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November 30, 2007

Vimeo Founder Fired, Does A Bong Hit

Michael Arrington

56 comments »

Jakob Lodwick, the co-founder of IAC owned video site Vimeo, left the company today. The reason? Apparently Lodwick didn’t see eye to eye with the IAC brass on creative issues, and specifically had a run in with IAC chief Barry Diller three weeks ago.

That’s not surprising, given the picture Lodwick chose to include with his goodbye post. A source close to Lodwick says “he was let go.”

Lodwick’s girlfriend, Julia Allison (who made a scandal at our August Capital party last summer - see video here), wrote a blog post saying “Dear Jakob, I wish I hadn’t found out you left the company you’ve been with for the last seven years from your blog. Love, Julia.”

Lots of drama out in NYC this evening.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. AnonTroll

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    Better finding out from the blog rather than Twitter

  2. J.P.

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:05 pm

    This post doesn´t work without details on the scandal.

    And pictures, please.

  3. J.P.

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

    I mean, that video is not the “scandal” wright?

  4. Don Wilson

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

    Michael, you left out the 102px-sized, centered “Who Gives a Crap” at the bottom of the post.

  5. Dubai Trader

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:15 pm

    Nice toke! How much did he have vested already?

  6. Arun Kumar

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    Getting fired from the company he founded has to suck, along with Connected Ventures/College Humor.

  7. cj little

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    Looks like he already pulled the post off his blog.. Thanks for allowing us to share in all of its fantastic joy TC!

  8. J.P.

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

    So, I read Julia´s post.

    Drama 2.0!

    More.

    Forget about web news :P

  9. Steve Ballmer

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

    Godd riddance!

  10. Gustav

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    Nice job. I’m sure he’ll come up with something else though.

    Re Allison’s post- that’s too funny…

  11. ed

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

    what a dork…and this guy has some smarts?

  12. Joe

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

    A dork and the gold digger. What a nice couple? Their kids will be dorky bitches!

  13. Darren

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

    seems like a walleywag piece not a tc post…

  14. TheDuhMoment

    November 30th, 2007 at 6:45 pm

    wha? Dude, she’s hot.

  15. Zack Wolk

    November 30th, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    source on the run-in?

  16. Bill Gates

    November 30th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

    Following in a long tradition of creative people in the software biz. In the old days at Esther’s or Agenda people would show up at the sessions stoned. The days before laptops and wifi. The only way to survive the droning boredom was to take a few tokes before going into the room. How the suits did it I don’t know.

  17. Dawson Jones

    November 30th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

    Look at him. So douche bag hippie, no wonder he was fired.

  18. Thomas

    November 30th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

    What’s up with this new, sensationalistic and gossipy style? It’s okay to report that Vimeo’s founder left the company, but how can it possibly be relevant what his girlfriend thinks? Seriously, guys.

  19. Dawson Jones

    November 30th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

    I agree Daren and Thomas. This is about start-ups.

  20. Average Joe

    November 30th, 2007 at 8:28 pm

    I had never seen her/his/their blog before.

    I must now scrub my eyeballs with pumice.

    I hate you.

  21. Ryan Spahn

    November 30th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    Hmmm….. just shared the same stage with him at IAC beginning of the month!

    Wonder what his next thing is……..

  22. Chuck Olsen

    November 30th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

    What a hilarious FU to MegaCorp.
    I didn’t see him in that environment for TOO long so - congrats
    and “maddening props”

  23. David J's Brain

    November 30th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

    Who the fuck cares about your spats with some retarded rich kids with inflated egos. They’re not any better or worse than other web 2.0 ‘tards you flog on your site ad-nauseum.

    Grow the fuck up. Techcrunch is having a slow news day that you need to compete with Valleywag? they’re at least funny you wanker.

  24. Matthew

    December 1st, 2007 at 1:59 am

    Agreed; who let the Gawker commenters in? Jakob’s not meek, but he’s not some useless douche. He actually conceived and built a brilliant site that makes YouTube look like a third-grade after-school project. He ran a productive but amazingly happy team, and he inspired love for his site from its users.

    Jakob laid his life spread-eagle on the web, and for that he deserves ridicule, like all the rest of us exhibitionists. But it’s lazy and stupid to write off his entire value as a person.

    Idiots.

  25. Shams

    December 1st, 2007 at 2:15 am

    what he is going to make now?

  26. Alan Wilensky

    December 1st, 2007 at 2:15 am

    Jobs hires Scully, Scully fires Jobs, Board fires Scully, Brings back Jobs.

    Ya never know.

  27. micfo.com

    December 1st, 2007 at 3:57 am

    That goodbye post link seems has been removed.

  28. PJ

    December 1st, 2007 at 7:24 am

    Congrats on the most unusual headline on Techmeme today ;-)

  29. gs

    December 1st, 2007 at 7:39 am

    Mike, are you referring to that video as “the scandal”? If so I’d be disappointed because your post would seem manipulative. It’s the year 2007 now, and anyone can be caught on camera being silly. I’d think it’s about time people learn to put things into context. However if the video is not “the scandal”, please explain.

  30. Will Merydith

    December 1st, 2007 at 9:06 am

    I dont’ get the scandal part. We all have moments of letting loose or being goofy. Does the difference between seeing it live and having it recorded make it a scandal?

    That photo is hysterical.

  31. Chuck

    December 1st, 2007 at 9:38 am

    The world is just filled with quality people, ain’t it?

  32. overcast

    December 1st, 2007 at 10:32 am

    I actually went to school with Jakob at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He was as full of himself then, as he is now. Granted, the founders made silly money off of pointless college related material. Nonetheless he was still a twit.

