Business Week dissects some of the problems at MandrakeSoft from
an outsider's perspective, providing Henri Poole's side of his
recent break from the company:
"It seemed like a fantastic opportunity for the
entrepreneurial Henri Poole. He had co-founded and run Vivid
Studios, a San Francisco-based Web consulting shop, before selling
it in 1998 to Platinum Technology for $13 million. Then, after
taking an 18-month break to travel and spend time with his newborn,
Poole was approached by a group of European venture capitalists
about becoming CEO of a French software company. In May, 2000,
after a quick mating dance, Poole signed on to lead Paris-based
MandrakeSoft, a two-year-old seller of Linux software.
Though Poole, then 36, was primed for a challenge, the Mandrake
experience was tougher than he anticipated. Less than a year after
joining MandrakeSoft, he departed after a split with the company's
French founders over strategy. Poole had been hired to transform
the company from a small Linux publisher into "a major software
player," says Edward Walsh, former vice-president of
communications, who resigned in July. In the end, the founders got
cold feet about Poole's plan to turn the startup into a technology
services provider.
"My vision was more aggressive than some of the founders and
investors were comfortable with," Poole says. "They wanted the
benefits at the end of the rainbow, but didn't like my plan for
getting there." (MandrakeSoft executives wouldn't comment, saying
the company is in the midst of a $3.7 million stock offering on the
Paris Euronext Marché Libre, scheduled to close July
27.)"
