{"id":653987,"date":"2013-04-23T15:14:53","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T19:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=633607"},"modified":"2013-04-23T15:14:53","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T19:14:53","slug":"skype-co-founder-janus-friis-is-working-on-a-stealthy-new-product-incubator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/653987","title":{"rendered":"Skype co-founder Janus Friis is working on a stealthy new product incubator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skype co-founder Janus Friis is getting ready to launch a new venture: Block Talent Partners, a recruiting agency that has been working with Friis on some of his other ventures, is currently looking for senior engineering talent for a stealthy new incubator. The objective of the new company is to \u201dchange how products get built and startups get launched,\u201d according to a job offer<\/a>, which reads in part:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMore than just an \u201cincubator\u201d or \u201caccelerator\u201d, tbd. is assembling an elite team of engineers to create a one-of-a-kind company. Their goal is to build, launch and commercialize the hottest new products we can dream up, all with an eye towards reusable code and buttressed by a best-in-class infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether tbd. was just a placeholder for the job offer, or whether the company will actually use this moniker until it emerges from stealth mode. Friis\u2019 recently-launched video service Vdio<\/a> operated under the name Project WBS for months until GigaOM broke the story of Vdio\u2019s existence.
<\/a>
Speaking of Vdio: Tbd. will be headed by Todd Berman, who was employee number one at Rdio<\/a>, the Friis-backed digital music service that is joined at the hip with Vdio. Berman served as Rdio\u2019s CTO until last month, and his Twitter bio<\/a> currently just reveals that he is now \u201cworking on something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea to re-use code for launching new products may also at least in part be informed by Friis\u2019 experience with Rdio and Vdio. Friis initially hired a separate team of designers and engineers to build Vdio. But those efforts were eventually scrapped<\/a>, and Vdio was rebuilt from scratch on top of Rdio\u2019s architecture, with most of original team being let go in the process.<\/p>\n

So what will Tbd. build? The job posting offers no details, but it does mention that the eventual goal is to spin out the products it builds into separate companies. It goes on to offer prospective hires \u201cthe (highest) compensation in the Valley,\u201d something that Friis can easily afford: In 2001, Friis and his co-founder Niklas Zennstroem made an estimated $1.19 billion by selling Skype to Microsoft.
<\/a><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of<\/a> Flickr user\u00a0\u00a0Marcin Wichary.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:<\/strong>
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n