Xobni, the Y Combinator email startup that turned down an acquisition offer from Microsoft earlier this year, has just lost its VP Engineering and first employee, Gabor Cselle. Cselle joined the company in March 2007, sporting a seemingly perfect resume that included work on the Gmail team and a Master’s thesis on “Organizing Email”.
The departure may not be abrupt (Cselle won’t be leaving until the end of August), but it is unexpected, and frankly, doesn’t make much sense. Since launching at TechCrunch40, Xobni has shown impressive growth and received widespread acclaim – Bill Gates demoed the service at the Office Development Conference earlier this year.
CEO Jeff Bonforte (who joined the company only five months ago) says that Cselle simply decided that he was no longer happy at Xobni, and wanted to try building his own startup. Bonforte says that Cselle likely wants his own shot at glory, and because of Xobni’s quick rise to success, members of the team may believe that launching a startup is far easier than it really is.
Cselle’s blog post on his depature seems to confirm this, at least in part:
“Ever since reading a biography of Bill Gates when I was 14 years old, I’ve wanted to be a founder of a company that makes a difference. I’ve wanted to build a workplace where people can be creative, productive, and happy, and a product that delights users and improves their lives. I feel like the time is now.”
Cselle may be itching to try his own luck, but Bonforte’s explanation still doesn’t sit well with us. Microsoft just threw $20 million at the company, which it turned down, likely in hopes of a better offer somewhere down the road. Why wouldn’t Cselle wait for his payday and then jump ship to start his own company?
We’ve heard that Cselle has been unhappy at the company for months, but we haven’t been able to reach him for any further details (we’ll update the post as soon as we do). In his blog post, he says that after leaving Xobni in August, he’s going to travel the world, raising money along the way for a new email startup.
some people aim at more than a good payday sometimes
Another vaporware startup from ybombinators. Xobni is nothing special and runs really slowly. They should have taken the MSFT offer and ran. Cselle doesn’t see the company going anywhere so he’s leaving. That’s a terrible indication of Xobni’s future. MSFT is going to just implement everything Xobni does now and make it useless.
take a 1-2 month sabbatical to recharge the batteries, don’t run away from success
Bill Gates paid him to start xobni from scratch with 10 mil, give him another 10 mil of budget to hire resources (likely ms ppl).
go xobni {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/W6CU1N3yg6_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”go xobni ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/UfWUgI1uUw”}}}
this really is funny …
i agree
but Felipe, what about Xobni’s future, maybe the CEO is taking them in the wrong direction?
This is THE BEST comment, ever
)))
@ Arrington. This is why Video Comments Don’t Work! The whole point of commenting is that it is somewhat anonymous. Unless you are an arrogant prick or are overly opinionated, you won’t leave a video comment. I guess you fit both these stereotypes, thus why you invested in such a worthless company. Get someone to manage your investments. Just because you can write about tech companies, still doesn’t mean you know shit about whats going to succeed. I deadpool you.
i deadpool you… lol
I know how you feel Felipe… I thought the same thing.
i would have left after they sold lol
Why did you delete my comment? What the hell? All I said was, who cares. And I will say it again. Who cares?
Agreed. Who cares? Maybe he’s walking away because there is NO money. There will be NO exit. This company has nothing.
He probably left because fundamentally what the company does isn’t future forward enough… I am certain he has bigger plans… can we not give some credit?
This may have something to do with the recent trend of just firing people for the f**k of it. Soul is cheap and money is scarce these days. I believe you may see more of these types of departures from the startups in the coming months, especially from the dot.com bubble veterans, who typically have no clue how to build a sustainable business and still relying on some luck factor to make their sad case.
If the best you can do with a harvard business degree is let your friends go because they do not like the music you listen to, may as well put your diploma to a better use. Wipe your egotistic, selfish and delusional ass with it.
i left 3 years of unvested bizrate/shopzilla options on the table, leaving the company in Jan 2000 to start my own dot com. My logic was, I already have a full 1 year of vested options. Better to now work on a company I own 100% of. Ugh. I’ve since learned it’s better to have a tiny fraction of a big thing, than the entire pie of a small thing. Would it have killed me to just stay the last 3 years and THEN try my company idea? Apparently it would have I thought.
Andrew, I congratulate you on taking the risk, but the point of gambling is that you risk what you are prepared to lose. Sounds like you walked into the light blindly, get over it my friend, without risk there’s no gratifying reward. I take risks all the time, and I now have nothing more to lose… but still have my genius to get me where I want to be
Andrew, I own a big chunk of nothing from 2001, too… I suspect may of us here
It sounds to me like the lad has an unhealthy obsession with email.
you’re pretty funny for a girl
can i get your digits?