  33. DML

    December 1st, 2007 at 10:52 am

    Today is the first time I’ve heard of Vimeo. I’m guessing it’s “better” than youtube in the same way google video is “better” than youtube. In other words, it’s better in ways that nerds/video-geeks care about, but not most consumers.

    Also Jakob’s girlfriend, Julia Alison, is legitimately hot which is somewhat surprising. I don’t mean “nerd hot” btw. I mean “hot hot”. Seems like a handful though.

  34. overcast

    December 1st, 2007 at 10:58 am

    DLM - that’s what happens when you have lots of money. You obtain hot women.

  35. Chris R.

    December 1st, 2007 at 11:10 am

    Jakob’s welcome to work on my search engine with me if he wants. I don’t care if he smokes pot or not. This is just like the dell dude.

    Look what happened to him.
    http://www.engadget.com/2007/1.....-a-waiter/

    Also I posted a video about the PCDOS founder also toking up:
    youtube.com/watch?v=303F_qmtKnE

    Jakob, if you are reading through and you want to collaborate, get a hold of me now. I really think you got a raw deal there. What I have is way better than flash streaming video anyway.

  36. Chris R.

    December 1st, 2007 at 11:18 am

    http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

    Carl Sagan also smoked pot, and the PCDOS founder I was referring to that smoked dope was of course Gary Kimball. Just copy paste the video URL and wait a couple minutes to the jacuzzi part for the reference.

    At any rate, if Jakob reads through and he wants to help code this, then he can use the contact form to get a hold of me. I’m pretty cool when people aren’t snobby “don’t you know who I am” jerks to me. Which actually happens a lot.

  37. Chris R.

    December 1st, 2007 at 11:25 am

    “I actually went to school with Jakob at the Rochester Institute of Technology”

    I went to school at Finger Lakes Community College before I went to college here in Canada. That was only a few miles away from RIT. I had pretty good grades, but I couldn’t afford to go to RIT.

  38. James Bruni

    December 1st, 2007 at 11:31 am

    Jakob probably had that run in with Diller the day he presented Vimeo to the NY Tech Meetup, which, ironically, was meeting in IAC’s corporate hdqrs. His pitch that night, mostly about HD quality videos on Vimeo, was impressive.

  39. gs

    December 1st, 2007 at 11:58 am

    Chris thanks for explaining. NOOOW I know where you went for college.

  40. Joe

    December 1st, 2007 at 12:39 pm

    Chris R is such a flunky! Please go into your cave and stay there until you have something worth sharing.

    How desperate would have to be to work with Chris? VERY!

  41. Rudy

    December 1st, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    Less drama news and more coverage of new site news please.

  42. Joe Duck

    December 1st, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    Great title - could not resist reading this…

    Was it a bong hit for Jesus? I think it was and I’d have to suggest he run for Mike Huckabee’s Vice …. president.

  43. red

    December 1st, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    I am a first time blogger. I did not start reading blogs until I started my own. This blog has been so helpful to me as a newbie. Thumbs Up!

  44. Eww

    December 1st, 2007 at 4:41 pm

    Is it just me or does the guy look like he just crapped his pants. Maybe the kind weed he is smoking is just that good (or bad).

  45. Marc

    December 1st, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    The word ‘Poindexter’ comes to mind.

  46. Joe B.

    December 1st, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    This guy have to be uberrich to get a girl like that.

  47. InterestedParty

    December 1st, 2007 at 7:49 pm

    A lot of people are assuming Jakob Lodwick is super rich. What is the justification for this? Vimeo seems to be a financial failure.

  48. Fatphil

    December 2nd, 2007 at 5:07 am

    Huh? Startup. Barry Diller? You negative idiots should be applauding him. At least he’s created something.

  49. Sebhelyesfarku

    December 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 am

    NYC is full of trash.

  50. Martin

    December 2nd, 2007 at 8:38 am

    “A lot of people are assuming Jakob Lodwick is super rich. What is the justification for this? Vimeo seems to be a financial failure.”

    He was a founder of Connected Ventures which a majority stake was sold to InterActiveCorp a year ago, I imagine he did pretty well out of the deal (rumored to be $20 million+)

    Connected Ventures owns Vimeo, CollegeHumor and busted tees

  51. rick

    December 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 am

    when is this guy gonna get a backbone and quit deleting all of his blog posts?

  52. LT

    December 2nd, 2007 at 6:21 pm

    The only problem I have with Lodwick is the pretentious “I’m-so-great-I-make-ugly-shit-cool” hipster glasses.

  53. Randy

    December 2nd, 2007 at 9:10 pm

    Jesus Christ, look at this guy. Jakob Lodwick puts the EMO in Vimeo.

  54. Steve Poland

    December 3rd, 2007 at 7:03 am

    I can’t believe I’m posting to this post, but just had to add a few things:
    - IMO, Vimeo has, to this day, the tightest design I’ve ever seen in my life — and I’ve seen a lot of websites.
    - You can’t put entrepreneurs into a sluggish corporate environment and expect them to stick. I spoke to Zach and Jakob at SXSW ‘07 soon after IAC took a share in their company; they were going on their first meeting the following week in hopes of getting their hands on updating Evite. Obviously the red tape was way too thick and they weren’t able to do that.
    - IAC would have benefited by putting Zach/Jakob in as Co-Strategic Officers or some BS title, but basically giving them all the rights to overhaul stuff. Yes I am shocked that Evite with their website from 1996 still is the event site king.
    - I can’t believe IAC doesn’t have a social network in their portfolio (I still say buy Friendster; yes it lost the long-term USA battle, but it’s a solid brand and could grow with integration into IAC’s powerhouse of Internet brands).
    - Jakob definitely has some bucks, he just did his first angel investment (into Tumblr — another slickly designed, simple app).
    - Jakob and Zach will come back at us with something that rocks.

    Oh - and I went to RIT for 2 years (great school!).

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