Comments on: eSnips: A Story of Hearthache (For Its Founders, Investors & Employees)

By: Elliot Cohen

Elliot Cohen — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:12:29 +0000

I disagree with the divorce being a major part of the problem. I am sure it was uncomfortable for all involved, but its not much different then the CEO and CTO having a brutal falling out.

If the divorce had happened at an early stage – it would have killed the company – but with 10M users out there unaware of any cracks in the marriage, that was just not the reason.

I am glad you pointed out shopping.com. I am of the firm belief that it is Israel’s #1 internet success story.

Nahum created a site that was innovative, yet attractive to the average user. The company navigated through a dense field of competitors to win. Shopping.com provided real value to its users and a solid business model to its investors. And 10 years later it still does.

And, shopping.com experienced severe troubles during the bubble days and survived. I would have to speculate that the loss of 100+ employees is worse then the CTO and CEO splitting up.

And the most amazing thing about shopping.com’s success was that it was in a field that Israel knew (and still knows) little about.

Why am I writing so much? I have no connection to either eSnips or shopping.com, but I am the CEO of TripCart.com, a travel planning startup based in Israel.

And I am one of the few internet start-ups in Israel that has adopted the shopping.com mindset. We do not aim to build another widget or application that only a small subset of the population would use. Or that would not have a viable business model. But to build a site that will simply help 100M+ people plan their trips. Not eyeballs, people actually doing something.

For a taste:
http://www.trip...ided-Tours.aspx

By: kodaq2001

kodaq2001 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:43:35 +0000

great article. i like esnips cause it lets me share my music with the world, unlike zshare where only some people can see it. i hope everything works out.

By: Marko

Marko — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:21:07 +0000

Yeah great, i guess it is the deal of the millenium too, CEO was valuing the business over $20,000,000 sometime in 2008 and now they worth $750,000 ? i guess the rest is black non taxable, less risky in volatile Isreal money

Marko

By: shjasonli

shjasonli — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:43:48 +0000

thank you for your great post =)

Create or join a crunchie’s chat group at http://groups.im/

By: Stu

Stu — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:16:56 +0000

All i’m gonna say is “bargain of the century” for $750K how the hell it got sold for the that cheap is incredible………

By: John

John — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:14:00 +0000

I don’t know why techcrunch cover so much esnips and forget all other ?

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:27:48 +0000

Can’t say I’m surprised it all went west – eSnips progenitor product Net Snippets was sloppily programmed and never properly maintained, and was eventually discontinued leaving its users high & dry. I didn’t expect much more from eSnips.

By: JHendrix II

JHendrix II — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:45:23 +0000

agreed.

By: Crucifire

Crucifire — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:24:24 +0000

Great story and very well written…

By: AppBeacon

AppBeacon — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:03:19 +0000

Hearthache in the Title?

By: biscuits

biscuits — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:37:02 +0000

I agree, Erick could do with some writing tips.

By: Arnon

Arnon — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:30:31 +0000

What about the role of the VCs in this? Why did they let it get to that point? Also VCs should have warned the company of the EMI situation – that is where an experienced board is important.

By: TCCritic

TCCritic — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:26:31 +0000

Roi
Great article. I thought it was idiotic at the beginning but once I started reading it was interesting. Maybe you can teach Erick something.

Now to my point. Why the hell would I use eSnips that gives 5GB if I can get 25GB free with the Windows Live services (and 5GB with Live Mesh)?

Yeah I know that’s cheap advertising to a Microsoft service but really now, is there any reason for anyone aside from Google-lovers not to use Windows Live and Live Mesh over that?

Lastly, happy 2009 and may peace finally come to Israel soon, God Willing.

By: Anti Wiz

Anti Wiz — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:17:36 +0000

How is this different than other start-ups that fail because of bad chemistry between the co-founders? As an employee, I could care less if the founders are married, what I care about is that they get along and focus on moving the company forward.

By: ziaahmad

ziaahmad — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:02:25 +0000

DRAAAAaaaaaaama!!

nah.. that was a very cool article.. i especially like the title ” episode I ” and ” episode II” etc…

its kind of like star wars.. but you know.. not as nerdy…

By: Shafqat

Shafqat — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:31:04 +0000

They still get 9M uniques a month? How is this unsuccessful? That’s a boatload of traffic that a new home should be able to monetize and grow. Still time for a silver lining.

By: arif

arif — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:26:36 +0000

>>One thing cannot be argued though… Many of eSnips’ users are loyal and have stuck around through the company’s rollercoaster ride.<<

There is no reason to. The “storage” hook by Microsoft live was good enough for me to move my stuff out of esnips. I’ll tolerate the MSN banner over the Ads junk of esnips (when I’m using IE).

By: EH

EH — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:57:30 +0000

eSnips a social network? Are you joking?

I’m sure their press releases touted such features, but here in the real world they were always just a crappy YouSendIt and zshare dropbox clone.

By: Jeremy Eisen

Jeremy Eisen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:54:19 +0000

The writer of this post could become a great paparazzi! but honestly a lot of text for little take away…

By: alon

alon — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:07:04 +0000

very true, when i started working in such a company i didn’t pay attention to this issue, but today i see it very clearly – if you are not part of the family – you are second rate employee

By: Screen Sleuth

Screen Sleuth — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:02:32 +0000

Well written article. Yes, this is my rule #6 for business: NEVER go into business with your “significant other”. It doesn’t mix well, and usually it takes a toll on both the relationship and the company.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:01:14 +0000

I was sure from the title you were going to place it in the dead pool. It’s a great service and I hope it works out under the Logia Group’s control.

By: Roi Carthy

Roi Carthy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:59:47 +0000

Thank you! I’ve been writing here for a while… You can find my posts here: http://www.tech...com/author/roi/

By: surfjunkie

surfjunkie — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:58:20 +0000

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By: Zhid

Zhid — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:57:24 +0000

Surely you mean if its under the Gaza Strip its RIP?