[iloveponies]

Personal opinions of said founder aside, all three were bringing arguably trivial products to market where there already was a large presence of two or more players dominating (Twitter/Facebook/status.net for Pownce, HipChat/Campfire for Grove) and with a lack of game-changing innovation to separate them.

Makes less sense to blame the people, rather than lay blame to what they did (or did not) do.

[dsl]

> bringing arguably trivial products to market ... with a lack of game-changing innovation to separate them.

It sounds to me like you are judging the founder. Not that I would disagree with you.

Don't get me wrong, I think Leah is awesome. She just builds up companies for soft landings/aquihires and pockets some money along the way. There is no reason a viable company couldn't exist on the grove model.