Wallflower at the Web Party

Is there a lesson in this story for entrepreneurs? Take the money and run or hang in there hoping for a better opportunity, that's the big question.

Friendster’s fate is “a real puzzle,” Professor Piskorski said. “This was a company that had the talent and had the connections.” he said. “They had this great idea that people really took to.”

There is no single reason that explains Friendster’s failures, Professor Piskorski added, which is what makes it academic fodder. “It’s a power story,” he said. “It’s a status story. It’s an ego story.” But largely, he said, Friendster is a “very Silicon Valley story that tells us a lot about how the Valley operates.

Wallflower at the Web Party - New York Times