Vonage founder: next big thing is Net video

Jeff Pulver is moving on after missing the gold ring. 

A company he founded 8 years ago grew into Vonage, after Jeffrey Citron joined as CEO.  It did its IPO last month.  But Pulver had exited the company, selling most of his shares years ago. 

He's on to the next thing which he thinks is Internet video, he told the Wall Street Journal. The 43-year-old one-time software designer is now at work developing an Internet TV show and picking among Net TV companies which are seeking investors.  "The same DNA that disrupted the telecom industry is well on its way to totally revolutionizing the TV, film, and broadcast industries," he told the newspaper.

Pulver was into Voice Over IP long ago.  Then, it was called "Internet Telephony."  His "Voice on the Net" conferences have grown into major events. He stages them in the US internationally.  Boston will be the site of Fall 2006 VON.

Jeff's an intense guy, a self-described visionary, and a blogger.  Whatever happened at the company-which-became-Vonage was, for him, unfortunate.  He's still got time to grab for another brass ring.  Maybe it was Citron's big-money background and connections which made him attractive to the scrappy geek-startup-guy with glasses.  Odds are Pulver won’t be easily impressed again.

Of course, Net TV is also a different challenge.  While the tech to do it is cheap, there are lots of content-rich players in the game.  Knowing how to DO Net video, as Pulver does, is quite a different thing from having content people want to watch.  The tools become commodities. It's programming which differentiates. 

If Pulver wants to grow his trade show, and exhibitors' and attendees registration fee income, that's one thing.  Being a little guy among content giants is quite another.  Read the WSJ story.

Comments

[Julie]

Interesting note that Pulver makes on the idea of a reality show shown on the net, think he might have some interesting competition, ck out this ourprisoner.com thing. Strange show but getting momentum it seems