Riya Sets an Independent Course

Munjal Shah, Scoble, and Michael Arrington have been busy tonight making clear that if there had been discussions with Google, it has not culminated in a deal.  Munjal makes pretty clear that the company plans to launch its technology at Demo Feb. 6-8. Robert also disclosed that Microsoft had also talked with Riya, and had some comparable technology cloistered somewhere in the back room that may have caused Redmond to adopt a Not Invented Here (NIH) attitude.

I may be the only one who thinks that maybe the way it came out is not such a bad thing for Riya.  Okay, the founders would have done quite well at an early phase.  As a consultant, I stood to receive a nice little taste myself.  But there are some advantages to going it alone. It allows the exploration of other options down the line. In this post-bubble era, three companies have emerged to represent the Big Three.  And if every Web 2.0 startup has the same exit strategy, then all the controls are in the hands of these three companies.

The concept of going it alone, building customer and revenue bases, maybe turning a few quarters of profit then going public seems all but forgotten.  This at a time, when everywhere I turn, there are these really brilliant, really promising young companies.  Who would be so brash as to consider such a crazy concept?  Well, Google comes to mind. They were the last dotcom company.  They were just another Internet search company.  And look what happened. Going public has its benefits.

I'm not saying that's Riya's destiny.  I am saying they have some of the most remarkable technology I've seen. They solve a problem that millions and millions of people know they have. It's been a while since I've been able to help a company build something. There's an urgency about it that I love.

Why such an urgency?  Because if Google an Microsoft chose not to buy Riya, somewhere in the bellies of those companies are some developers who think they can do better on their own. Maybe they can.  but Riya has a head start and a small company with a head start on popular, complicated technology is more disruptive than bloated incumbents realize.  That point is at the core of the tech industry's history.

I think Riya has a very valuable headstart. They have a brilliant, focused team.  Building a company from zero to greatness is hard work.  You are always pushing rocks up the hill.

It's also the most glorious experience.

The next step in Riya's story Will take place on the Dais of Demo, where the Palm OS and so many other disruptive products started. They get six minutes to tell their story to 750 of the world's most passionate and knowledgeable technology players.

I have high confidence they will emerge a more valuable company from the experience.

Comments

[Tim Malbon]

Riya is an amazing service. I got more photos into it and tagged within 12 hours than I had managed to get into Flickr in over a year. I'm not sure I'll use it for everything - I think I'll continue to use Flickr for artier photo-sharing - but as a genuinely useful and increasingly clever directory of friends this is amazing.