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EPods, TellThemNow.com Lay Off Workers
The two Seattle startups are running out of cash and
are finding it difficult to raise more funds.
By Dominic Gates
Two Seattle startups, ePods and
TellThemNow.com, have hit a funding wall and have laid off most of their workforces.
EPods, which offers an Internet access service on a tablet-style box with a touch screen, laid off 50 employees
Wednesday. Following a cut of 24 staffers in June, only about two-dozen employees remain.
TellThemNow.com, which offers an e-mail-to-celebrities service, cut 30 staffers Thursday. CEO Wiley Brooks had
given his staff details of the company's dire financial situation weeks ago. Only seven employees remain, and the
company is looking for a buyer.
CEO Shae Hong, 23, founded ePods with the idea of providing an all-in-one Internet service on a home appliance
that would be easy for users who aren't tech savvy: an Internet appliance, Internet service and a consumer portal
in one package. Netpliance, which is based in Austin, Texas, and went public in March, offers a similar product.
A hardware manufacturer in Thailand produces the ePodsOne tablet computers with ePod in Seattle supplying the software
– built on Microsoft (MSFT) Windows CE – and a back-end ISP server infrastructure. The machine, marketed as an
appliance more than a computer, will be distributed through department stores, not computer outlets. Illinois-based
Salton (SFP) , known for its range of kitchen gadgets, including the Juiceman juicer, Breadman breadmaker and the
George Foreman Grilling Machine, invested $2 million in January and has exclusive distribution rights in North
America.
Hong says the product is due to ship to stores in about two weeks. But the money dried up just the same.
"It's been very difficult," Hong says. "In the middle of our fundraising is when the market headed
downward."
Hong nevertheless expresses confidence that the company will survive despite the reduction in the workforce.
Brooks is less optimistic about the prospects for
TellThemNow, although he's philosophical about what's happened.
After spending $2.5 million from early funding rounds, says Brooks, "we got caught in the post-April 14 vacuum,"
referring to the dramatic stock market decline. "We were cruising until then."
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