MOLI , a US-owned [but Dublin-based, see update below] Florida-based social startup has launched at DEMO with $29.6m in funding from backers including the founder of Home Depot chain Bernard Marcus, and the chain’s co-founder, Kenneth Langone. They were joined by hedge fund Vantis Capital Management. Indeed GigaOm reports that founder Dr. Christos M. Cotsakos, former Chairman and CEO of E*TRADE and AC Nielsen, has already previously seeded the company with $20 million of his personal funds, plus $6 million from private investors.
MOLI is out to crack the problem of mixing one’s private social network with professional life. Users can create and manage diverse personal profiles via one user identity and a single, customized home page. Users can decide which of their profiles are shared and to whom. But this is not just a Facebook / LinkedIn mashup. MOLI is a social network aimed at “enterprising individuals above the age of 18 and small business owners”, who, for $3.99 will also get a web store, with billing by Google Checkout, or PayPal. Mainstream will also license the MOLI platform and is planning a version of the site aimed at kids.
However, MOLI may need to tweak its privacy settings. Ireland-based blogger Sabrina Dent has highlighted a concern about being spammed by users as soon as she joined, since the site doesn’t currently cloak new joins. But for now, let us hope that MOLI can address these issues soon. [There is a more detailed review of MOLI on TechCrunch UK & Ireland].
UPDATE: Judy Balint, MOLI’s President and COO, contacts us to clarify that MOLI’s office in Dublin is its European Regional headquarters “with only a few people at this point in time” and its global headquarters are in southern Florida where the majority of its 55 associates are based. She also sent an “apology to all your readers for our associate not identifying themselves appropriately as being from our company when they responded to a post on an Irish blog [Sabrina Dent.com] that unintentionally mis-represented how privacy works on MOLI. As a result, we have issued a policy to all of our associates worldwide to ensure that they include their name and title in all posts about company information going forward to ensure absolute transparency.”
Holly moli.
This just in: the job-security-phobic idiot who was astroturfing blogs while the founders were doing their thing at DEMO today? Turns out he’s Moli.com’s Director of Customer Service.
schmolly molli, nothing in your description sounded ground breaking in the list, good luck molli…
have they joined the data portability group so they can be part of the group hug yet? for that matter, has ning joined?
list = least
mis-spelled rants are the worst
that is a big chunk of change going into this project. I’m really impressed by the founder putting up so much of his own money to fund the project, it takes real guts to gamble with ones own money. It will be interesting to see how they can keep the momentum rolling and if/how they can chip away at the adult (18&up) segment that is so highly touted on facebook. While there is no doubt this is a crowded space, moli is focused and there are a lot of folks that think fb and mySpace are just for the kiddies.
Interesting whether people will use this service, why would you bother really, why would the major site cooperate
How do you rate? http://www.yupnup.com
Is there something I can do besides claw out my own eyes or quit reading comments here to prevent me from having to see Mr. “how do you rate”?
Please give up. I think FSBallmer has some comments he needs on his ‘blog’.
..wow – possibly 50 million to take on facebook / bebo / myspace and linked in…
….how crazy is that??????????
Just too busy for me…
exiva.com
share your life, treasure the privacy
Why does TC Uk report that moli is from Ireland? They are based out of West Palm Florida. If I read the newspaper in Vancouver BC are they going to be based out of there as well, maybe they are based out of anyplace that will print a story about them. GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT. They have developers in Ireland but HQ is in West Palm where that etrade guy lives. DUH!
Proudfloridian – The company may be “owned” in the US but the bulk of its operations appear to be in Ireland which is technically termed their “international headquarters”. Now it’s not a big deal either way – they are targeting US, UK and Ireland markets – but it’s significant, especially to UK/Irish readers, where they are actually going to run operationally from. BTW, Irish guys are just a proud as Floridians, so we’ll call it a draw, OK?
I don’t get why smart people still investing their time and money in even so well executed yet another _generic_ social networks… This IS a facebook and linkedin mashup in some way so they should do this thing – mash up those services, those networks. Creating something new that is not really innovative or doesn’t make anyone on-line presence creation or socializing easier just can’t be viral, can’t work, can’t make it.
I love this mashup idea of not having 5 different tabs going just to stay connected to the things I care about – when will other sites catch on? People want focal point driven content geared to their desires not spread out muddied content.
People really need to wakeup to the paradigm shift-FORWARD> and stop ranting over sites like Ning, Ning these!
-MAK
Hey, Proudfloridian. You can feel feel prouder, because you were right and I was wrong. I have updated the post with a clarification from MOLI that the bulk of its 55 employees are indeed in Florida with only a handful in Dublin. Unfortunately, the confusion arose because MOLI’s Dublin office is based in Dublin’s “Digital Hub” area which typically houses medium to large tech companies.
There is a shocker……me being right! I will have to show this to my wife! Thanks Mike
i have a system jus like moli but its beats moli.. moli is jus the foundation my network cracks every social networking.. i’m in the process looking for investors.. please i’m open for investors and partnerships. email me at aframoses@Myself.com
Moli has a good concept of bringing commerce into social networking but have had a bad execution. What will sell that concept is simply branding and curb appeal. Their layout (interface) was not thought out properly and that has been shown by their traffic falling off the charts (REF: Alexa.com).
I am the controlling share holder, CEO and Founder of Extreme Enterprises Inc. , the parent company to a software development company, and we have spent more than four years and $2.5 million building an interface that has the best curb appeal on the market for a major social commerce portal. Its features and marketing strategies are very innovative and will revolutionize internet trends.
We already have several major celebrity endorsers including George Wendt and Mike Alstott and we have begun negotiations with many others.
Extreme Enterprises, Inc. is currently seeking investors and for more information including appointment availability to view our internal beta software, please email IR@eeihq.com
We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
RJ Garbowicz
Founder/CEO