I recently left Motricity and it’s pretty much true.  After the Infospace merger was finalized it was readily apparent that it was a reverse merger.  The executives at the Durham office did not know what the executive organization was going to be before it was announced to everyone.  Only 2 in Durham report to Elfman.  Most of his reports are from Bellvue.  The new organization was supposed to be announced several weeks ago but apparently it was delayed a month.  A hiring freeze was instituted end of Dec/beginning of Jan, despite “50 open reqs” in the Durham office.

funny that bonuses were paid out and they decide to pull this trick.  Thanks Ryan for throwing us under the bus!!! Hope your golden parachute gets a hole in it.  Guess the rest of us will be doing a lot of job searching this week.  Good luck “Lord Elfman” in getting anyone to do any work now.  All the new releases I expect will be delayed, if they’re even completed…

“UnderTheBus”; what bonuses are you referring to? Had not heard of any bonuses being pad..

In the end, you are right, Ryan and his inner circle will come out smelling like roses. Ryan really did not throw anyone under the bus, at least I doubt in his mind. He really believes that he has created a “culture” and that everyone loves, even idolize, him. Perfect family, trophy wife, etc. You can bet his $2 million house, paid for by Motricity, will not be at risk of foreclosure.

One more thing… Honesty is not the Great One’s (Ryan Wuerch) strong suit…

Quote: “Ryan Wuerch, a co-founder of Motricity, remains the chairman and chief executive officer of the company, sources said. “

Co-founder? CO-FOUNDER? NOT! To say he is the co-founder would be like saying that if you bought Microsoft and changed the name to [XXXXXXX] would make you the founder! ALL he found was the funds to acquire the companies which then merged are now known as Motricity. PERIOD! The real FOUNDERS of Motricity would be Jud Bowman and Taylory Brockman (Pinpoint) and Kenny West (PalmGear) as those two companies made up the ones which when merged were later renamed as Motricity.

Wonder how much longer Icahn will put up with this folly and install a new CEO…

Underthebus, your comments are misguided and unfair.  Ryan would never even dream of getting on a bus.  You just got thrown under the limo. Besides I am sure there’s plenty of work in Durham, you know, tobacco pickin’, NASCAR drivin’, and I hear there’s a DA position over at the Justice building.

Now who’s being misguided and unfair? We don’t have NASCAR here. We have the Orange County Speedway.

Actually, bus might be reasonably accurate. He was I remember a big fan of the book “Good to Great” and constantly quoted the section about who you are on the bus with. Albeit, Wuerch was probably on a different bus, more like those huge luxury Prevost models like movie stars have. Which would be fitting considering his ex Miss America trophy wife.

From what my team was told, there aren’t any cuts happening in Seattle, just Durham.  Ryan has sold out every employee in Durham including his executive team.  I’m sure he won’t face any employees during the cuts....He’ll let Lord Elfman take the blame.

Way to take care of the people who got you to where you are huh?  What happened to everyone’s families mattered , how much Motricity was dedicated to Durham and NC?  Maybe Ryan should be running for President, would fit right in with the other two-faced politicians.  Very sad actually, it had the makings of a great company, somehow greed always wins out.  No matter how much you preach.

emoemp2 hit the nail on the head by using the word “preach”. Ryan is the single most sanctimonious, over religious holier than thou, self serving meglomaniac I have ever met. He used motricity and all the people he screwed for his own self indulgence and to massage his massive ego. PERIOD. Great at getting money and kissing babies but absolutely no substance. I even heard that he used to start all meetings with a prayer, fine by me but not good business nor when many employees are of other faiths.

Could have been a GREAT company with someone who knew what they were doing and did not spend the money like it was their own.

C’mon - is anyone that suprised here. If you had any connection with Motricity you could have seen this coming over a year ago starting with the ringtones on TV debacles (you know the channels). Constantly in jeopardy of losing clients, NEVER delivering anything on time, all the lavish spending. Always chasing the shiney new penny. ALL sizzle and no substance - they just sat back and hoped they could ride the “mobile” wave, go public and get fat, rich and happy. All at the hands of the business and it’s employees.  Yep - that’s “CEO Mentality” at it’s finest.

That place has left a trail of “ex-employees” like no other company in the Triangle! They are probably moving because their reputation is so bad that no one with half a brain would ever go work there. Any guess on how many “ex-employees” there are? Quit and fired.

If you guys and girls who have been ‘released from duty’ know how to run Motricity, why don’t you set up a rival site. Any mobile content provider like ourselves is waiting for new channels to sell to different countries.

Yeah - I was one of the “gang of 14” that got fired in 2006. (The gold rush of firings that happened while on the way to becoming the “Google of Mobile")

It was a happy, sunny day, as I recall. Wuerch looking at me from across the table while HR idiots hid behind the famous “big, white folder.” I recall sitting there after 12 months of smacking my forehead trying to figure out how the doors stayed open being HAPPY about being set free from an environment that never added up, never made sense and was RIPE with deadwood employees walking the hallways. I remember Mr. “Holier Than Thou” commenting on how he was “sorry for my children” for letting me go and that he had “prayed for me” the night before; he and the Trophy Wife, I am sure, down on bended knees on a velvet padded altar in the bedroom-you-can-land-a-plane-in with nary a square inch without adornment of pictures of himself.

