Requiem for the Dots: DoDots at SoftBANK

Last Updated: March 7, 2001

A trip to SoftBANK on the afternoon of March 7, 2001, brought back memories of 2000 as I visited my former colleagues at DoDots at SoftBANK Venture Capital's HotBank Startup Incubator in Mountain View. The company, however, is no longer incubating, but in the process of closing its doors forever. (Photos taken with a Canon D30 with 50 mm and 17-35 mm lenses)

SoftBANK Venture Capital

When I read the announcement on VentureWire that DoDots had finally closed its doors yesterday, I breathed a sign of relief. For a period of several weeks -- or months if you are counting back to the initial layoffs -- I was waiting for some sort of official announcement to occur. I do recall reading a small blurb in the San Jose Mercury News, but that didn't seem to gain as much traction as what came through on VentureWire. The Catch of the Day column that Rafe Needleman, writes each week added to the amount of traffic that came through my email and voicemail box. I received messages from friends and colleagues, consoling me on the passing of my former company.

I'd shed my tears for DoDots months ago. When I left the company at the end of August, I had no regrets. When I heard about the initial layoffs at the end of November, however, I felt sad because I wanted to be there for my colleagues. At that time, I feared that the end was coming near for the company. That day, at the DoDots' Christmas Comes Early party, I felt a sense of sadness and anger amongst those that were let go as well as those that remained at the company; that sentiment most likely stemmed from the swiftness of the layoffs; after all, many of the employees came into work on November 30 and found out that they were out of a job. The remaining 53 employees were left with survivor guilt, as well as the work responsibilities of those who had left.

Bryan and Jim greet

To me, the final blow to the company came in January, when nearly everybody was let go. A series of restarts prompted the return of some employees, as the company strived valiantly to sell core components and technology of the company to outside firms. When those deals fell through, the announcments from VentureWire and Red Herring came.

Today, on March 7, 2001, following a spirited physical therapy session to improve extension and motion on my recovering dislocated elbow, I drove over to SoftBANK Venture Capital's HotBank, a startup incubator. Two of my Stanford friends, Alexsandra and Edwin, are based out of HotBank, where they run their company, FileFish. I saw them a few weeks prior at the Demo 2001 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. I remember to a year ago, when we officially launched the DoDots product at the Demo 2000 conference. We garnered the Demo God awards at that conference, and the ensuing Demo Mobile conference in September, 2000. How quickly things change in less than a year!

For Edwin and Aleksandra, I bet HotBank is an excellent place from which to build their growing business. In the case of DoDots, however, HotBank is the company's final resting place. HotBank performs that function for a number of companies that became not the darlings of Wall Street, but signposts on sites such as Fucked Company or NetSlaves.

Bryan Wang

Jim Mackraz

I walked up to DoDots' section within HotBank and saw two familiar faces from the past, Jim Mackraz and Bryan Wang. Jim and Bryan, along with John and George Kembel, the two twin founders of the company, are the remaining employees of a company that once employed over 100 people. I remember being hired as the 24th employee at the company; back then, the culture and environment was exciting and energized. Although I didn't compare it at the time with other companies, I'm sure that the DoDots' culture was similar to other Internet startups in the area. We were fired up with our ambitions to change the way that the Internet is used, moving it from a browser-based paradigm to a task-based, dot-based model. As we worked toward that goal, I was fortunate to have forged some great relationships that endure to this day.

Now, fast forward to a year later, and all that's left of the culture, the environment, the history, is contained within the memories of those who lived it and within the confines of my hard drive and CD-ROMs. As the unofficial historian of DoDots, I've been lucky to have captured many of the historical moments of the company, from the highs of launching the product to the lows of seeing my former colleagues deal with receipt of the proverbial pink slip.

I learned from Bryan and Jim that the dissolution of a company is an arduous task. What was built, it appears, is not so easily taken down; both of them were learning a lot about how that "game" is played. While I found it fascinating to hear them explain about how the assets of a company are held and sold, it's not something that I ever want to experience first-hand. The exchange reminded me of something I often say to myself, "I'm glad that I know and understand this, but I wish that I didn't have to go through what I just went through to get to this point!"

George and John Kembel

When I arrived at SoftBANK, the Kembel brothers weren't there, having left the office for a late lunch. I tried waiting for them to return from their late lunch, but decided to leave about 5:00 pm to catch another appointment. As I pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards Castro Street, however, I saw John and George walking back to the office. Honking my horn, I pulled over into a nearby parking lot and stopped to speak with the two founders of DoDots for about 20 minutes. We caught up on what's been happening between the three of us since the last time we saw each other, which was at the DoDots' End Party in January. They reiterated to me that taking down the company was hard work, almost as hard as building the company in the first place. We also joked that the story of DoDots would make a great book or film one of these days. I wonder who would play the role of the Kembel brothers. I am pretty sure that I have Robin Williams chosen for the role of Tony. Deniro might be a good choice for Mackraz, but everyone else is up for grabs!

We tried to look at the bright side of DoDots' demise. We thought back to the great friendships and fun times that we all shared over the past year at the company. Those are the things worth looking back upon and smiling, not the arguments, struggles, and eventual downturns of the company. It's a small consolation prize, I would imagine, when coupled with the sad fact that the business failed, but it's a prize worth having over a chest filled with bad memories, animosity, and regrets.

On the phones	Adam reminisces	Jim ponders the future
Back together again?