NetVibes, now with one less CEO
Netvibes, the Paris-based personalized page start-up, which till recently had to co-CEOs, Tariq Krim (also the founder) and Pierre Chappaz, now has one less CEO. Chappaz is leaving Netvibes and instead will be focusing on Wikio, his personalized blog …
Context & Ripple Effects
NetVibes spent early 2007 shipping product rather than restructuring: the March Universal Widget API and Coriander release drew strong user feedback just as Orange entered the space with its own startpage aimed at Netvibes and Pageflakes. The company had been running an unusual two-chief structure, with founder Tariq Krim sharing the CEO title with Pierre Chappaz.
Chappaz's departure resolves that ambiguity in Krim's favor and frees Chappaz to run Wikio, his own personalized-blog venture. The move also lands during a stretch of visible executive churn across the consumer web — Valleywag's June tally of Yahoo's disappearing management team made turnover a running story that summer.
First-order effects
- Tariq Krim becomes sole CEO of NetVibes, ending shared decision-making at the company just as it faces Orange's competing startpage offering.
Second-order effects
- Wikio gains a full-time executive in Chappaz, sharpening the overlap between his personalized-content play and the startpage market NetVibes occupies.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, co-CEO arrangements at consumer web startups prove transitional — founders reabsorb the top role once the product ships, and operator-CEOs rotate toward their own ventures.
The trend: Personalized startpage startups are consolidating around founder-led leadership even as telecom incumbents like Orange push into the same market.