Robert Scoble and I ran into freshly-acquired FriendFeed cofounder Paul Buchheit at a brunch on Sunday. I pulled out my trusty Android myTouch and with his permission asked him a few questions about the sale to Facebook a week ago.
Apologies for the audio quality – Powerset’s Barney Pell, BillShrink’s Peter Pham and others were chatting loudly nearby (which led to a side discussion with Pell on the exact price Microsoft paid for Powerset in 2008). A full transcript of the interview is below.
A few interesting details came out of the interview with Buchheit. First, the deal was actually signed on Sunday evening (August 9), and these pictures were in fact taken that evening, he says.
Buchheit also says that the WSJ got the price wrong, but won’t give more details.
Paul Buchheit: “The more people say about the deal, the more wrong they are. There’s a lot of inaccurate things being reported…There have been a lot of details and for some reason, the more details there are the further they get from the truth.”
On whether FriendFeed will live on as an independent product:
Michael Arrington: Back to FriendFeed, everyone’s kind of reporting to different groups. This tells me that FriendFeed’s disappearing in a year. Is it going to stay on as its own brand, its own product, can users stay secure that FriendFeed’s going to be around?
Paul Buchheit: We’re not going to switch it off or anything like that. The exact form it will take two years from now, I can’t really say, but I couldn’t really say that before (inaudible) products do evolve (inaudible) We all like the product, we all use it, and none of us want to see it disappear. We’re going to make sure it’s taken care of.
Michael Arrington: You’re not going to answer that question at all.
Robert Scoble: He promised me it would be up for at least a month. (laughs)
Paul Buchheit: It will evolve over time.
On nonexistent rumors that FriendFeed had threatened to sue Facebook over copying of features:
Michael Arrington: What about the rumors that you had threatened or had actually sued facebook, and that’s what lead to this acquisition over them stealing all of your ideas.
Paul Buchheit: No, I’ve never even heard that rumor.
Michael Arrington: I just made that up right now
Buchheit also talked about FriendFeed’s habit of inventing features before anyone else, and dealing with the copying from Twitter and Facebook. He also says that the day the deal was announced was FriendFeed’s “biggest growth day ever.”
The full transcript:
Michael Arrington This is Mike Arrington, I’m here with Paul Buchheit, Co-founder and CEO of Friend Feed, and as always Robert Scoble.
Robert Scoble: Number one user of FriendFeed.
(inaudible)
MA: How many follower people do you have on FriendFeed?
RS: 47,000
MA: 47,000. Wow, I have 0.
RS: I know, you deleted your account.
MA: Well, temporarily, but now they won’t turn it back on. So Paul, it’s been a week since the announcement, and you actually signed it about a week ago, the FriendFeed acquisition.
Paul Buchheit: Yeah, Sunday night.
MA: Now you guys haven’t commented on the purchase price but the Wall St. Journal came out and said 50. Without commenting specifically on the numbers, was that incorrect? I’ve got an indication there was something wrong with that.
PB: Yeah, I obviously can’t really comment on the details. The more people say about the deal, the more wrong they are. There’s a lot of inaccurate things being reported.
MA: Is it materially inaccurate? The number was significantly different?
PB: I don’t want to comment on that. There have been a lot of details and for some reason, the more details there are the further they get from the truth.
MA: This is something I asked you guys about the other night, you guys are all reporting into products or into engineering Mike, what’s the deal…
MA: (turns to Barney Pell) How much did Powerset really sell for?
Barney Pell: God, I mean it sold for…I didn’t buy a car, put it that way.
MA: It was 100 million, 85 million?
BP: I don’t remember (laughter)
RS: That’s called entrepreneur PR 101, “I don’t remember”
MA: Back to FriendFeed, everyone’s kind of reporting to different groups. This tells me that FriendFeed’s disappearing in a year. Is it going to stay on as its own brand, its own product, can users stay secure that FriendFeed’s going to be around?
PB: (inaudible)…We’re not going to switch it off or anything like that. The exact form it will take two years from now, I can’t really say, but I couldn’t really say that before (inaudible) products do evolve (inaudible) We all like the product, we all use it, and none of us want to see it disappear. We’re going to make sure it’s taken care of.
MA: You’re not going to answer that question at all.
RS: He promised me it would be up for at least a month. (laughs)
PB: It will evolve over time.
MA: What about the rumors that you had threatened or had actually sued facebook, and that’s what lead to this acquisition over them stealing all of your ideas.
PB: No, I’ve never even heard that rumor.
MA: I just made that up right now.
RS: The new journalism, make shit up as you ask the founder about it.
PB: I actually like when people copy my ideas because I just like to see things out there. I mean, to me…
MA: Well you say that now after you got bought, but you weren’t saying that in January, were you?
PB: Yeah I like to see my ideas. That’s part of what makes this whole thing fun is that we’ve been able to have some impact. And obviously I want wherever I’m working on to be successful, and I also like that the things we do have a broader effect…(inaudible) One of the things I thought was great about email was not only did we make this really great email product for the many millions of people who were using it, but we also impacted the community through everyone else in the world who uses email (inaudible) crazy expectations Yahoo had encountered by rewriting their whole thing, and giving people much more storage.
