Check your inboxes – there might be an address and job description change on Konstantin Guericke’s profile page. The co-founder of LinkedIn (and VP of marketing) has left the professional social network to take the helm at Jaxtr, a Palo Alto-based start-up, that has developed a widget that allows you to make and receive phone calls, and can be embedded in your MySpace home page or on your blog. The startup launched its service in private beta today.
The service provides local phone numbers that allow callers to eliminate expensive international long distance charges from any of 29 national markets in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Initial countries range from United States to most of Western Europe to Brazil, Chile and Mexico and Japan and Singapore.
We will get to Jaxtr later, but Guericke’s exit shows that LinkedIn might have reached a point of maturity, where the early start-up adrenaline rush is replaced by more sedate practicality. LinkedIn has told us it is profitable and will hit $100 million in revenues by 2008. LinkedIn made its debut in 2002, raised nearly $15 million in VC funding from Sequoia Capital and Greylock, and since then has grown to eight million members. See this recent profile in Business 2.0.
Jaxtr review, to follow, after a few cups of coffee! Photo courtesy of LinkedIn
This has nothing to do with Linked In’s success or lack thereof. Outside of doing alot of press, Konstantin wasn’t a productive, contributing member of the team for quite some time.
This is a great move for Konstantin and should in no way say anything about Linked In. It’s a natural transition of someone who wasn’t a great fit.
VanillaChin (great nick name by the way),
i did not say that it had anything to do with LinkedIn as a company. It is a big company now and KG perhaps felt he needed to move on, do something more exciting etc etc. nevertheless it is a big enough bit of news, and hopefully he and linkedin both continue to do well.
VanillaChin,
Konstantin is an invaluable part of the LinkedIn team and is still serving as an advisor to the company. I am personally very grateful for, (and in awe of), the work that he’s done for LinkedIn. He’s set up a great foundation for our success and deserves nothing but kudos and well wishes.
-Kay
All I’m saying is that Konstantin leaving doesn’t mean that Linked In is in trouble. Om, I thought the headline suggested an attempt at controversy that just isn’t there.
Kay, I’m sure you’ll miss Konstantin. We all wish him the best of luck at the new company.
Normally, I would not comment on a post like this, since pseudonymous slander can just go on and on.
In addition to press (which by the way, lots of great press is valuable), Konstantin has been instrumental in architecting our international efforts (which is one of our big plans for next year), hiring some key new folks (including Kay), and generating some good analytics and targets for future strategy.
In shifting to Jaxtr, there’s a difference between a VP job and a CEO job. (This should be obvious to everyone.) Further, Konstantin and I agreed that he will stay as an advisor: every advisor of Linkedin is, in fact, a real advisor. I supported Konstantin in his shift since he has contributed substantially, including preparing our next year’s entry into Europe and Asia.
(And, Linkedin is doing quite well. There will be some news on this next year.)
Happy holidays to everyone!
how can I get involved with JAXTR?
There is really nothing innovatove about what jaxtr is doing. A few months ago we experimented with a free voice widget and we have even offered a free trial on “click to call” for ebay sellers (years in advance of skype acq by ebay) and there is a big mismatch in many cases. Taking calls is much too invasive for many, many folks on the net. Funny thing here is that we pitched some folks long ago at linkedIN about click to call for that environment. Perhaps now they may do it with jaxtr? Not going to atricualate on the direction these services are going as I have way to much insight having operated in this area for some time. Needless to say, this is not a capital intensive space, and much of the innovation has been sorted out already. The dating sites will have a use, many have experimented already (match.com a few versions related to voice). The services and applications related to voice are going to be an interesting vertical to keep your eye on. So much can be done, this is likely what attracted KG to the space.
-dc