Jaxtr
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Jaxtr was a Palo Alto internet telephony startup founded in 2005 by Touraj Parang and Philip Mobin, later led by CEO Konstantin Guericke (a co-founder of LinkedIn). Its VoIP service let users of social networks like MySpace and Facebook make free voice calls from their phones — embedding 'phone me' widgets on blogs and pages — and connect with strangers on café jaxtr, a talk network where users listed interests and things they liked to discuss. Backed by $21.5 million from DFJ, Mayfield, August Capital and Lehman Brothers, it attracted over ten million users; it was acquired by SabSe Technologies in June 2009.
02 / Jaxtr FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
Co-founder Touraj Parang wrote that by Jan 2009 Jaxtr had only six months of runway, VC funding dried up in the financial crisis, and the freemium product had not been optimized for monetization because the team prioritized growth—so a sale became the only survival path.
Founder stated the company had only six months of runway in the bank in January 2009.
Venture capital funding was no longer available amid the global financial crisis.
Freemium product had not yet been optimized for monetization due to intense focus on growth.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founding and launch
Jaxtr is founded in Palo Alto by Touraj Parang and Philip Mobin, weds VoIP to social networking, and launches free calling from phones with $1M+ in angel funding.
- $10M Series A
Jaxtr raises $10 million in Series A financing led by August Capital, with Mayfield Fund, DFJ and Mangrove Capital; user base passes one million registered users and doubles monthly.
- Layoffs and CEO exit
Jaxtr lays off 13 employees, leaving 30; CEO Konstantin Guericke steps down.
- Acquired by SabSe
SabSe Technologies, co-founded by Sabeer Bhatia, acquires Jaxtr for an undisclosed amount; Jaxtr is later relaunched as JaxtrSMS, a free texting app.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Jaxtr raised $21.5 million from DFJ, Mayfield Fund, August Capital and Lehman Brothers and grew to over ten million users.
- 02
In October 2008 it laid off 13 employees (leaving 30) and CEO Konstantin Guericke stepped down.
- 03
In June 2009 Sabeer Bhatia's SabSe Technologies acquired Jaxtr for an undisclosed amount, ending its independent existence; the service was later relaunched as JaxtrSMS.