Ride over for Friendster, Plaxo CEOs
CEOs of two prominent VC-backed companies in the social networking were axed recently. No? Horror! Would VCs actually do that to inexperienced CEOs?! :)
Jonathan Abrams of Friendster (formerly employed at Netscape) and Sean Parker of Plaxo (formerly co-founder of Napster) According to Matt Marshall in the San Jose Mercury News (registration required):
Over the past few weeks, VCs dropped the blade on two young entrepreneurs of local companies Friendster and Plaxo. They apparently did so for similar reasons: The companies are not making money fast enough.
...Abrams, it seems, is faring better than Parker. He apparently did not fight the guillotine, agreeing immediately with the change.
He'll remain founder at the company, working with interim Chief Executive Tim Koogle to find a full-time replacement, according to Friendster spokeswoman Lisa Kopp.