WayIn is a new startup being developed by Sun Microsystems’ co-founder Scott McNealy. But so far, the tech industry titan is going about the company’s launch in a slightly unexpected way: entirely over Twitter.
Here are the facts: WayIn was registered as a limited liability corporation in Burlingame, Calif. by former Sun executive Damien Eastwood in Feb. 2011. McNealy started dropping hints about his involvement in WayIn on his Twitter feed in late April. And on June 7, WayIn filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a $6.39 million capital raise. According to both sets of filings, the company’s legal counsel is Silicon Valley heavyweight Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Beyond those regulatory documents, however, information about WayIn has been hard to come by. Visitors to WayIn’s website are told the company is “being quiet for now” and are advised to follow McNealy and WayIn on Twitter for updates on the upcoming launch. This week, McNealy finally gave in to what he said were “lots of great questions” about WayIn and Tweeted plans to hold “a live Twitter Q&A” at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday morning.
McNealy disclosed a few more interesting facts about WayIn during the virtual press conference of sorts:
- WayIn is headquartered in Denver, Colo.:
We can outline Wayin this summer. Need more Colorado engineers fast. The service is well spec-ed, just need to implement.—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- Reasons why the company won’t be based in California are forthcoming:
Because the CEO, Tom Jessiman, lives here. Top 10 reasons why CO over CA are coming soon…—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- Overall, WayIn has a pretty ambitious mission statement:
We're gonna kick butt (make $) & have fun, but w/ a cause to leave planet better off than we found it, try not to do evil, but no promises.—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- WayIn will have a focus on the education market:
Wayin has education angle, but much broader in scope. Teachers will use this.—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- But not solely on education:
It's broader than education. I like that Wayin is a really big and general idea.—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- The company’s products will be targeted to enterprise customers:
We will be selling to enterprises. We will need mission-critical enterprise support. Must be lots of great ex-SunService execs out there.—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- WayIn is definitely in hiring mode:
Looking to hire Amazon web services, iPhone developers, Objective-C, Java, REST API, SDK, Big Data, user interface, Android, data viz—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
@Maguainc Yes, absolutely opportunities for your skill set at Wayin. Send your resume to jobs@wayin.com (http://t.co/pCYvm8D)—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
- And it’s probably safe to say that Larry Ellison isn’t on WayIn’s board:
@luillopr Honestly, Larry hasn't called in a year and a half. He must be busy righting his sailboat in the San Francisco Bay.—
Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) June 15, 2011
If you have any thoughts on WayIn’s focus– or Scott McNealy’s social media-centric launch strategy– we’d love to hear them in the comments.
Image of Scott McNealy courtesy of Flickr user Yuichi Sakuraba.
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