Gawker
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clips
Slate explores the strange and fascinating world of your cubicle
Someone should make a Bingo card for startup office videos. Slate's tour of Xobni in downtown San Francisco would cover most of the squares: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by sample032: You can get Aeron chairs on the bay area craigslist for cheap. I don't need to explain where they... 2 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte's job on the line?
After the abrupt departure of Gabor Cselle, the talented VP of engineering at Xobni, a San Francisco email startup, talk is that CEO Jeff Bonforte might soon be out, too. At a startup, one of a CEO's main tasks is to attract and retain talent. In a comment on TechCrunch, Bonforte said Cselle wanted to run his own startup. Despite his rationalizations, there's no sugarcoating this fact: Bonforte just failed his most important test as a CEO. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by doostango: You got it all wrong Owen. I hear it was his chocolate lab that has been gunning for his job.... more » | Other threads
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startups
Email startup Xobni walks away from $20 million offer
Xobni, led by ex-Yahoo Jeff Bonforte, has declined a buyout offer from Microsoft, finding the software giant's plans for the startup too unformed. This from a team whose product is still in private beta. [TechCrunch]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Ted Dziuba: Well, that's liquidation preference for you. more » | Other threads
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xobni
Email startup tries to hurry Microsoft-Yahoo merger
Former Yahoo executive Jeff Bonforte, now CEO of Xobni, has come up with possibly the most cynical yet useful product ever launched by a startup. Xobni, whose software tracks and analyzes email usage in Outlook, is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Microsoft. Microsoft is, to its dismay, not in acquisition talks with Yahoo. But Xobni's latest product, TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld reports, bridges Microsoft Outlook, desktop email software widely used in corporations, with Yahoo's Web-based email. "That's the kind of demo that gets deals done," Schonfeld observes. Indeed, it may make Microsoft wonder whether they need to buy Yahoo at all.
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By Owen ThomasComment by matto: Names like "Jeff Bonafarte" are why I began my career as a blog commenter. more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Report: Microsoft acquires Outlook plugin maker Xobni
Microsoft has acquired Xobni, likely for more than its original $20 million offer to buy the company, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington reports. Xobni — "inbox" spelled backward — adds features to Outlook, Microsoft's desktop email application. As VC blogger Fred Wilson notes, the acquisition is "sort of proof that Microsoft doesn't know how to improve its own software. So they buy those that do." If Arrington's report proves more accurate than previous rumors of a sale, Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte would join Microsoft well before his former colleagues at Yahoo, where Bonforte worked just long enough to be paid to leave.
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Comment by Chad Jamian Williams: Through GTD I found Outlook Track-It, which sends followup email reminders. It's a plugin that I've used for business. Personal... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Has Microsoft bought email startup Xobni? No, but its CEO is getting used to paperwork
At 10 a.m., Jeff Bonforte, the ex-Yahoo who's now CEO of Xobni, described his status on LinkedIn as "legal documents up to my ears." What could have him so submerged? Microsoft has long been rumored to be interested in Xobni, which makes a plugin for its Outlook software. Not long ago, Microsoft startup scout Don Dodge took the startup's small team to dinner, but Xobni's said to have balked at a sub-$20 million offer they viewed as lowball. If Bonforte has actually persuaded Microsoft to raise it, he'll have earned his pay. The irony, if a deal happens: Bonforte will likely end up working for Microsoft long before his former colleagues. Update: Xobni cofounder Matt Brezina tells me the legal documents are for intellectual-property licenses, not a sale. Sounds dreadfully boring — and good training for a career at Microsoft if the widely expected purchase goes through. -
hires
Jeff Bonforte's startup subsidy
Yahoo laid off more than a thousand people last week, including Jeff Bonforte, a vice president whose job was rendered superfluous long before he was made redundant. Now we learn that he's taken the job of CEO at Xobni, a promising email startup. Curious: Did Xobni make a snap decision to hire Bonforte? Unlikely. Instead of quitting to take the job at Xobni, he waited to extract a package from Yahoo. Yahoo's shareholders and his ex-colleagues might not share our view, but we applaud Bonforte's cynical opportunism.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Val_E_Wag: @franky: All who think that Franky's comment is a load of claptrap, say "aye." Case in point -- only a douchebag... more » | Other threads
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xobni
Email startup takes on filmmaking
A note to venture capitalist Rob Hayes of First Round Capital. Remember the cash you plunked down on Xobni, the party-throwing email startup? This is where your money's going. More »
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Comment by ChiefCynic: >This is where your money's going. Stupid, but a waste of time more than money. Making this video probably cost less... more » | Other threads
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xobni
I'm too sexy for my install script
It's traditional for software developers to put their names on a product. When you launch Photoshop, for example, a long list of small-type names flashes on the screen while the product loads. But pictures? That's an innovation, as far as I know. Engineers at Xobni, the email-software startup which just presented at the TechCrunch40 conference and launched its first product in beta, pasted in photos of themselves that display when their software finishes installing. Perhaps they'll get some dates for their trouble. If not users.
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By Owen ThomasComment by fitt: So far I like it, quite helpful in organizing the trainwreck that is outlook. Threaded conversations, files exchanged, and "Keep... more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
Crystal Tower, the startup dorm, loses elevator service
Ever since Justin.tv moved in, Crystal Tower Apartments in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood has gotten the reputation as a dorm for 20something startuppers. A recent elevator breakdown, now fixed, left some residents to hoof it all the way up the 12-story building. Justin.tv has moved out, but current residents include the entire staff of email startup Xobni and Web-page builder Weebly, as well as employees of Snipshot and Scribd. The connection? All four companies were backed by entrepreneur Paul Graham's Y Combinator incubator. And more are moving in soon, Weebly CEO David Rusenko says. The proximity is a bonus for the tightly networked group of companies — but the elevator episode should be a sobering reminder to all of them of what happens when your startup has a single point of failure.
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By Owen ThomasComment by mblevin: Now I know what kind of donkeys would live in such an travesty of a building. Thanks Valleywag! more » | Other threads
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party report
Bow down and worship Xobni's party-throwing skills
On the left, beatific investor Rob Hayes of First Round Capital. On the right, worshipful Xobni cofounder Adam Smith, genuflecting before the man who graced his startup with the tall dollars, and helped fund a night of excess last Friday. More »
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Comment by guffman32: I'm actually a 3rd tier MBA and have to admit that I would rather watch reruns of "The Larry Sanders... more » | Other threads
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