Yes he was sorry for me alright. Sorry for firing my incredible boss who was the only guy who made sense, for making me eat my lunch on china cause-he-couldn’t-handle-food-in-paper-bags during his “Castro-esque 4 hour staff meetings,” for making us endure 2 hours of useless blather about his “CEO Mentality,” for watching powerpoint presentations on the same nonsense we looked at 4 months prior, for the insane 4 am flaming emails he liked to send out when he had either a compliant, or question, or god forbid, a new idea, for hearing the ENDLESS name dropping of who he “had lunch with,” “met with” “had dinner with” and each person was a famous CEO, CMO, EVP, President or other “big sounding title” that he felt necessary to bring up.

And sure, I’ll bet he was really shook up when he had “Mr. Smithers,” his right hand guy escort me out because they didn’t want to interupt the HR Idiots while they packed my office, broke my favorite lamp, threw away my files and folded pictures of my kids in half. Yeah, I am sure he lay awake about it for days.

Welcome to the “Real World” Mr. Wuerch…

To “Wuerch Reality”, sadly you and I had the same experience. In fact I think I can guess who your boss was and you are right; he was a great guy. Would be great if I knew how to contact you though not comfortable posting my contact info here in fear of being contacted by Wuerch’s attorneys and being threatened with a lawsuit for XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Sadly, Wuerch lives in a place where he does not see any of this. No matter how many people might tell him the story “The emperor has no clothes”, he will never see how it fits him to a tee. I had forgotten about his incessant name dropping, nice one! I always took his rants about “CEO Mentality” and thought too bad that HE did not have CEO SKILLS. Especially loved the story about how he predicted the mobile economy while visiting with the CEO of Best Buy on a yacht that Wuerch had rented and thrown a party on. Sheesh…

It was unbelievable how he spent the millions on the new offices when the company was not even close, nor as far as I could tell on track, to being profitable.

For the poor souls who have stock, whether they drank the kool-aid or not, the sad fact is they will in all likelihood never see a dime. The only way anyone with common stock will see any money is if they do an IPO, though it is more likely that pigs will begin flying out of our butts. My predictions?

- Icahn will have him ousted and then sell to a competitor
or
- Bankruptcy

I also predict that the Wuerch PR machine is watching this thread and they are already working on ways to shut down this thread. They have I think done this to other negative blog postings about him in the past, as evidence try and find some negative comments about him via blogs. They have existed though none for very long.

There are some smart people with the VC’s that have invested in Mo, surprised they have not ousted him already, maybe Wuerch’s golden parachute is too much to swallow?

I agree ExMo...this board of Directors has been asleep at the wheel for an uncomfortably long amount of time. It’s unlike anything I have ever seen.

I swear… this company, its odeyssey and flame-out is worthy of a blockbuster screenplay. Can you just see a John-Edwards-like CEO serving up plattitudes and Kool-aid, making lots of young people believe they were in the presence of something big and impactful? The “Sermons on the Mount” outside the Meridian Parkway offices while standing on the curb? The behind-closed-doors screaming rages at Admins, leadership and the countless thousands of “VP’s” strolling the hallway. (Have you ever in your life seen a company with more “VP” title’s?)
The vision I won’t forget is the lunches being wheeled down the hallways each day with the domed lid and crystal glasses. Wonder where the $350m went?

Yeah let the Wuerch “whitewash” machine sanitize this board and shut it down and come hunt for me. It’s a free country. He just can’t handle the truth.

Karma is and does indeed rhyme with “Witch...”

That guy Wuerch thinks he’s Carl Icahn—just wait until Carl Icahn puts Ryan’s balls in that vice—dude won’t recover.  He’ll be bagging groceries at the Piggly Wiggle or whatever that redneck supermarket chain is called down there.

another one here… thankfully long gone from Mo[nstrosity]

Re: “...Wonder where the $350m went?”

A few quesses
~ Wuerch was I heard pulling down something like $350,000 plus extremely generous perks package (betting it included car, country club, etc.)
~ Wuerch’s wife was (never could figure out what she did) being paid something North of $120,000
~ Heard once that company made a zero or extremely low interest loan to him so he could build his 15,000 square foot mansion of a house. Guessing in the range of $2-$3 million
~ Coach not good enough? Try first class not good enough, he had a taste for private lear jets and the like, figure $10k per flight on the low side.
~ Tobbacco complex offices, renovation, etc. Had to be at least $25 million. Probably more.
~ Bonuses, had not heard that they got any but would surprise me if they did not award them
~ Hiring people with big sign on bonuses and salaries almost solely for the wow factor it would give in a press release saying “So and so has been hired as VP/SVP of XXXX” even though they have returned nada…

And almost forgot, the $25 in paint and labor to put up sign and paint the one and only reserved parking space, for his holiness of course. PRICELESS

All I can say is...WOW!

