GigaOM

I was wondering how long it would be before Web 2.0o was affected by the old rules.

Now, it is really beginning to look like the dotcom era, with founders forced out for VC chosen executives (at least it looks that way).

i could not agree with you more… more things change, the more they remain the same!

Which is a shame, actually. It reminds me of the marcom people that are becoming too tied into one brand or another. That’s not going to save them from being let go when things don’t go well.

But, that’s a lesson from 2000 that some weren’t around to learn.

Is Feedster experiencing hyper growth or are they stalled out? The split between Feedster and Technorati since the beginning of this year is quite stunning:

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&y=r&u=gigaom.com/&u=feedster.com

Is Feedster experiencing hyper growth or are they stalled out? The split between Feedster and Technorati since the beginning of this year is quite stunning:

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&y=r&u=technorati.com/&u=feedster.com

Hello All,

Om — thanks for the writeup. As a founder and still a major shareholder in Feedster I don’t think its appropriate for me to comment in this context.

I will be blogging, permanently, on my new (ok it old but its new again) on my Fuzzyblog at http://fuzzyblog.com/ and information will be posted there as I feel appropriate.

That said, I will take the opportunity to pimp myself here a bit: I’m back in the consulting market and if you want the kind of expertise I have to offer, let me know. Resume will be posted on http://fuzzyblog.com/ shortly.

Thanks Om.
Scott

And I created the Feedster logo. I never saw a cent from it. And then when Feedster got big they removed my link from their site of contributors. Way to say thanks.

wow! Om’s blog has an many visitors as Feedster’s ..simply amazing! :)

Hi Jason,

You have my apologies on that one. One thing that I ‘ve learned from Feedster is that as a company grows when a Founder takes “help ware” from people (such a the logo you did for us), the committments that are made (my giving you credit on the about page) sometimes become hard to maintain as responsibilities shift. I know it disappeared a few times due to this and when you contacted me I did make a good faith effort to get it back up on the page (and I succeeded several times).

Sadly I spent most of 2005 doing little but battling Blog Spam and my ability to focus on site details like that passed from my hands and other people didn’t feel the same way about things like that I did. You have my heart felt apologies for this.

Since I’m no longer with the company I can’t make an official apology but I do feel badly about this. If you wish to pursue resolution with the company then you might wish to speak with Mr. Chris Redlitz our President. I’m sure he can resolve this issue for you. His email is c redlitz @ feedster.com (eliminate the space).

Take care.
Scott

“Scott’s final papers were faxed to Feedster from the Technorati office! I spent this morning with Scott and I can tell you this was not of his will or a pleasant process.”

http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2005/12/feedster_loses.html

So does that mean that Technorati has hired Scott?

[...] Scott Johnson left Feedster recently and has something new in the works called Ookles. Feedster first came to life almost three years ago. I helped Scott name the company in an IM conversation during the Spring of 2003. filed under:  [...]

Hi,

I haven’t joined Technorati. I don’t feel that would be either ethical or fair to the investors in Feedster. However Niall is actually a pretty good friend and he and I have palled around at a lot of events such as BloggerCon, etc.

I have the utmost respect for Dave, Niall, Tantek, Kevin and the other fine folks at Technorati. When an industry grows as fast as blogs are, its not necessary to bash your competitors — you grow as a function of the market as a whole NOT by taking share away from competitors. For this reason, as well as the fact that its simply good manners, I always kept up good relations with Technorati, PubSub, Greg over at BlogDigger, etc. As a founder it was very important to me that Feedster never engage in competitor bashing (taunting a competitor on a panel is a wee bit different and after that recently happened Bob Wyman and I had drinks together).

Beyond that I really can’t comment on Niall’s post.

Scott

[...] Johnson, founder of Feedster, is now looking for a job. He’s too nice a guy (and too smart) to stay on the street for long. I wonder who’ll get him? Filed under: Blog Stuff @ 2:44 pm # [...]

The only thing to fear

As a founder, I can tell you that the incredible energy and effort that goes into starting a company represents a great personal investment. While the founders are not always the best people to grow a company after a certain point

[...] Nearly a month ago, Feedster’s Scott #2, Scott Johnson left the building. We thought, it was the last we heard of it. Today, Jeremy Zawodny went out on a limb, and predicted that Feedster will die in 2006. This prompted Chris Redlitz, President of Feedster to leave a comment: “We purged some personnel and systems, recruited new leadership (including a new VP of engineering) and acquired resources to build a much more scalable foundation for a very valuable core asset, Feedster.com.” Scott Rafer, former CEO chimes in comments in JZ’s original post. It continues…. [...]

[...] I’m an avid blog reader, as a blogger is, and recently, I noticed something interesting. What I noticed is that while Technorati seems to be getting praises and (in my personal opinion) getting better, Feedster on the other hand seems to be getting death warnings and simply degrading over time (especially since the company’s two Scotts departed). Hmm, interesting isn’t it. While Feedster’s two main folks realised that it’s time to move on and very possibly didn’t see a future ahead, the journey for Technorati is just beginning and I beat Dave Sifry is happy about this. [...]

[...] post. ++ Rafer is now at a ResourceShelf favorite resource, WINKsite and blogs here. ++ 12/2005: Scott Johnson, Feedster Co-Founder and CTO Leaves Company (via Gigaom) Johnson’s bio from 2005 is available [...]