Jeteye 'struggling'

There's something rather admirable about David Hayden. On Friday, Valleywag broke the news of the entrepreneur's latest misfortune. The Critical Path founder's social search venture, Jeteye, doesn't have enough money to cover its $8,000-a-month rent, and the landlord, according to a letter seen by Valleywag, has seized the deposit on the 457 Pacific offices. What's admirable, then? Hayden's mellow response to the news, after the jump. He concedes that Jeteye is "struggling" — and even takes the opportunity to advertise the availability of the office space. Classy.

DAVID HAYDEN — The report of my "fall" is largely exaggerated, but it is true, Jeteye is struggling and moving out of its space at 457 Pacific (anyone interested?). Also true, I've had ups and downs as an entrepreneur, as do most, but I'm hardly unfortunate by any standard. Most entrepreneurs have successes and failures. We learn by failure, not by success. Jeteye has tried, under my leadership, to create an innovative authoring platform for the web, which would, if successful in user adoption (we have 80,000 registered users) begin to influence the human side of social search and results. Jeteye remains the best of its lot — a way to save the web and share that with others (compare us to Kaboodle, Google Notes, Squidoo — and make your own decision).

That said, the ups and downs of my private life are not a subject for public discussion, but I will say, I've never been fired by any of my wives (I married in succession), I'm not British, I don't resemble Don King, even on my best of days, and the well from which I gather ideas has not yet dried up — so yes, I'll try something new, thank you very much. All this I write in good humor. We're far to focused in the Valley on success and money and gossip. Better still if we could focus on children, education, and meaningful exchange (okay, I'm pontificating) . Still, when you think about Magellan Search, or the idea behind Critical Path and Jeteye, you'd at least have to tip your virtual hat to the fact that many with me, and behind me, and in front of me, have and are trying to make sense out of a great deal of nonsense. I wouldn't count me out, even on the best of your days. Never, ever, ever ever give up. And Michael Wolff, a friend, didn't quite say what you said he said, but taken out of context, we can make anything sound the way we want.

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