Ouch! It is hard to admit but I too got burned by SunRocket, the internet phone service. I had signed up and ported over my primary number just two months to the date that SunRocket burnt out. American Express has refunded my payment in full (kudos) but I am in limbo with my number. I took the safe way out and am porting it back to a landline.
My SunRocket service was great and far superior to my prior experience with Broadvoice and Vonage. The problems literally started overnight when it leaked out that the doors were locked at SunRocket HQ and that there was a piece of cardboard taped to the door of their offices in Virginia that read "Out of Business."
My personal experience with SunRocket tells me two things about the company that once was. The technology was great, management was abysmal.
There are good VCs (Venture Capitalist money backers) and bad VCs. VCs can really screw things up sometimes. I have helped launch numerous technology start-ups and I have seen it time and again. VCs pour money into a company (or give baseless pledges) then they call the shots. Most VCs know money; they don't know how to run a start-up. What did the SunRocket VCs do in the end? They put a big name corporate CEO in place that by most accounts had no start-up experience. Better yet, the CEO came from the much misaligned and mismanaged AOL. What kind of track record is that?
In the end SunRocket really misled the public by not having an emergency exit plan. This is poor management and very poor PR. Where are the execs now? If I were one of the first to go I'd be making lemons out of lemonade. Here is my advice to them... Get on the radio talk show circuit and start pointing fingers elsewhere while you write your book about how not to operate a technology company.
What are your thoughts?
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