On my way out, I overhear one of the more senior partners ask Rose if he would green-light the investment if it were his money. "They've nailed the market," Rose responds. "The question is whether they can build the sort of site it would take and whether they have the right people in the company. I don't know how to answer that." This, coming from an adviser to the company, is not the ideal last word on the matter.
Word would come in to Cramer within a week that North Bridge and Commonwealth were passing. Within the next two weeks every VC contacted by Cramer in a new round of pitches would follow suit.
Jun 22, 2007
Bruegger's Bagels, Weston, Mass.
It is hard to reconcile the tentative Bob Cramer sitting in front of me with the on-top-of-the-world fellow I met eight months ago. As he speaks, I think of one of those flickery, translucent Star Wars holographic projections sent from light-years away.
He seems to read me. "I was cocky back at the beginning, wasn't I?" he says. "I was telling people not to call me. I thought I could be picky about opportunities."
Not anymore. He tells me he's going to send out a barrage of e-mails to all his contacts. "I'm telling them that I'm ready and anxious to do something," he says. "I won't mention Nimbit. Or I'll say, 'I just finished a project.' I'll send it to executive recruiters, too. Even though I'm the one usually hiring them."
The sky has been darkening, and it starts to rain heavily. Cramer stares out meditatively at the downpour for a moment before suddenly remembering he has left the top down on his car. He bolts out the door. When he returns he's soaked.
Sitting down again, he reboots into what has become a sort of litany of second-guessing himself about Nimbit. "It would have really helped to take the reins earlier," he says. "We could have hit the proof points earlier. Maybe. Who knows?"
Nimbit, as it turns out, is not dead. Another $250,000 scraped together from the angels has left it on life support, its 20 employees cut down to 12. Cramer has tried to negotiate a partnership with a CD production company that would have brought in some money, but the deal is taking longer than expected. Antoniades is gigging again to make ends meet.
"I had envisioned Nimbit as great fun," Cramer says. "But the fun never materialized. One of the things that has come out of all this is that it's better to build a great company in an unexciting industry than to end up struggling in an interesting industry. You might think the data-storage market would be boring. But what's exciting isn't the type of market you're in; it's putting together a new strategy, a new business model."
Besides, he adds, it's not as if he's turning his back on his artistic side. "I still have my music studio in my home," he says.
August 16, 2007
Starbucks, Wayland, Mass.
Cramer is engrossed in Treo messages when I arrive. He seems relaxed and energized.
He recounts how he recently considered taking the CEO job at a database company with big potential. But the second round of interviews spilled into a scheduled family vacation, and he refused to change his plans. When he returned, he learned the company had gone with someone else. He was a little surprised and disappointed but felt he had made the right decision. After all, he was just following another of his rules: "Never regret doing a family thing over a business thing," he says.
Besides, he can afford to pass on that opportunity, given that so many others are coming his way. He ticks off a list of suitors: a computer security company, a data-storage company, and, particularly intriguing, a company building a cutting-edge data-messaging device. Meanwhile, he has been spending two days a week as temporary CEO of a disaster recovery company. "The VC begged me," he says. If it doesn't work out with any of these companies, he may have a different sort of position open in which to bide his time: A venture capital firm is talking about making him a partner in charge of nurturing some of its prospects.
Still, Cramer notes that he is not going to turn up his nose at any offers that look promising. "I didn't jump at anything last year, and if I don't jump this time, people might not listen to me the next time I tell them I'm looking," he says. He also has a less Cramer-centric view of the Nimbit adventure. "I was incorrect to feel that just because I was behind a project, it was going to get funded by top VCs," he says. "I still feel to some degree we would have had a better shot at it if it had been my show from the start, but it wouldn't have guaranteed we'd raise the money."
He talks for a minute about how Nimbit is making real progress in building audience and gaining partners and buzz, in spite of the tight budgets. "I fell in love with that company," he suddenly says, as if it is an explanation of everything that has happened to him over the past nine months, as well as a declaration that it is behind him now, a sort of passing madness. Then he adds, "If I was available, I wouldn't rule out my coming back as Nimbit CEO."