A friend emailed me about the layoffs and then Google found this blog… Definitely some wild stuff here.

David Webb, my memory is failing though your name sounds familiar. I left Mo in, wow, has it been almost two years now, 03/2005.

If you are the David Webb I am thinking of shoot me an email at

I got out long ago, when it was clear that Motricity’s goal was not to become a profitable company with a strategy, but to instead have “strategery” and just grow and “partner” until somehow they became a black hole into which all mobile money would somehow get sucked.  Good plan!  At least the “sucking” part worked. 

To any remaining employees who are somehow angry that Motricity threw them under the bus, all I can say is among all of the ex-Motricity-employees *I* know, we’re all amazed you stayed standing in the street in the first place.

Here’s the deal. Carl Icahn invested $150M in Motricity in 2006. He’s going to want his money back, and is going to do what it takes to get his money back. How do you become profitable when the money you have coming in isn’t very high? You cut your burn rate. Drastically. How do you do that? You cut your work force, and other operating costs. Is it too little too late? Probably. With the amount of money Motricity has raised ,how is it ever going to have an IPO? All the investors are going to want their money back. If they get to point where they feel they won’t get their money back, they’ll cut their losses and close Mo’s doors. Even if they do manage to IPO the stocks that us grunts got years ago will be worth practically nothing. There’s literally millions and millions of stocks issued at Motricity. Subtract out how many you’ve been promised. Knowing that the executives and board directors got a LOT LOT LOT more than you, how much do thing yours will be worth? This layoff should not be a surprise to anyone. I saw the writing on the wall since the end of ‘06, and got out. All the extra hours, blood, sweat, and tears is to make someone else a lot of money, not yourself.

I can’t imagine many people are surprised by this - Motricity has never been profitable, and they’ve long been overstaffed.  The organization has been burning VC money on their unprofitable ringtone business for a while now, neglecting or selling off small, moderately profitable divisions in the process.  One can only assume they were laser-focused on a flashy IPO to turn things around, but as the economy continues to sour and their VC reserves continue to dwindle that seems increasingly unlikely.

It doesn’t take an MBA and a slick haircut to figure out that Motricity’s strategy has always been - at best - a long shot.  It’s tempting (and generally valid) to blame upper management for the company’s problems, but remember that one always takes on a certain degree of risk when choosing to work at a startup (especially one that had received as many rounds of VC money as Motricity).  If anything, I’m surprised they’ve managed to maintain their current staffing level as long as they have.

To those who are angry with the company for the layoffs, I express my sympathy, but I have to agree with RangerRick here - you had to know the bus was coming for a while now, and you’ve had a lot of time to get out of its way.  If it’s any consolation, I don’t know a single former employee who regrets leaving the company.

You guys are just sour grapes!!!!  Motricity is THE PREMIER COMPANY IN THE TRIANGLE!!!!  Ryan would NEVER abandon us!!!!!!!!!

tootie - Either you are a very good comic or completely high.

Nathan....I mean Tootie....is that YOU?

:::Snicker::::

No, It’s Astro

Kathleen.... I mean Wuerch Reality...is that YOU?

:::Snicker::::

Nope...Interesting guess however....

Wrong gender ....

Any who is surprised or indignant about this rather obvious chain of events is either woefully ignorant, sheltered, or patently obtuse. 

Anyone who fell for that “Community” BS, or feel like they have been somehow wronged, has no business in this business.  If you wanted a to “make a difference”, you should join the Peace Corps.  They will love your unrealistic, touchy-feely self there.

Corporations exist for the sole purpose of propagating themselves.  They have no soul and no conscience, and are not legally required to .  You can either accept that and roll with the changes or move on, or you can end up like some of the sadly bitter posters above.

We agree with StillThere completely and think that Ryan is an outstanding leader.

Sincerely,
Fidel Castro, Kenneth Lay and Kim Jong Il

And the first delusional idiot responds. 

It’s just a job.  It’s what you make of it, and it is _your_ responsibility to look out for yourself.  Have some pride, for god’s sake.  Your feigned indignity is comical.

I was sent this message board from an insider for I too have had the cold “folder of injustice” in my lap as well.
These posts are great and says so much about the people both hanging on and those smart enough to leave the building.
It’s about time this company had coming what was obvious to the rest of us.
I also was let go and it was indeed a good thing for me and my family.
I have no regrets and have moved on.

Those of you still there who still believe...there is oceanfront property in Oklahoma just waiting for you.

Well, Motricity was a good learning experience.  It is in existence for the sole purpose of making the investors rich.  Period.  It was quite comical to see people without any corporate management experience running the show.  It is like the age old statement about the Roman Empire.  It kind of goes like this, “Think not on why it failed but ponder on why it existed so long.” Motricity is like a wonder of the modern business world. 

In any case, if the environment is no longer fun.  Get out.  That’s what I did.  Perhaps I can help you get a placement elsewhere.  I do miss the air hockey table and free fountain drinks.

I really can’t put it much better than StillThere #1 did...pretty much sums it up.  At the end of the day, its about running a business.  If you’re not astute enough to pay attention to where your company is headed and make your own choices, other people end up making them for you.

