BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
27 Jun 2009

If you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.  Adhering to that adage, I’ve basically kept my mouth shut (for the most part) about Seesmic.  Today, with founder Loic LeMeur basically throwing in the towel, I will simply say I never understood it: video comments seemed very backwards from Day 1; a bit like starting a print media company in the day of the Internet.  I understood - even less so - why investors poured in $12M, to be perfectly candid.

But, if I say any of this, it’s because I want to say how admirable it is for Le Meur to be candid and courageous to admit why his company is shifting gears and focusing on something else that he initially envisioned.

Mojo Supreme launched a search product (MetaMojo.com), database marketing products (StreetMojo.com), a blog network (this blog being one of them), video content (WatchMojo.com) and frankly, the only thing I can honestly say we focus on now really is the WatchMojo.com (we have built a library of 5,000 videos and served 60,000,000 videos in over 3 years of operations, and are arguably the only company getting licensing fees for its content - oh, we never raised a penny in financing from VCs).

We still run the blog network, but its purpose is to reinforce, support and compliment the video content.

I stopped putting any energy in the search products (when MSFT and its $10B R&D budget get their ass kicked by Google, how would we fare?).

While I won’t make any friends, this is one more nail in the coffin of VCs-as-video-startup-investors. Can we get a candid confirmation from financiers that they don’t know what the hell they were investing instead of the bravado and swagger? Yeah, I’m not holding my breath. This is one more reason why Le Meur deserves some props.

Of course, I don’t have VCs to answer to so I can take my time to see results: Le Meur was candid today in saying that while he believes in the long term prospects of video comments, the timing is off by at least two years… and as an entrepreneur of a VC-funded startup, he needs to show growth to keep Seesmic going as a company. 

I respect that, mainly, I respect him for being so honest about things, check out the video below: