Omnidrive投资者，正式被遗忘的客户？

Omnidrive has been one of the most troubling startup stories of the past few years. The remote consumer web storage company got off to a promising start, launching at the November 2006 Web 2.0 conference and raising at least $800,000 in seed money from angel investors. The next summer, I was so impressed by Omnidrive that I named it a must have application for those building their online office environment.

Omnidrive一直是过去几年中最令人困扰的创业故事之一。 这家远程消费者Web存储公司开始了一个充满希望的开端，该公司在2006年11月的Web 2.0会议上启动，并从天使投资人那里筹集了至少80万美元的种子资金。 第二年夏天，Omnidrive给我留下了深刻的印象，以至于我将其命名为构建其在线办公环境的必备应用程序 。

But a few months later things had taken a turn for the worse. Customers were reporting that the site was suffering intermittent downtime and support emails were going unanswered. In December 2007, about a year after Omnidrive’s launch, the support forums went down, and despite assurances from founder and CEO Nik Cubrilovic that things were back on track, the site went completely down in January. Ex-CTO Phil Morle asserted that no one was actually working at Omnidrive anymore, no one was developing a new version, and no one was supporting customers.

但是几个月后，情况变得更糟了。 客户报告该站点间歇性停机，并且支持电子邮件无法得到答复。 在Omnidrive推出大约一年后的2007年12月，支持论坛关闭，尽管创始人兼首席执行官Nik Cubrilovic保证一切恢复正常，但该网站在一月份完全关闭。 前首席技术官菲尔·莫尔(Phil Morle) 断言，实际上没有人在Omnidrive上工作，也没有人在开发新版本，也没有人在为客户提供支持。

Complaints continued to roll into my inbox about the company over the next few months, and in May the company appeared to have officially fallen off the map when the domain expired and the site was replaced by a Network Solutions parking page. Further, angel investor Clay Cook aired some dirty laundry, accusing Cubrilovic of not communicating with his investors about the demise of the company and saying he was “99% sure I will not receive a cent” of the $100,000 he had invested.

在接下来的几个月中，投诉继续进入我的邮箱，有关​​该公司的信息，并在5月该域名过期且该站点被Network Solutions停车页面取代后，该公司似乎已正式退出地图 。 此外，天使投资人克莱·库克(Clay Cook) 放了些脏衣服 ，指责库布里洛维奇(Cubrilovic)没有就公司的灭亡与他的投资者保持联系，并说他“ 99％肯定我不会得到他所投资的10万美元的一分钱”。

Again, Cubrilovic responded, emailing me to say that everything was honky dory, and the company was just cleaning up a mess left by some DNS issues. That, however, was clearly not the case.

Cubrilovic再次回应，给我发电子邮件说一切都很糟糕 ，而该公司只是清理了一些DNS问题造成的混乱。 但是，事实显然并非如此。

The Omnidrive domain name now points to a financial services company (the new owners?) and there is no trace of the service that was once so promising. Today, Clay Cook put a final nail in the Omnidrive coffin by posting on his blog that it was his “understanding that Omnidrive is no longer, and I have not heard from Nik for months, plus I believe customers have not received any word either.”

现在， Omnidrive域名指向一家金融服务公司(新所有者？)，并且找不到曾经如此有前途的服务。 今天，克莱·库克(Clay Cook) 在Omnidrive棺材上钉上了最后一个钉子 ，这是他“了解Omnidrive不再存在，而且我已经有好几个月没有收到Nik的消息，而且我相信客户也没有收到任何消息”。 ”

Cook says he is “stunned” that he has not heard from Nik at all about the status of his investment and the company as it imploded over the past year, and says the lesson for entrepreneurs is to communicate with your investors and customers. “Your investors are hear to help you, keep them informed and you have a much higher likelihood of receiving help,” he wrote.

库克说，他对自己和投资公司的状况一无所知而感到“震惊”，因为过去一年中投资破裂以及公司破裂，他说，企业家的课程是与您的投资者和客户交流。 他写道：“您的投资者会听到帮助您的信息，让他们了解情况，并且您获得帮助的可能性更大。”

The untold part of this story, is perhaps why you haven’t heard more details sooner.

这个故事不为人知的部分也许就是为什么您没有很快听到更多细节的原因。

The best positioned blog to report on the Omnidrive story happens to be the biggest web tech blog on the Internet: TechCrunch. Why? Because Nik Cubrilovic was a former TechCrunch writer, current TechCrunch employee (he pens their IT blog and is working on their tablet project), and TC founder Mike Arrington was an investor in Omnidrive. But the blog that practically invented the term “deadpool,” and loves to report on the sordid details of imploding startups (such as Amp’d) and Silicon Valley gossip (such as the ‘Team Cyprus’ video), was silent on the Omnidrive story. They seemingly wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.

报道Omnidrive故事的最佳位置的博客恰巧是Internet上最大的网络技术博客：TechCrunch。 为什么？ 因为Nik Cubrilovic是TechCrunch的前撰稿人，TechCrunch的现任员工(他写了IT博客并从事其平板电脑项目)，而TC创始人Mike Arrington是Omnidrive的投资者。 但是该博客实际上发明了“ 死侍 ” 一词 ，并且喜欢报道崩溃的初创公司( 例如Amp'd )和硅谷八卦( 例如“ Team Cyprus”视频 )的肮脏细节，但在Omnidrive上却保持沉默故事。 他们似乎不会用十英尺的杆子碰它。

The reason, as Valleywag noted in May is probably due to the relationship between Cubrilovic and Arrington. (Arrington says he stopped writing about the company as an investor, but that hasn’t stopped TechCrunch from covering other companies he invests in, such as Seesmic.) CrunchBase quietly added Omnidrive to the deadpool in September without a post on TechCrunch proper.

正如Valleywag在5月份指出的，原因可能是由于Cubrilovic和Arrington之间的关系。 (阿灵顿说，他不再写关于公司作为投资者的文章，但这并没有阻止TechCrunch涵盖他所投资的其他公司，例如Seesmic。)CrunchBase在9月悄悄地将Omnidrive添加到了死胡同中，而没有在TechCrunch上发布适当的帖子。

So will Cubrilovic appear again to reassure us that Omnidrive is still alive an kicking? We tend to doubt it at this point. And anyway, would you believe him? The lesson here is clear: as Cook advised, communication with your customers and your investors is key to the long term success of your company. Don’t leave anyone in the dark.

那么，库布里罗维奇是否会再次出现来向我们保证，Omnidrive仍然存在？ 在这一点上，我们倾向于对此表示怀疑。 而且无论如何，你会相信他吗？ 这里的教训很明确：正如库克所建议的那样，与客户和投资者进行沟通是公司长期成功的关键。 不要把任何人都放在黑暗中。

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/omnidrive-investors-customers-officially-forgotten/