It’s an Outlook Plugin–who else could they possibly sell it to?
Maybe they have other ideas they’re playing close to the vest, but this implies to my that there isn’t much of consequence on the Xobni horizon, no?
I think the email market is oversaturated. People want free email, simple email, or corporate email. And there are thousands of viable options for all three.
It’s funny, I once had to hold my tongue after a product manager raised questioned, after an interview, “why would someone want to leave a high profile company that just got series funding?”. People leave a company for a number of reasons, often personal. In this case, I was already planning on leaving a “darling” company because, as an engineer, the environment was not conducive to actually succeeding.
We spend a good deal of time at work and that time should be rewarding. If one is in a position that is not enjoyable and there are other options out there, it makes sense to explore them.
In the case of xobni, maybe Gabor did leave to pursue something he was more passionate about. And, personally, I can’t see that as a bad thing.
he’s leaving for a microsoft funded company…Bill Gates school of business
Maybe he realized that Xobni’s crappy and didn’t wanna have his name associated with it?
Xobni has a great product and a solid team. Seems like a mistake to me. But, people have to do what they have to do.
“I’ve wanted to build a … a product that delights users…”
And he was talking about MICROSOFT??!!
Just to clarify things a bit… (I am the CEO at Xobni)
Gabor is an excellent engineer and has been a great VP of Engineering. We are sad to see him go. He is an entrepreneur at his core, and he is eager to found his own company. I can’t blame him completely, I have participated in five startups, myself.
When Gabor came to me, I gave him the same advice I would give everyone that has worked for or with me, “Your work is a choice not an obligation. Do what makes you happy. If the company can do something to make you happier here, great, lets do it, but if not then that is ok too. We will all survive.”
We can all second guess if someone would have stayed somewhere they might have made more money or not, but in the end, we should all do what we want to do in life. I do not believe that Gabor made this decision lightly, and to be certain Xobni tried to make it harder for him. So in the end, Gabor’s team at Xobni wish him the best and good luck in his new company. There is certainly a lot of room to improve email.
And related to what Jason mentioned above, I do think that Xobni is a really good startup and it has been very lucky, too. From my experience, startups are often much harder. And while I wasn’t there in the very early days, from what I know the company has enjoyed good success from very early on, right up to today’s announcements of our early participation with Facebook Connect and our signing of three great new employees (see our blog for more).
A lot of the credit for the success that Xobni has enjoyed is due to the team (Gabor included). We have fab investors, great founders and great partners… we are incredibly lucky. I think I am more keenly aware of how difficult it can be for startups, perhaps more than other team members as I have been through more, including the bust of 2000. And so I remind our team, “Things are great for Xobni, but startups see lots of ups and downs. Stay vigilant and stay focused.”
Anyway, everyone at Xobni wishes Gabor the best in his new endeavor. He is not just an employee, he is an angel investor in the company, too. And in the meantime, if you or someone you know is an incredible engineer and leader, please send them our way. My email is jeff.bonforte@xobni.com. We are hiring!
Well done Jeff. This is the perfect response to this kind of post. I am sure you’ll be able to attract more good talent with the way you approach things.
“Gabor’s team at Xobni wish him the best and good luck in his new company” – only his team? pretty telling if you ask me. Bonforte: “no-one’s asking you”. alright mate, calm down
“I have participated in five startups, myself” – did you drive them all away with your incessant “I’ve been throught the bust of 2000 yeah? have you? no i didn’t think so, who wants some of me?”
Uh, many small companies call the entire staff “the team”. Congrats on reading way too much into an innocuous statement.
Xobni – Looks pretty, works shitty(TM)
Jeff, from Yahoo to Xobni, you have a knack for choosing sinking ships, stay the mofo away from me
“And in the meantime, if you or someone you know is an incredible engineer and leader, please send them our way. My email is jeff.bonforte@xobni.com. We are hiring!”
Yeah Jeffy I’m sending them as we speak. what are you gonna do to them this time, sodomy or more “i was in the bust 2000″. shit man, get over it
Wow, a 14 year old actually read a biography of Bill Gates?
I had read a biography of Bill Gate’s by 14 as well.
I beat both of you. I read mine when I was 11. I loved the part when he talks about using his karate skills to get his first contract for DOS.
“Why wouldn’t Cselle wait for his payday and then jump ship to start his own company?”
He probably already has the equity in company shares. He’ll get the payday no matter where in the world he is when they exit.
TL – http://techcrun...nus.notlong.com
He probably already has the equity in company shares.