From No Mo Kool-Aid Mon 25 Feb 2008 05:00 PM

Well, Motricity was a good learning experience.

Absolutely.  There is a wealth of knowledge to be mined, if you have the inclination and understand the rules of the game.  When I leave here, I’ll walk out better off than I first walked in. 

The best way to learn to do something right is to learn how to do it wrong first.  If you missed that lesson at Motricity High, you wasted your time and likely mine as well.

....StillThere
“The best way to learn to do something right is to learn how to do it wrong first.  If you missed that lesson at Motricity High, you wasted your time and likely mine as well. “

- well said - and there certainly is a lot of “wrong” to learn from. To all the current and future Alumni of Motricity High - best of luck. you’re mo’betta on the other side

I have to echo StillThere’s thoughts. Motricity may not be the best company but the parts that made it enjoyable were the people and the opportunity it provided for personal growth. I made my choice to move on and while I don’t regret taking another chance somewhere else, I do miss the people. If the story is true and the number is cut by as much as 200 people, then chances are a lot of people I know, and who are good people, will be affected. If there is anything I can do for them I will.

Instead of getting upset at Ryan, Elfman or the board, as friends to those that are there, it would be better to focus on helping those that might need it over the coming weeks.

Here here, Gates!  One of the best parts about the Mo’, to this day, is learning from the brilliant folks.

BTW, we still miss ya…

Does anyone know how many people are getting the AXE? Could it really be as high as 200 - isn’t that more than 50%??!?

does anyone know what Depts are being nuked?  Engineering or biz side?  I have a bunch of startups eager to hire some talent there.  Are they nuking good people or terds?

RTP VC

Also what’s the inside story on the CFO leaving?

RTP VC

They have PLENTY of good people left that are going to be seeking an exit soon.  This is a bonus to the area companies looking for some good talent.  Just don’t try and recruit them into a meat grinder; they’ve been there, done that and the smart ones know where that gets them (and they won’t do it again).  I’d bet the layoff is pretty widespread and will cross business, content and engineering teams.  RTP area recruiters should have a field day with this in the next couple months. 

Ultimately, this company is a sad story for many people who failed to recognize it as anything more than an opportunity to gain skills and resume material for their next career move.  I cannot imagine the morale and productivity impact now, let alone for those who are left after this “RIF”.

And to be honest, this type of public blasting is not good for the company’s desire to go public.  They better IPO fast before the gravity of the death spiral becomes too strong to escape.  I seem to remember a documentary about the spectacular rise and fall of a dot com company… startup.com ring a bell anyone?  One thing is for sure, the investor exit strategy better be realized before their customer’s exit strategy hits.  Because you can bet money that “11 of 13 carriers in North America” are working on a plan to get out before their service goes dark. 

If that happens before they can IPO...........

Motricity CFO became “expendable” with the INSP acquisition as certain executives on that side were kept on as part of acquisition. You have to believe a move to Seattle was predetermined as well, despite Wuerch’s assertion that Motricity would stay rooted in Durham.  I guess time will tell if he was blowing smoke.

I’m a lawyer representing “Mr. Smithers” and I want to make clear that Wuerch Reality’s lamp was not harmed during his dismissal. Please stop these insidious lies immediately.....

RTP VC when I was working there the quality technical talent couldn’t be matched.  While some of them are still there, most have moved on to much greener pastures.  If they’ve managed to keep hiring the same caliber of technical ability you’ll do well to make sure they don’t stay out of work long.  You may have to fight people for them.

In fact:
Bitches I want your resumes!  You know how to find me.

On business side of things, they tend proceed in order of most talented gets the axe first.  You’re pickings may be slim.  I’ve been gone for awhile it may be different now…

As for Wuerch, I must admit, my hair is no where near as nice as his.

What is the “mo pulls this thread down through legal pressure” pool at now?

When they start passing out pink slips I hope that Ryan gets the very first one.  I have never seen a more worthless leader in my life, except for George W.  I know this won’t happen, but I can dream.

It used to make me sick how Ryan walks around like his sh*t doesn’t stink.  He would talk about how he would give his kids $100 if they could beat him in a foot race to their car...that is really teaching the kids value of money by throwing around $100 like it is nothing. 

I also think that Ryan corrupted some of the people there as well (Jud).  I think Jud bought into the whole image first, business second mentality.  The only person there that has been the same since day 1 is Taylor.  If I could save one person from that place it would be Taylor.  Taylor is one of the most genuine people I have ever met in my life and I wish him nothing but the best out of life and I know that money and/or success will never change him.

wow - I am actually surprised to see that this board lived to see another day.
I agree on the Taylor comment above. I did not know him too well but what interaction I did have was pretty pleasant; he seemed smart and above all of the posing and postuering going on.

I do have a question, does this mean that the new offices are now empty? Wasn’t the spend on this location pretty hefty?

Hi All,

I’m at Mot now and soon will be out by this layoff.  I’m looking for another QA position.  If you know any openings, please let me know.  My email address is

I do appreciate any help, and also appreciate all the discussion from you around this company.

Thanks.

It’s quite amusing how the uber-Christian C-level folks got schooled during the reverse merger.  They sold it to us proles as them taking Mo to the next level.  Within a very short time, it became apparent that it was backfiring.  The new guard came in and were rattling the sabre in no time.  There would be no sacred cows and they’d cut business units and customers if they needed it to become profitable.  For a company that had been hemmoraging money, it sounded like a good thing.

It’s been a miserable place for a long time, working on projects that will never finish, working for managers that have no idea what to do in inspiring smart people, watching sickening levels of nepotism in promotions (hiring your best buddy to be your direct report is a specialty), trying to make do with no direction and dying technology.

It’s amusing that someone suggested in this thread that we ExMo’s set up a rival site.  If we’ve learned ANYTHING, it’s that this line isn’t profitable.  It’s a luxury good in a time of recession, you are at the mercy of a carrier, and they control the last mile and ultimately your entire business destiny.  When they leave, you fold the tent.  And now, the carriers are leaving.  What to do as far as your career at Mo is left as an exercise for the reader.

So I am reading the article that generated this flood and had a few observations:

1. It’s from a “source”.  How much credence can you give an article from a “source”.  My question is who is this source?  A high ranking exec who’s in the boardroom making this decisions or my neighbor Ned who just likes to stir things up.  Anytime there is an un-named source you have to question the credibility of the story - and ask hard question to the organization that reported it, in this case WRAL.

2. Of course there will be layoffs.  In any aquisition there are going to be job overlap and inefficiences that demand staff cuts.  Often these cuts are made without regard to the talent or dedication of the people affected, and more about the chair you are sitting in at the time and how many others are in that same chair.  Both Infospace and Motricity employees should have expected cuts when talks of an aquisition surfaced and been living on the job boards.

3. The information from the “source” says that they are considering a move to Seattle.  Until there is an official statement from the company on what is going to happen next all this blather is speculation.  The “source” must be giddy that he/she/it has caused such drama.  If it turns out that Motricity stays in Durham all you have done is exposed the companies internal culture to customers, potential employees, and the industry (and the community for that matter) further threatening it’s success.  I mean who is going to want to do business, take a job, or have anything to do with Motricity when it’s culture is so violently dysfunctional.

4. Regardless of the outcome, it looks like these posts are running 95% that Motricity is a horrible place.  So my question is; why are you still there?  Leave!  If you don’t have the initiative to do it on your own then consider any pink slip your forced liberation from a place you hate.

+1 for Gates’ comments.

I think that HR at the Mo is handling this whole situation is very unprofessional.  HR has already informed some people that they are going to lose their jobs, but they have failed to provide them with any additional information such as a date or details regarding a possible severance package.  Basically these people are being sentenced to death without an execution date and that is just bad business.  I understand that HR may not have all the details, but if that is the case then they should have not communicated anything to the affected employees until the details were finalized. 

For those of you who are looking for jobs, I wish all of you luck and I also recommend that you check out LinkedIn.com and contact some of your peers which you may have worked with which have already moved on.  I know that I would be willing to help anyone that is looking for a better opportunity, but you just have to find me on LinkedIn first.

BullCityFan, thank you for your oversimplification of the issues.  We did expect cuts.  I would imagine a bloodbath was not expected.  Much of the frustration stems from years of mismangement and blatant hypocrisy from upper management.  I would imagine the employees would like to see Ryan and his wife not take charter or first class trips and drink Perrier or Pellegrino all day to save money instead.

Thank you also for not understanding team dynamics, the fact that most of the ground level people liked working with each other.  They just didn’t like management or 12 hour shifts or anything like that.  It’s tough to manage that disconnect.

HR is using a brilliant strategy.  Tell people they are getting laid off so that they can find other jobs.  Then, Motricity can save the severence packages to remodel the rest of the Durham site as Ryan’s office.  They’ll probably have to add a golf cart or something so Ryan won’t have to walk anymore.  Maybe they can add some theme music to play before Ryan enters the room too!

From my observation point (happily located elsewhere and away - far away - from Durham) I have to say that whomever the “source” on this is seems pretty well informed. (Those of you old enough to recall Watergate should know that sources are usually fairly reliable with varying outputs of complete accuracy)

So whomever is the “Deep Throat” on this obviously knew that alerting your local paper or TV or whatever WRAL is would cause some ruffling.

While BullCity raises some interesting points it would make more sense if we were talking about a “normal” company with “normal” ebb and flow but I think we can all agree pretty rightly that Mo was by far one of the most baffling, dysfunctional and truly puzzling environments ever. Nothing made sense…
No operating plan, no strategy, no infrastructure...just sales and flash.

Put this is in the “I guess I learned what not to do” column and move on.

I also going to hold the board of directors responsible.  They allowed Ryan to bring the company down due to his misuse of funds.  How many laptops and electronics can one person actually go through in a year’s time? 

The board also allowed Ryan to put his wife on the payroll and I’m positive that she makes 6 figures and she probably works a total of 40 hours...a year! 

The board of directors need to take control of the company and they need to put a real leader in charge that is more focused on results and not worried about his golf handicap is or how his hair looks or what car he drives.

For those of you who believe the company never had a strategy and never had a direction, you’re just seeing the impact of leadership that doesn’t listen to the smart team they had working for them.  Countless people raised flags, brought smart revenue generating options to the table only to be rejected for sad poor reasons.  Any wonder why there was a flood of really good folks exiting the company since early 2006?  Could that have anything to do with seeing the handwriting on the wall back then?  Why stay and be fruitless when you can go elsewhere, bring those same ideas to the table and actually make money.

There are a LOT of mobile companies in the industry that are benefiting quite a bit from this company’s failure to retain some of the best out there.

BullCity, while technically you are correct, the reality is that of the many ex-Motricity employees I know, every single one of them has expected an implosion for a *very* long time.  The most consistently-expressed position when Motricity comes up in conversation among us is a sense of awe and wonder that the company is still in business.  In the end, it is my belief that even if the most optimistic outcome happens, it’s only a matter of time.

Since the Pinpoint merger their history has been one of hiring top-notch technical talent, and then expanding rapidly to the point where they negate that talent, by:

a) forcing everyone to work 12-hour days for weeks at a time to meet unrealistic deadlines that were predicted to fail by said top-notch technical talent, and
b) throwing money at the problem (unmaintainable amounts of hardware, etc.) to get things done on time, but never go back and optimize the processes later

Regardless of that, in the end, they had no business strategy.  “Become the premier mobile content provider” is not a strategy, it’s a mission statement.  The business plan was to grow as fast as possible, with no apparent sense of how to monetize it to the point of being profitable.  Having lots of “relationships” is no good if you only gain notoriety from them, and not money.

I went to a lot of all-hands meetings, and none of them had financials that explained how they would ever become profitable—the would have to meet the mythical numbers of new customers projected, without having to hire any more staff to support it, even though their history showed they needed to hire a new team to support each new customer because of the massive hardware, QA, and support deployments involved.

Perhaps you can fudge the graphs enough to convince the VCs, but the incredible burn rate never seemed feasible to me nor any of the other folks I worked with, and it seems that in the end we were right.

http://www.wral.com/business/local_tech_wire/opinion/blogpost/2486487/

You people should be ashamed of yourselves.  j/k

This thread seems to be taking on a life of it’s own. Having been involved with Motricity at a very deep level I wanted to share some thoughts. First some background:

- I am one of the founders of PalmGear.com in 1997 and sold the majority interest to Power by Hand, which was started by Ryan Wuerch, in 2002. Moving from Arlington, TX to Nashville, TN where PBH was located in the process.
- I stayed on with the company after it merged with Pinpoint Networks and then changed the name to Motricity.  Moved from Nashville, after being there for a year, to Raleigh, NC. My duties varied, including managing the consumer properties, customer service and others.
- I left Motricity in March of 2006 and moved back to Arlington, TX

First off, I cannot say enough about Taylor Brockman. If I had to pick one person in my life with whom I had to say I have the most respect, and even admiration of, (besides my parents and spouse though for different reasons), Taylor would be it without a doubt. He is not only one of the most intelligent individuals I have ever had the honor to meet, he is also one of those rare individuals who gets along with everyone, is genuine and truly, truly cares about other people. I honestly believe that he does not have the ability (a good thing!) to even comprehend selling out or comprimising his ethics. I consider myself even more fortunate to say that he is a great, great friend.

As far as Motricity is concerned, would I have done anything different? Of course, though exactly what is impossible to say as I was not in the position to make that impact. Do Ryan and I see to eye-to-eye? Not on everything though I do respect his ability, frankly probably one of the best there is, to bring all the pieces together to get funding and deals done.

To specifically address many comments here, it is difficult to criticize not having a strategy unless you know for a fact there was not one. Is the failure (if there even is one) due to Ryan? Moving targets? Carrier difficulties? Economy? Who knows, I certainly do not have enough information to be able to say and moreover having left almost two years ago do not have any inside information to even be able to make a personal judgment.

In the end, success for the company or not, I enjoyed immensely the friendships I made while there and for those who worked (or still do) there it was not a bad thing. Skills were built, reputations and relationships created and the industry is better for it. As a stockholder I of course hope to see a return though it would be folly for me to make any suggestions as to how to create the exit strategy that the investors want or long term career opportunities for current or new employees. Personally I hope Ryan makes a boatload of money because that means that common shareholders will too, absent it being equitable to all any success will be void if it only enriches the board.

It is easy to play arm-chair quarterback in other words.

You think it’s EASY to play arm-chair quarterback?!?!??  There is a lot of time and effort involved.  You have to look at what is not working, make calls on what the current strategy seems to be, and criticize that strategy.

It would keep me up at night if I did it.  Luckily I have blind faith in Ryan.

I’m a reporter with The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. working on a story about Motricity. I’m trying to reach current and former workers. If you would be willing to talk with me, you can reach me at or 919-836-4948. Thanks.

