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ooma
Andrew Frame's startup is older than it looks
When was Ooma, the VOIP startup founded by entrepreneur Andrew Frame and supported by actor Ashton Kutcher, actually founded? Seems like such a simple question. The company says it was founded by Frame in 2005. But former CEO Michael Cerda, in a detailed account, says it actually got started in the fall of 2003. And the Internet Archive shows an Ooma site dating back to 2004. Does it matter? Of course. The age of a startup matters as much in Silicon Valley as the age of a star in Hollywood.
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By Owen ThomasComment by YaffaEriphyle: I'm amazed how little discussion there's been about the limits Ooma has recently placed on their so-called "unlimited" calling. ... more » | Other threads
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voip
In Estonia, Skype girds for battle
Why does eBay subsidiary Skype have a Swedish military transport in its Estonian development center? Could it be preparing to take the fight for VOIP customers against new competitors like Ooma to a new battlefield? Read more. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Eric Rice: Wait, it's a big fuck-off vehicle with big fuck-off tires, but no big fuck-off guns? Or do they magically appear... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Why Ooma is dooma'd
At first I was loath to even join in what Uncov calls the "A-list rub and tug" on Ooma, the telecom startup launched by Andrew Frame, the entrepreneur who looks like a model, and Ashton Kutcher, the Hollywood star who actually was a model. Like its founders, Ooma is all looks, no substance. Launched late, Ooma's product, a piece of hardware that lets you place free phone calls over the Internet, looks set to flop, as insiders predicted, because its creators fundamentally misunderstand both consumers and technology. But at least the box, like Frame and Kutcher, is pretty. Read on to learn why looks don't matter in telecom — and why we're putting Ooma on immediate deathwatch. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by dean.collins: Hey Owen, I think it's time for you to eat crow and admit you were wrong in your hasty assumptions. Dont worry... more » | Other threads
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