Rdio co-founders sold Skype (twice). When they co-founded Rdio, they weren't hoping to build their life's work, they just wanted to try something new (I guess), in the US. Rdio was run by VPs.

That's OK when things are going great and there's lots of money in the bank. It's not OK when the ship needs some founder-inspired steering in a storm. It's not OK when the ship is taking on water. It's not OK if there are signs of mutiny. It's not OK if pirates are about to board.

And it so happens that most startups tend to spend their lives navigating rough waters with not enough money in the bank and pirates in tow.

Did you have trouble hiring, given the bad rep the founders got when they fired some employees at Skype and pulled back their vested options? [1]

[1]: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/26/skypes-worthless-employee-s...

When that news came out I personally became very aware of the absence of a real "Skype mafia", a la PayPal. It might be the old vs new world thing.

I don't know for sure, but I don't think Rdio had any trouble hiring, ever, because it is(was) a service that people love(d).

Do you think lack of founder attention negatively impacted lack of progress on the partnership/BD side? Seem to be key in the market (Spotify with Starbucks; Pandora in-car app).

Sad to see the "best" product in the market go under.

Absolutely.

Rdio had insane product talent but no business captain (this can only be an obsessed founder, pre-success).

With normal startups, they just fail off the bat in this scenario.

Rdio had enough money to hide the lack of captain issue for a really long time.