He’s going to get the payday no matter where in the world he is when they exit.
http://urlsnub.com/tcbutbetter
Why? Because no one considers it a “red-hot startup” outside the TechCrunch Bubblesphere. It’s flipmeat.
Foo Manchew what happens when the startup bubblesphere bursts? is online innovation overhyped and saturated? at the end of the day is the pc computer just a pc computer?
Jason – Not everyone thinks reasonably. Also if you read Cselle’s blog post there is nothing in there about being rich.
I uninstalled that crap about a week after I tainted my Vista box with it. Not needed in this world.
What is Xobni? Never heard of it. In my days as an engineer, an engineer wasn’t someone who could program PHP/Ajax. I think this web 2.0 bubble is about to burst.
You are Trash
It seems that in your days, beeing an engineer was all about building the first car. Give us a break old man.
Its true, having a successful startup gives a lot of people crazy ideas about how easy it is to replicate.
I think someone said on here recently: “Once your lucky, twice you’re good” – sage advice.
I deleted this service as my entire company also did. Its a crummy UI and its quite slow—there are alternative solutions on the market—perhaps if their UI didnt suck we would have given them another chance. Red hot maybe—-useful–not really.
“Why wouldn’t Cselle wait for his payday and then jump ship to start his own company” — have you considered the possibility that the human spirit does not run on cash and reason alone? That it’s not implausible to leave money on the table and gamble on something new, for the sake of happiness and passion?
“Cselle likely wants his own shot at glory, and because of Xobni’s quick rise to success, members of the team may believe that launching a startup is far easier than it really is.” — Why jump to conclude that this move is egotistical and naive?
I’m also leaving my present company (in a minority shareholder, VP role) just a couple weeks after Gabor — mid-September. It’s well-funded (not a tech company so not relevant to Techcrunch) and has excellent prospects in a massive and growing industry. When I leave, I am going to be rather poor — none of my shares will have vested — and with few obvious prospects. It’s the most gut-wrenching decision I’ve ever made — I spent two years full time pouring my sweat into this thing on both sides of the world, making countless sacrifices. And business-wise, my efforts were not in vain — the business is poised to do very well… but over the past several months, I too have found myself deeply unhappy with where I am — disconnected with the energy that caused me to enter business in the first place, which was to express myself creatively _in leadership_.
If he feels trapped rather than emboldened in his current role, then all the power to him to seize back control of his life and try to make his dream work. I’m sure it hasn’t been an easy decision for him, because when it doesn’t make sense to outsiders, it probably doesn’t make sense to the rational part of *him* either. I’ve found it almost indescribably hard to leave a great team working on an exciting, successful project — especially when I know that my decision will probably not make a lot of sense to outsiders. But sometimes you have to go beyond rational economic outcomes and listen to the part of you that gives you meaning.
Better that, than become one of the countless people in the herd who have goals where their hearts used to be.
sounds like this gentleman is having a inbox breakdown. if he had so much fire in his belly he would take 2 days off and get then down to business. the internet stampede waits for no one. it may already be too late for another startup. the internet is startup community is over saturated (bubble). integration and simplicity are king. find those and you might be onto something.
“it may already be too late for another startup” wha?
yeah like there’s room for 4, maybe 5, computers in the world. Time to locate your reality, RealityLocatooor
what are you ambitions funny man.
wanna start a music site?
wanna start a video site?
wanna start a email site?
wanna start a blog site?
wanna start a social site?
wanna start a auction site?
wanna start a book site?
wanna start a gaming site?
wanna start a photo site?
wanna start a ringtone site?
wanna start a software site?
wanna start a facebook app?
wanna start a widget?
when your ready to get real ill always be here to help.
My god, WTF is your site about? You need to locate your locator, it looks like it’s malfunctioning
locatorlocator.com is for sale if you’re interested
The thing i don’t get about the Xobni team is why they have such a shit name (yeah i know it’s inbox backwards, how wacky, still shit though), nah joking, the thing i don’t get is that while they believe email clients are broken they only offer a plug-in to a broken client rather than offer a better client from the beginning.
I’ve installed it 3 times after 3 different pr’s believing their theories, but in practice it’s actually next to useless.
Offering an add-on to something they believe is broken, but not creating a new one is like standing up the horse before you flog it. Or like putting spankingly nice chrome wheels on a 10 yr old banger (yes, Outlook hasn’t changed significantly since it started)
Yeah I know Mr. Bonforte will say “yea but y try n recre8 da users wen Outlick has a maseev user bass, we can betta focus are resorsez on…” (yawn) yeah Jeff, go big or go home. Pack your bags flipboy, your product is kak, only MS would/could buy it, no biz model. Mr. Cselle saw the future and jumped before the ship sunk
Understand EtrofNob? (not nice flipping round names to look wacky, is it Ffej)
I’m sure founders just tried to screw him up, his stock or something like that. That’s the most common explanation for departure of a person in that position.
lolhead: zenbe is the only company in the email space that decided to go big but they did fit the trend in names with xobni and xoopit
jason: their interim marketing vp also recently decided not to join up fulltime. that was his stated plan all along but it is surprising they did not convince him to stay on. usually the execs are jumping the opposite direction to startups like this.
