Are All The New CEO Changes A Sign Of VCs Getting Impatient?

Dan Rayburn | Thursday October 25, 2007 | 12:01 AM | Comments (1)

In the past three quarters, at least 27 vendors in the industry have had changes at the CEO level. While there are always changes in executive management, I don’t recall there being that many new CEOs in such a short period of time in our industry. It begs the question, are VCs getting impatient and demanding a quicker return on their investment? Or are they starting to really see the opportunity and bringing in those who have experience in growing companies larger and faster?

It’s hard to know which one it may be, and it could be a combination of both. But this many new CEOs in such a short period of time does suggest that while the VC money still flows, some VCs are getting impatient. Probably too many of them are still hoping, or I should say expecting, a valuation that will not happen. My fear is that many companies are raising too much money too fast, forcing VCs to set expectations they may not be able to meet in 24 months.

We’ve seen the changes at the top from companies who’s services are wide ranging. Delivery providers, hardware vendors, software companies, publishers and content companies. Below were the ones I could think of off the top of my head and I know there are a whole bunch more I am missing.

  • BitTorrent: New CEO, Douglas Walker
  • The FeedRoom: New CEO, Mark Portu
  • Media Publisher: New CEO, Ray Hood
  • Interactive Video Technologies (IVT): New CEO, Phillip Whalen
  • Anystream: New CEO, Fred Singer
  • JumpTV: New CEO, Jordan Banks
  • Cache Logic: New CEO, Phill Robinson
  • Revision3: New CEO, Jim Louderback
  • MobiTV: New CEO, Charlie Nooney
  • EveryZing: New CEO, Tom Wilde
  • HuffingtonPost: New CEO, Betsy Morgan
  • Dabble: New CEO, Kai Mildenberger
  • Topix: New CEO, Chris Tolles
  • Joost: New CEO, Mike Volpi
  • Vudu: New CEO, Mark Jung
  • PodTech: New CEO, James McCormick
  • Revver: New CEO, Kevin Wells
  • RGB Networks: New CEO, Jef Graham
  • Akimbo: New CEO, Thomas Frank
  • Metacafe: New CEO, Erick Hachenburg
  • Podbridge: New CEO, Brian Steel
  • USA Video Corp: New CEO, Frank Bowden
  • ValueClick: New CEO, Tom Vadnais
  • Veoh: New CEO, Steve Mitgang
  • muvee: New CEO, Terence Swee
  • VBrick: Nee CEO, Vince Graziani
  • Babelgum: New CEO, Valerio Zingarelli

Only time will tell what the success rate of the new CEOs will be, but they have to be under more pressure than ever now by investors as the media and everyone else hails next year as the second coming of video.

Filed in Executives & Jobs, Online Video Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)