michael-cerda

Ooma creator says startup founders are "f——d"

Megan McCarthy · 11/15/07 01:24PM

Jangl CEO Michael Cerda faced down a crowd of entrepreneurs at a Stirr event in Potrero Hill, and, in an unusual moment for Silicon Valley, spoke the truth. "How many of you guys are founders?" he asked. Cerda waited a beat, looked at the raised hands, and said, "You're all fucked." Until that moment, no one had really been paying attention to the "Founder's Hacks" program, even with Twitter's Evan Williams and Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams on the stage. Stirr founder Sanford Barr had been walking around shushing people like we were naughty sixth-graders. With the crowd's attention, Cerda launched into the tale of a previous startup — and most in the audience assumed he was talking about Ooma, the VOIP gadget company he started in 2003 with George Oscar Bluth II lookalike Andrew Frame.