Ranger Rick, well said.  As a Motrocity partner for a time, we saw the same exact things you describe and shook our heads each time another large round of cash was raised.

Well folks, this just proves the theory that you can beat a dog but for so long and the dog will eventually bite back.

Good - it is high time the truth was out.
I love the “whitewash” comment above somewhere...it’s true.
Let’s see Wuerch “sales” his way out of this one. I wonder if some legal goon will be at my door for dare speaking the truth.
I believe his favorite retort for negative publicity was he did not “want someone calling his dog ugly...”

Woof…

Rule of business:  Under promise and over deliver. 

These are rules to live by in business.  Motricity was the exact opposite by promising features which they knew they could not deliver on (no matter how hard the whip was cracked). 

The only thing that Motricity actually accomplished was to kill employee moral, no matter how many air hockey, putt putt or ping pong tournaments they ha. 

In addition they would also overwork their employees who knew that regardless of their efforts they were just trying to buy the company extra time until the next contract negotiation where even more features would be promised to customers to make up for failing to deliver on the previous features. 

As an added bonus, even the execs at Motricity are packing their bags...Alex Bloom’s Facebook page posting from February 20 says it all.  “Alex is tweaking his updated resume.  4:49pm” - I guess he isn’t waiting for the ship to sink before he gets on his life raft.

I would like to echo the comments about Taylor.  Not only is he a great guy in general, he is a great guy to work with, and he was the best manager I’ve ever had.  He had a realistic view of the development process, and was the reason eReader was just about the only group at Motricity that actually finished projects on time.  Not because he pushed us, but because he pushed back on unrealistic deadlines, and was good at managing expectations.  Maybe the only reason it worked was because of his status from Pinpoint, but whatever it was, it worked, and it worked really well.

Anways, as for your comments, Kenny, yes, it’s easy to be armchair quarterbacks, but it’s also been my perception that there were structural issues at Motricity at least since I was there.  I’ve tried not to blame it all on Ryan in the forums here, since, to be honest, it’s hard to tell *what* he had his hand in from down in the trenches.  Ultimately, though, he certainly shares responsibility with the board for how things have ended up, if nothing else because he’s the final decision maker.

Perhaps some of what I’ve posted is worse than it really is, but I have a hard time believing it’s *too* much rosier, given the circumstances match up pretty well to what I and other former employees I’ve spoken with expected out of Motricity in the long run (other than expecting it to go down the tube sooner than it really did).  I worked with a lot of awesome and talented folks, and sure I’m a little bitter that all that talent went to waste.  Luckily, it seems that for the most part, people have moved on to greener pastures.

As an aside, Kenny, you seemed to be one of the few folks in management who was reasonably rooted in reality, but then, along with eReader, PalmGear the only profitable part of the business, so maybe your perspective was a bit different. 

Alex Bloom was demoted as if early January.  When Elfman released his executive team and all the updates executive lines were drawn, some names were noticeably absent.  Namely, Bowman and Bloom.  Rizer was “demoted” from COO to “head of customer relations/support/something,” which means.  Remember, only 2 people in Durham report to Elfman - Rizer and Turco, and no one expects them to last long.

Oh wow - that’s too bad. I have been gone for a while but Kip is a good guy. Sorry to hear that for him.
Never understood the Rizer promotion as Michael Robinson’s very seasoned shoes as the real COO were way too big to fill and frankly I think Michael’s unexpected departure thanks to Wuerch signified the begining of the end for many of us.

But as mentioned all over this thread there were many folks that cycled in and out of this “company” who brought more, expected more, got zero and watched the company fail them and their teams. The only “constant” in this revolving door of bodies over the last 24 months is the CEO himself.

He seems to sleep pretty well at night.

I don’t get why you want to keep blaming Ryan.  He’s BLAMELESS!  Jud has been there from the start as well.  Maybe if he’d been DOING HIS JOB instead of trolling MATCH.COM, we’d all be swimming in money from the IPO, Why does he get a free pass?

Why do you need match.com when you can hire so much “talent”?  The “talent” pool at Motricity was pretty high, one of the things I’m sure will be missed.  Jud sure seemed to take advantage.

Regardless of all the bad comments about Ryan, I did like the “CEO Mentality”.  With that being said, employees should have been preparing for this moment in time for quite a while now.  No matter how things turn out, it has truly been a pleasure working with the best and brightest at Motricity.  The skills that I’ve acquired here will last me for a lifetime.  Thanks Mo!!!

I personally like many of my fellow ex-employees from the Mo. I had a good time while I was there. I saw the writing on the wall and have moved on to another opportunity but will always miss many of the people. I will absolutely echo the sentiments about Taylor. He is a cool dude period. To be honest I would say I have a more favorable opinion of the majority of the people in the building. There are always a few that make life difficult at any job. If you work at Motricity and didn’t see this coming I am not so sure why though I agree they should have been more upfront about everything. After the last hiring freeze came layoffs. Now they are under another hiring freeze. Whats next...? Now the move to Washington thing is interesting. That would be sort of unexpected.  If half of the ex-employees/managers in this thread were to post what they know in detail it would shock most I suppose. There are business decisions going on behind close doors that may be even a bigger deal than what is being mentioned.