RS: Were you always bugged when I came in the office and said, “you’re the facebook R&D department?”
PB: Yeah, we just make things first, it’s just a fact.
RS: So are you now the official R&D department?
PB: We’re part of it (inaudible) I don’t think there’s an official department, it’s all of engineering.
MA: What was usage growth last week when the announcement came?
PB: It was pretty good.
MA: Your best day ever right?
PB: The biggest growth day ever.
RS: How come Demi Moore joined, right after
PB: I don’t know, I’ll ask her next time.
(inaudible)
MA: So were there other potential acquirers, were you talking to others or was this really Facebook …
PB: We had interest from pretty much everyone for quite a while.
MA: Even Twitter?
PB: I don’t want to be specific about anything, all the companies involved have confidentiality…
RS: Is there something you wish you had done differently (inaudible)
PB: That’s a really interesting question…nothing comes to mind but with reflection, I’m sure I can think of something.
MA: How long before you leave and start your next thing?
PB: Hopefully not for a long time.
MA: Till you vest? (laughter)
PB: No but seriously, part of what makes it really exciting is because facebook is at this really interesting point in history. It’s at this point where it’s almost inevitably (inaudible) successful…(inaudible) that’s pretty exciting.
MA: So you won the top most promising startup of 2008 at the Crunchies earlier this year. Do you think that was the main driver of the acquisition?
PB: (laughs) I have to assume it was…the gorilla was in the term sheet in fact.
MA: Oh really?
PB: No (laughs)
MA: Alright, I’ll let you go back to the party, thanks very much.
Anybody want to exchange Google Wave developper sandbox contactdetails? Not have many active contacts in the sandbox, it’s hard to test the features that will replace the whole web.
As for ff cashing out millions at facebook. Good for them, mission accomplished. They sold out just in time before Google Wave rendering all real-time social microblogging networks worthless.
google wave is not going to replace anything, a small amount of users may use it, the extreme tech.. if you can call social networking tech, bunch may
you think thats a majority? farrr from it
Everyone using email, IM, forums, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and word, all these people are going to use Wave instead. Basically Wave is going to replace the whole Internet. That’s quite a few people.
Would you mind telling me when I will die, seeing that you are so great at predicting what will happen in the future?
Beware next Thursday Juane.
Beware puddles, pianos, and fast cars.
Why did FB buy FriendFeed? Because they are building an email system and wanted Buchheit who built Gmail.
FB Email, really? (1) yes, huge, sticky traffic driver (2) They need to answer MySpace’s email move (3) its also why FB started doing usernames, ‘vanity’ names. Bbecause it will become your email address @facebook.com.
Man, I hope I’m never in a movie theater watching a comedy with Robert Scoble! I like the guy, but damn is his laugh like a audio black hole or what?
hahaha way to cut scoble off.. I would to
i was hoping someone would notice that…
You should have punched him out
He’s so damn annoying.
whatever.
definitely
that dude invented gmail — i would actually wear a t-shirt with his mug on it. dude is a TECH GAWWWWD!
gmail, man. gmail.
holy shit mike, get rid of that POS htc phone. 3gs ftw
Wow. Your comment reeks of idiot. That crappy video was shot on his myTouch… do you even bother reading the post, or simply feel obliged to spew your fanboy nonsense?
Sent from my iPhone
you do know that myTouch = HTC magic?
Karma mate. Never forget that when you are pointing at someone and calling him an idiot, there are four fingers pointing back at you.
Wouldn’t it be 3 fingers?
lol
fail comment
Android myTouch picture sucks. get an iPhone, Mike
Scoble flashing gang signs at the beginning. Nice touch.
Amazed you had the self-control to wait this long before posting this.
Paul acts like a straight up boss.
Fun game. Read the full transcript a 2nd time and replace ‘(inaudible)’ with a swear word. Hilarity.
bumping into people with the android at hand… – thats rockett journalism…
You can kind of expect to “bump into people” willing to do an interview when you go to a founder’s brunch.
So I’m pretty surprised Mike wasn’t better prepared in regard to equipment.
Was there a “no cams allowed” policy? Press/media obviously was allowed, else they wouldn’t have let RS and MA in.
A pity the audio quality isn’t better. I can hardly understand anything of the interview.
Mike, please use better equipment next time (decent cam with decent mic).
I mean, as a journalist, you don’t go to a founder’s brunch for the croissants, right? So, TC, please get Mike decent video equipment to take with.
of course. in the future i’ll travel with a full camera and makeup crew.
and don’t forget the hairstylist Mike..
Next time simply slip this into your shirt pocket. Zoom Q3. It shoots SD video with audio capabilities of the acclaimed Zoom H4n professional audio recorder.
You’re welcome Mike..
well, I don’t know whether there are any miniature makeup crews (I didn’t complain about the makeup, BTW), but I know for sure that there are “full cameras” i.e. HD 1080p on the market that fit into your pocket (for some hundred bucks).
No offense, just a hint.