I’ve talked before about Omnidrive – the dead, then reincarnated, then dead again and now in some sort of limbo – online backup application. RWW has the latest on the Omnidrive saga itself – seems there are some disgruntled ex-staff and angel investors calling for blood.
I’d like to look away from Omnidrive in isolation and see what it means for web startups in general. First a disclaimer, I’m not suggesting that we’re heading for another bubble – so what am I reading into the Omnidrive story?
Clearly we are in the midest of a constricted (and further constricting) economy. VC and angel funds are getting harder to access, for the very reason that these same funding streams have their upstream source of dollars drying up also – it’s a typical trickle down effect.
It’s similar to the SaaS/s and SaaS/v thinking I’ve articulated before. The big boys can always beat startups on price (well not always but generally) so under these conditions startups will need to be able to show (and quickly) scale, monetization and flawless execution to keep funders and staffers on side.
The diggerati get all excited arguing the usefullness or other wise of twitter, and discussing at length the different AIR add-ons to twitter and how “game-changing” they may or may not be. In a retrenched economy all that matters is providing real value to users – early, medium or late adpters though they be.
Omnidrive was never alive, it was talked alive by TC. It certainly wasnt reincarnated, it never had substantial investment in the first place.