I am the above mentioned former interim VP marketing at Xobni and just wanted to post a quick response. I’ve run marketing at two startups from launch to NASDAQ IPO filing, spending 5 years at each. During that time my kids have seen a lot less of me than I would have liked. I know the commitment/sacrifices it takes to make a startup successful and I’m not prepared to do it again at this point in my life. I made that clear to the Xobni team before I started the role. I also know that the first six months are the most critical to marketing a startup. I helped Xobni through this period and continue to be engaged with Xobni on a daily basis as an advisor. I’ve never been more excited about the company’s prospects than I am right now. Xobni is solving a critical need and has an enormous base of passionate users. And the performance is consistently getting better. My blog, startup-marketing.com contains more details on the scope of my role at Xobni.
He left because he was lacking mental clarity…. look at this story I found… http://www.goth...te.blogspot.com
knucklehead, i agree wholeheartedly with your belief in excercise giving your mind clarity and your body energy, and that any time at the gym is not wasted (as some may believe) because the productivity and heightened decision making more that make up for the time in the gym.
Also, eating heathly is just as important, “the mind is more stable when there’s real food on the table” (i just made that up and I’m not giving it away on any crappy CC license either, so stick it up your arse u linux-loving foolboys)
However, knucklehead, people like you giving out advice when your own startup is clearly non-existent is like a homeless guy giving advice on nice affluent areas to live in where your kids are safe and the schools are of a high standard… HE’S NEVER BEEN THERE so just kick him in the head and be done with it. Oh, and your site is crap.
I can understand the decision. Developing a plugin for one of the worst pieces of software (Outlook) can’t be fun. And from what I read in the reviews the Xobni plugin is still rather slow and buggy (never used it myself because I don’t use Outlook anymore).
The only way to make large profit out of this company is to sell it to Microsoft. The average Joe still using Outlook will never know about Xobni and won’t need it.
I concur :p
sent from: fav.or.it [FID789598]
Hey Kincay! You’re A Joke! Don’t You Think He’ll Be able to leave and retain his founders equity? Maybe you should be re-thinking your decision as a writer before dogging successful entrepreneurs. Get lost.
@Arrington. Get some new writers.
Its very likely that MS can approach Xobni again with a better bid. MS Outlook still does not have a decent search engine. I use LookOut which has been bought by MS , only to spoil it. Lookout is an extremely useful search plugin for Outlook – the best I have used. Xobni takes up a lot of resources for its good UI . Any company MS buys has to surrender itself to Microsoft. One cannot download Lookout from the MS site anymore … one has to search for the tool. I even read somewhere that Lookout does not work with Outlook 2007. I think Google employees ( ex or present ) shall find this kind of information hard to digest.
“Xobni takes up a lot of resources for its good UI”
Well… i don’t know about that… the UI is all talk no substance. Looks pretty, works shitty (no CC on this one either, make up your own)
Xobni – Looks pretty, works shitty(TM)
@LolHead – do you realize how irritating you are. Shut it.
I don’t know why CTO left, but most of my cube drones have uninstalled xobni because it’s crushing their computer performance when installed. I like the searching capabilities, but most people won’t tolerate the degradation of performance. Seems like a pretty easy path forward for xobni to really hit the big time…
Xobni is banned at our company, too slow and buggy. It has been too slow and buggy since it was launched, and hasn’t gotten better in almost a year. Plus Gabor’s and Jeff’s egos are so big they can’t fit in the same room.
wow. i hope my next start up is high profile enough to inspire such debate (and anger, which is just plain confusing since we’re talking about a startup that makes software that hopefully makes your life better…for free…and you can uninstall it…again, for free).
xobni’s off to a great start, all startups have bumps in the road, its hard to create as much awareness as quickly as xobni has, all windows software has bugs (we are talking about windows and outlook here right?…the two biggest POS software products on earth, both of which, btw, are not free), sheesh, calm down people.
I use Lookeen instead. No “Starwars UI” but just a plain and damn fast tool. The one and only successor of Lookout in my opinion.
http://www.lookeen.com
Cheers
I think the same as Martin…I tried a few tools, but Lookeen is the one and only for me!!