All I have to say, as a current Motricity employee is that there are way too many chiefs and way too many Indians.  There can be levels of middle management that can go away and no one would even notice they were missing.

If you ask me, the most frustrating thing is how a lot of new people were just hired late 4th Quarter when they knew they were going to go through layoffs.  So, now, I’ll be laid off (a 3 year employee) but the new H-1B people who no one can undestand will probably keep their jobs.

...and I agree about Mr. Wayne’s comments that Taylor Brockman has got to be one of the classiest guys a person can ever work with-- always fair, upfront, and he won’t blow smoke up your ass.  I wish my managers were like that.

In retrospect, it appears that the whole of Motricity was less than the sum of its parts.  As far as I know, nothing created by “Motricity” or “Power by Hand” directly was ever profitable - rather, their profitable units all came from acquisitions.

What’s a bit baffling is that PbH/Motricity purchased a massive and diverse swath of profitable (or at least *potentially* profitable) niche market players, only to silo them off and provide only minimal support once they were acquired.  The result was that none of them ever reached their full potential, and their good ideas seldom propagated throughout the company as a whole.

To the decision makers in Motricity, the future has seemingly been ringtones all the way down for a while now - but given that, why did they purchase so many incompatible small shops in the first place?

I’ve been working at Motricity over 1 year and I still don’t know who my boss is?

Ranger Rick seems to really know what he is talking about.  As far as Mr. West goes, I think that being a couple thousand miles away from all the action of the last 2-3yrs, he seems to be in the “I remember fondly....” stage.  I have been to MoCompany picnics where the Press was invited to listen to Ryan say how important employees’ families are to the company and how we would not be forgotten, only to have my husband at work or working from home more than he was at home with us.  And the abuse of company personnel and company $ at the hands of Mr. & Mrs. Weurch. Shameful!

@ExMoWife you’ve hit the nail on the head.

I remember one all hands where Ryan was telling us all a little story.  He was visiting the newly acquired LA office and one of the managers there picked him up from the airport.  He went on and on about the dedication and sacrifice, because this manager’s wife was in the hospital.  In labor.  With their first child.

He gave this manager an award at that all hands, IIRC.

Any real leader would have something to the effect of, “What the *bleep* are you doing here?!  Go home!  I’ll get a *bleep* cab.”

The team still has some great engineers that are still there especially in the offdeck side. Eric, Ramesh, among others are great technical guys to work with, who have taken the product up despite the mismanagement.

In the end, the team’s management and the selection of customers are seriously painful.

Verbal promises made by your employer have as much weight as the hot air they are carried on.  The only thing the company owes you is what’s written in your employment contract.  If you think otherwise, you are just setting yourself up to be a victim.  You have to be smarter than that.

I have the bad luck of working with Motricity offdeck. Offdeck came from the acquisition of Goldpocket Wireless.  It is amazing from the comments that how the poor management on both sides manipulated and combined the 2 companies to fill their pockets.

Ryan was the baby-eater pied piper and behind him was an awful manager like Steve. Steve has lesser management skills than a Neanderthal caveman. He has never been sensitive to employees and after the acquisition, he was the biggest sellout there. It was also painful he Motricity laid off employees left behind in LA office and the whole office was packed in no time despite promises that it will stay. The biggest pricks in this Fool’s garden were Brendan and Julie, Steve’s henchmen in arms. Quite easily the worst managers ever in human history. Like gypsies they took the whole caravan to Durham and now the caravan might go to Seattle again.
Lot of good engineers here, not even 1 single good management talent (except natural talent like Taylor). Motricity bled all the business graduates and sane people long long back.

How many of you have the courage to put your real names next to all these insulting comments?  Seriously...how many of you have the guts to take credit for the things you’ve written here. However logical or illogical, just or unjust what Motricity may be doing is one thing, but these personal attacks in a public venue are just senseless. 

At least have the courage to stand behind your comments and let the reading public know who you are.  .

Hey Curious…
Speak for Yourself there genious…
You won’t let anyone know who you are...why should we?

All that matters is that we got screwed…

Ok - I can ‘fess up a little here. I was at one time an admin. I can tell you stories about fetching lunches, washing dishes, making protein shakes, emptying trash, doing greeting cards, picking up laundry, dropping off laundry, doing grocery shopping, house sitting, picking up cars from the car wash, dropping off cars at the car wash, making car service apointments, fetching limos...for all sorts of people.
When it wasn’t done right I got yelled at. When I was sleeping at home at night I got called. Or emailed…
I could always count on a 3 am or 2 am batch of email of stuff I had to do.
I got tired of being yelled at in private while being oddly praised and fawned over in public. I never knew what to believe.

I was not there too long but I quit… and I quit because I needed my life back. I quit because my spouse begged me to quit.

Farm Hand Luke...How exactly did you get screwed? Did going to work for a small tech company suddenly become “not risky”?

Also, the word you were after is “genius”.

From Curious: