Comments on: Founders At Work: Uncovering The Truth Behind A Hotmail Founder’s Claims

By: The British are coming : SupaFeed

The British are coming : SupaFeed — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:23:04 +0000

[...] copy of the book Founders At Work – a generous, if slightly odd, gift given that it was recently revealed that the section on Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia was complete bollocks. The icing on the cake [...]

By: Abhishek Shrestha

Abhishek Shrestha — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:36:26 +0000

i am a nepali.

By: me

me — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:51:13 +0000

Lol.

By: Affärssmart.se » Bokrecension - Founders at work

Affärssmart.se » Bokrecension - Founders at work — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:24:55 +0000

[...] grundare Sabeer Bhatia inte har berättat hela sanningen när han redogjorde för hotmails tidigare historia i boken Founders at Work. Vem som har rätt och fel i detta fallet är för mig av mindre betydelse, även om det såklart [...]

By: John Q.

John Q. — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:19:30 +0000

Hello,

I am an entrepreneur and was just about to send DFJ my business plan.

I will now refrain from sending it to them, until they come forward with an official statement about the truth.

I don’t want them to claim they have invented what in fact I have created.

There are plenty of other VCs on Sandhill Road who can look at my plan.

John Q.

By: FireBrand

FireBrand — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:21:34 +0000

You know. Someone should do an idea graph. ie; like that silly connection graph widget. But with who wrote down what or said what first and influenced whom.

Wouldn’t surprise me if Tim had conversations with Marty and it got mentioned.

My point is that ideas are dime a dozen and who implements them not who says what should get the credit for DOING it, not for “coming up with it first”. Maybe I am arguing a small point. But I think you and I agree. Success is the measure. Not who said what first.

My point is that every idea out there, with VERY few exceptions, has already been thought of written about etc… That the only REAL credit anyone can take is WHO implements. In this case Tim may have force them to implement it, but they did the work. And their blood and sweat went into it. He just saw value, and was willing to toss dollars at it. That’s talent in and of itself. But don’t confuse money and insight with creativity. That still goes to the guys who sat their butts down and created hotmail…

Though I still believe that MicroSoft WAY over paid for what was supposedly 300K users at the time. I know I personally accounted for 7 of those users, how many other individuals accounted for multiple users? The real total number of users in my opinion was closer to 50K…. So they paid 300M for 50K users. PLEASE oh PLEASE bring those wild and woolly days back. Now you would be lucky to get 1M for 1M users on a site.

Wake up and Smell the Coffee…

By: FireBrand

FireBrand — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:14:06 +0000

Actually Google wasn’t around in either instance, Tim’s or Marty’s…

So the fact that the first real flight was made somewhere other than in the US shouldn’t count?

Anyway, wasn’t arguing about who should get what, but I wasn’t the one originating that argument. This whole article and the book are responsible for that. So give them credit for that. Not me.

Enjoy… Oh..

Wake up and Smell the Coffee.

By: FireBrand

FireBrand — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Agreed.

By: john

john — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:18:09 +0000

Make it 0.0005%

By: some dummy

some dummy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:04:23 +0000

interesting for about .5% of the population

By: Ben Fremer

Ben Fremer — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:50:21 +0000

I think DFJ needs to come out and at least state a denial. Showing whatever evidence there is would also help.

Really, after reading this before, DFJ was largely blacklisted as a VC source in my mind after reading that chapter, and probably still will be a bit unless something more tangible comes out.

By: The Truth Behind A Hotmail Founder’s Claims | Zuricka

The Truth Behind A Hotmail Founder’s Claims | Zuricka — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:37:49 +0000

[...] TechCrunch Share This Leave a Reply Visited 1 times | Tags: Entrepreneurship, [...]

By: Jac

Jac — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:05:17 +0000

I think it is very shallow of the author to bring this up after so long just to get some pr. I have read the book and it does not give Draper any bad name, which she is trying to portray now.

By: Roshan Shrestha

Roshan Shrestha — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:12:03 +0000

You can read the book on google books:

http://books.go...result#PPT51,M1

The whole chapter on Levchin and Bhatia are there in their entirety, probably others too.

By: eric

eric — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:11:36 +0000

***eyebrows shooting up***

By: James Sith

James Sith — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:45:56 +0000

If something doesn’t take off then it is not by definition viral. So they can’t make any claims to have invented “viral” email. Maybe they can claim to have invented some sort of hosted email but that is the extent of it.

By: noob

noob — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:33:56 +0000

Damn man… now I have coffee all over my keyboard

By: Robin Wolaner

Robin Wolaner — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:36:58 +0000

Agree – that chapter was compelling – I know from writing a book and interviewing CEOs that most give you pablum. The part about putting the link into email was not as interesting. It was surprising to read such virtiol about a venture capital firm’s behavior, from a successful deal outcome. Kudos to the author for setting the record straight, even 2 years late.

By: Danny Kainth

Danny Kainth — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:18:13 +0000

Not read the book yet but looking forward to the bhatia chapter if ANY good!

By: jamboree

jamboree — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:40:16 +0000

“had the idea of putting links to a mail service call NetShark way back in 91-92.”

Yeah but they didn’t go anywhere did they? Who cares if they came up with it. I’m sure when Tim Draper suggested it, Tim didn’t go searching for “how to make email viral” on Google and come up with that reference.

It was his insistence on the idea that made Hotmail viral hence Tim Draper should get the credit.

By: Founders At Work: Gekauft, gelesen, korrigiert. - wir.sind.wernigero.de

Founders At Work: Gekauft, gelesen, korrigiert. - wir.sind.wernigero.de — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:28:28 +0000

[...] Weiterlesen bei Techcrunch [...]

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:49:54 +0000

Consider the scenario that it transpired just as Bhatia said it did. But not that Livinston is with Y Combinator having bad blood with VCs is not in her best interest. Hence the ‘correction’ without any supporting evidence.

*I did read the book and it is excellent. Very inspirational and informative book. Great read!

By: Sabeer Bhatia Caught in HotLie? | The Minority Report

Sabeer Bhatia Caught in HotLie? | The Minority Report — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:02:28 +0000

[...] Founders At Work: Uncovering The Truth Behind A Hotmail Founder’s Claims [...]

By: Vijay

Vijay — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:39:16 +0000

Who gets the right to typecast here.

By: valencio

valencio — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:33:25 +0000

Excellent Read .. !

Valencio
http://www.ePostMailer.com