Here's to You Mr(s) Arrington, Goodbye and Good Luck Startups

One year ago I resigned from Techcrunch. Arrington never forgave me. For 6 months he's threatened to publish emails I sent him, trying to create fear and doubt with VCs interested in BlogNation. So I decided say blognation had closed funding to put Arrington off the scent. Then, someone in BlogNation sent Arrington an internal email. He published.This spooked the VC. Arrington would love editors to leave blognation, so I chose not to tell them funding was delayed. Last week we had funding on the table, but Arrington published the term sheet which scuppered the deal. I blame myself.

As editor of TechCrunch UK in 2006, he kept talking about revenue until it became clear to us there wasn't any. He quit. Sam started BlogNation. He said he had venture funding though he didn't. Sam continued to take shots at TechCrunch. They tried to hire our writers. I took the gloves off. I posted the death threat from Sam. I didn't post that email to hurt BlogNation — I simply stopped not posting. Marc Orchant had a heart attack because he was working for Sam. BlogNation never received funding, never paid anyone for any work, and did not have a workable business model. Sam claims my posting of that term sheet killed the financing. More likely, that the term sheet was a fake created by Sam. I hope some day Sam expresses regret for the death of Marc Orchant.

On his blog, Sethi unfolds a tale of Arrington conspiring to keep Blognation unfunded. Sethi claims he had to deceive people about his company's lack of funding because he needed to combat Arrington's supposed lies.

BlogNation, Sethi argues, would have received funding if Arrington hadn't revealed a questionable term sheet, supposedly showing a British investor's interest, three days before it was due to be signed. Now, Sethi says, he has put Scotland Yard on the trail of the leaker, supposedly for criminal prosecution.

You'd think the tale of BlogNation would end here. But no. Failed PodTech CEO John Furrier, who still hasn't found a new job, is interested in the auction. We're rooting for him to win. He'd make a perfectly entertaining leader for this dud of a company.

Starr posted his kiss-off letter to Sethi on the BlogNation site, knowing it would be quickly removed, and also posted the long-winded missive on his own site.

In short, Starr charges, Sethi hasn't funded BlogNation, can't pay his contributors, lies to the press and his employees, and will have a hard time raising funding because he is a liar, not a CEO. Imagine that: Oliver Starr, burning bridges?

In this case, no one wins but Arrington. Never one to shy from a nerdfight, the prickly blog impresario has had a running feud with his former coworkers. If BlogNation ceases to exist, they'll be missed — if only for the entertaining feud. (Screenshot by TechCrunch)

BlogNation was originally a partnership between Sethi and MyKinda founder Lee Wilkins, a Brit living in Romania. The Sethi-Wilkins partnership went sour, with threats flying back and forth, and Sethi took control of the BlogNation brand. Arrington naturally saw this as an opportune moment to strike back at Sethi for launching a competing blog network after he was fired from TechCrunch UK.

In this three-way blogfight, Arrington's motives are transparent. But what I can't figure out is what Sethi and Wilkins are thinking. One, in launching their blog networks in Europe. And two, getting so emotional about it. This is the land of socialized medicine and siestas, people. Their most successful startups are obvious Facebook clones or $900 million writeoffs. If you're going to fight, why not make it over something worthwhile? Oh right — this is Europe.

(Photo by pankration)